Canadian Pharmacies

The trend of shopping online is growing exponentially every passing year. The convenience and savings of buying online is hard to pass up. Interestingly enough, the trend has expanded to include buying pharmaceutical drugs.

Why do people buy their pharmaceuticals online?

The answer to this is the same reason why people buy anything online. First of all, it is extremely convenient to be able to shop at any time that is convenient for you. Additionally, you obviously do not even have to leave your house when shopping online.

For Americans, it has become a common practice to buy their prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies. The Canadian health care system is drastically different than the UnitedState’s and their drugs are cheaper. As a matter of fact, many of the same identical drugs can be bought in Canada for 80% cheaper than in the US.

It is legal to buy from online pharmacies. Check out this wikipedia page for some interesting information about the laws surrounding importing prescription drugs.

It is very likely that if you are in America and looking for a Canadian pharmacy, you are trying to find an online pharmacy. Well, there is a lot of controversy that surrounds online pharmacies. There are basically two different kinds of online pharmacies, and two different kinds of online pharmacy shoppers.

The first of which is the legitimate kind. There is an organization out there that certifies the legitimacy of online pharmacies in the United States as well as in Canada and Australia. This group is called Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites or VIPPS, and if you want to buy from a legitimate pharmacy then you should buy from a VIPPS certified pharmacy.

Also, all legitimate online pharmacies will require a valid prescription from a doctor that you have seen in person. There is just no way to get around this.

The other type of pharmacy does not require prescriptions. Or they have a doctor that will write you a prescription based on a questionnaire that you have filled out. This creates a very interesting debate, which I personally have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, I believe that people know their bodies and if they want to take a drug that is bad for them and may kill them then that is their choice.

However, besides the risk of taking drugs that are harmful to your body, there are other dangers from illegitimate online pharmacies. Since they are technically illegal, the products they dispense are not regulated. You do not actually know what you are getting. They could be identical placebos, expired drugs, or even contain a harmful substance you were unaware of. Since these people are running an illegal pharmacy, it is not below them to sell counterfeit drugs. The other danger in buying drugs form places like this is that you could face criminal charges from the US government.

I understand that there is a health care crisis in the United States.  Some people know what drugs they need, but do not have insurance and cannot afford to go to the doctor and get the prescription.  Unfortunately, the answer to this must be health care reform and not buying illegal narcotics online.