Regulating Online Pharmacies – Can It Be Done? | BestPharmGuide.com – Buying Drugs Online Articles, Tips, and Guidelines

Regulating Online Pharmacies – Can It Be Done?

The main issue that many people have with the online drugstore industry is one that it shares with any field of business that makes its way online: the lack of regulation. The Internet is nearly impossible for anyone to keep tabs on at all times, and its international nature makes it difficult for governments to figure out just what they can do if a website violates local laws. When it comes to online pharmacies, the Food and Drug Administration has a few regulations in place to help protect consumers, but there are some emerging problems with this approach.

What the FDA has

regulate online pharmacy Online pharmacies within the United States are still firmly under the jurisdiction of the FDA, which means their regulations still apply. This includes on-site inspections of the production facilities, valid pharmacy licenses, and limits on the available drugs to those that are legal to sell and produce within the United States. However, this does have limitations. While these are all very good for dealing with things in the real world, handling an online drugstore isn’t so easy. For one thing, it theoretically falls outside of the jurisdiction of U.S. law, so it could easily sell medication that is not available, and there are enough loopholes in import laws to get them through.

Utah’s measure

The state government of Utah recently created the Online Prescribing, Dispensing and Facilitation Board. This is the first actual step that any state authority has taken in an attempt to control online pharmacies. Customers who buy medication online within the state now fall under the protection and jurisdiction of this board. However, the Internet being what it is, there are some who debate whether or not this act is an empty one. It does bring up the fact that it is important to set limitations and regulations that will work for all online pharmacies.

Benefits and drawbacks

The primary benefit of this kind of approach to handling online pharmacies is that it provides a greater degree of controls. The FDA has numerous regulations, but ultimately, these are not enough. This kind of move attempts to bring legislation to a point where it can catch up with technology.

There are also drawbacks. The legal nature of the Internet is still a vague thing, and there are going to be questions on whether or not any one country’s government has the jurisdiction to regulate all of it. Most of the time, these sorts of things must be limited to having authority in only one country, but that limits its power and opens up potential exploits. Still, regulation of the online drugstore industry is a long overdue measure, and is one that will be welcomed by a lot of people who buy medication online.