The Internet era has opened a broad new world of possibilities to those who take full advantage of all that it has to offer. At the same time, cyberspace has introduced its own unique pitfalls that users must take extreme care to avoid.
Perhaps nowhere are these pitfalls more obvious than in the online marketplace for prescription and over-the-counter medications, and other remedies that claim to be miracle cures for whatever ails you. Buyers must exercise extreme caution in ordering such drugs online, taking particular care to investigate the reputation and dependability of the online vendors they buy from.
ED Drugs Ordered Online
High on the list of prescription medications most widely ordered online is the family of impotence drugs known collectively as PDE5 inhibitors. For men who are somewhat embarrassed to discuss the topic of impotence with their primary physician, ordering these drugs online offers one way to avoid this touchy subject, at least on a face-to-face basis.
To ensure that you’re getting the real deal when buying impotence medications, order online only from U.S. licensed pharmacies that partner with U.S. licensed physicians to review the medical histories of would-be customers who do not have prescriptions from their doctors.
eDrugstore.com is one such reputable online source of FDA-approved ED drugs, as well as a handful of other medications — both prescription and OTC — that are popularly ordered online.
Horror Stories
We’ll offer a full rundown on eDrugstore’s credentials a bit further down in this article. But first it may be helpful to consider for a bit the consequences of ordering any sort of medication from online vendors about which you know little or nothing.
Today’s headlines are full of horror stories about online consumers who ordered medications that turned out to be something other than what they were purported to be in online advertisements. Even worse, in many cases these so-called medications contained toxic materials or excessively high levels of the desired drug’s active ingredient — so high that to use them would risk a health emergency.
Because erection difficulties plague a significant number of adult men worldwide — the percentage grows as you age — and because impotence is a difficult topic for some men to discuss, many of the horror stories about drugs ordered online focus on impotence drugs.
Examples Cited
Here are just a few examples from media reports over the past couple of years:
— Writing at Forbes.com, Melanie Haiken reported that data presented at the 2012 World Meeting on Sexual Medicine showed that 77 percent of all Viagra ordered from 22 online vendors was counterfeit. Although the test study cited by Haiken focused solely on Viagra, there is no reason to believe that other ED drugs, such as Cialis or Levitra, ordered online are any less likely to be counterfeit than Viagra.
— U.S. Customs and Border Protection operates seven international mail inspection stations around the country to detect and seize contraband before it can get to its destination within the United States. At the CBP inspection center near Los Angeles International Airport, the focus is not so much on illegal drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, but on counterfeit prescription drugs, including large amounts of fake ED medications. Virtually all of these fake medications are being mailed to U.S.-based customers who ordered them online.
One of Three Problems
A Customs inspector at the LAX facility told a reporter for DailyBreeze.com that the counterfeit medications they seize usually have one of three problems: (1) too much active ingredient, (2) too little active ingredient, or (3) no active ingredient at all.
— SafeMedicines.org, the website of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, warns that counterfeit drugs, such as ED medications ordered online from suppliers of unknown reputation, have been found to contain one or more substances it describes as “hidden poisons.”
Nondrug Substances
Perhaps the least perilous ingredients are those that aren’t truly drugs at all. In this category, SafeMedicines.org lists dextrose, dextrin, lactose, starch, and salt. Despite their somewhat innocuous nature, even these substances could be dangerous to individuals who were on rigid salt- or sugar-restricted diets.
Found widely in counterfeit ED drugs, according to SafeMedicines.org, are substances that mimic the active ingredients in those drugs but are not approved by the FDA for human consumption. This list includes aminotadalafil, homosildenafil, xanthoanthrafil, and pseudovardenafil.
Three other categories of “hidden poisons” are common household items such as brick dust, floor wax, sheet rock, and paint thinner; actual poisons such as antifreeze, benzopyrenes, boric acid, and PCBs; and heavy metals such as cadmium, chrome, lead, mercury, and strontium.
French Seizure
— In the spring of 2014, French customs authorities announced the seizure of 10 tons of counterfeit medications, including impotence drugs, that originated in China and were on their way to customers in the European Union and the United States. The fake impotence drugs were designed to look exactly like Viagra and Cialis but contained incorrect amounts of those drugs’ active ingredients. In cases where the amount of active ingredient was excessive, taking the drug could pose serious health risks.
To avoid running the risk of getting counterfeit drugs that could be hazardous to your health, consider ordering your ED meds online from eDrugstore.com, which is part of the Secure Medical family of online drugstores.
eDrugstore Founded in 1998
Based in Tempe, Arizona, eDrugstore has been in operation since 1998, the same year that Viagra was approved for sale in the United States. All the drugs available on eDrugstore’s website are FDA-approved and are dispensed from U.S. licensed pharmacies.
For prospective customers who would like to order an impotence drug but feel uncomfortable discussing the matter with their primary physician, eDrugstore can arrange an online consultation with one of its contract physicians. The company partners with Premiere Telemedicine, a physician-driven pioneer in the field of medical consultation.
Online Consultations
Such online consultations are free of charge and involve filling out a medical questionnaire that covers the patient’s medical history and current symptoms. Upon receipt of a completed questionnaire, eDrugstore forwards it to one of its contract physicians for review. A prescription will be written if the reviewing physician deems it appropriate and finds no underlying medical conditions that might be in conflict with the prescribed drug.
All FDA-approved PDE5 inhibitors — the family of drugs designed to overcome symptoms of ED — are available through eDrugstore. These include Viagra (sildenafil citrate); Levitra (vardenafil); Cialis (tadalafil), both for daily use and for use as needed; Staxyn, an orally soluble form of vardenafil, the same active ingredient found in Levitra; and Stendra (avanafil).
Don Amerman is a freelance author who writes extensively about a wide array of nutrition and health-related topics.
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