Leader: The drugs don't work

There have been several media reports today that picked up on doctors writing in medical journal The Lancet. They have warned that prescription drugs which people can buy online from unregulated merchants may do more harm than good.

This isn't news. Bill Clinton flagged this up as early as January 2000 and the UN waded in more than two years ago. And yet it seems in the UK we are only now waking up to this threat - with the media treating it as sensational new findings - when all it really highlights is our failure to address the problem before now.

Putting aside the fact that many drugs advertised online may not be what they claim, even when the drugs are entirely legitimate and proven to work on certain conditions the person buying them is most likely not the best equipped to diagnose their problems or prescribe a suitable medicine. Of course there are exceptions but people are harming themselves when they get this wrong and the rules should protect the vulnerable.

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Take the case of the woman cited in many reports today who diagnosed herself with chronic fatigue syndrome and self-prescribed a four-year course of steroids which left her blind.

Individuals are clearly able to side-step their GPs and the health service in obtaining everything from Viagra and diet pills to steroids, pain killers and anti-depressants. Often they are buying these drugs from foreign countries with far less stringent regulations.

Of course some individuals may have genuine cause to believe they are acting in their own best interests - in instances where they are buying drugs that are prohibited in the UK but have proved successful in other countries. This may well be a case of UK regulators needing to realise that prohibition - or extortionate pricing - can do more harm than good by forcing people to look at obtaining drugs on the black market.

The UK government should have been aware of this problem years ago and should have taken stricter measures before now. People have already died. It's not beyond reason to assume others will too.

In common with a great deal of online problems many of the answers exist online and offline. Greater international co-operation is required to identify and close down the overseas merchants providing these black market drugs. The UK government must also educate users, as well as examine the domestic reasons which explain why people choose to resort to these controversial channels - such as pricing and the availability of pharmaceuticals.