WRAL from Raleigh, North Carolina has featured a story highlighting the recent efforts of VerifyBeforeYouBuy.org, a newly launched website partnership between CSIP, the Secretary of State of North Carolina, and other state stakeholders, which features a search tool where consumers can test their online pharmacy to learn whether it is safe or illegitimate.
The story highlights the efforts of North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall’s first-in-the-nation engagement on this important issue. It reads in part:
North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall has launched a website so consumers can check the legitimacy of an online pharmacy before getting a prescription filled.
VerifyBeforeYouBuy.org is the first site of its kind in the U.S. to keep consumers from getting scammed on prescription drugs. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 97 percent of online pharmacies are bogus.
To get the word out about potentially dangerous medications, Marshall used a grant from the U.S. Justice Department to develop the site. People can enter the URL of an online pharmacy website, and the site will inform them whether it’s legitimate or not.
“What we found in counterfeits are sometimes there is just a minimal amount of the active ingredient, sometimes it’s contaminated,” she said. “I have seen an undercover operation where they actually used highway paint, which is full of lead, to make the coloration of a yellow pill.”
People’s radar might be up for online pharmacies based in some foreign countries, but she cautioned people not to overlook potential problems with Canadian online pharmacies and their promises of cheaper prices.