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Prepared Statement of
The Honorable Joe Barton
Safety of Imported Pharmaceuticals: Strengthening Efforts to Combat the Sales of Controlled Substances Over the Internet
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations
December 13, 2005
Mr. Chairman, I strongly support this hearing. The fact that these rogue
Internet pharmacies are easily selling highly addictive, dangerous controlled
substances without a valid prescription to American citizens, especially
teenagers, is an outrage. Republicans and Democrats disagree on many issues. But
this is an issue on which we can all work together.
The sale of controlled substances such as Vicodin, Percoset, and steroids to
our kids must be stopped. Immediate action needs to be taken to drive these
operations off the Internet and put the bad actors in jail. There has been
understandable frustration that the Federal government has not found a silver
bullet strategy to solve the problem. The challenge of these rogue Internet
pharmacies is that their operations may involve several countries and the bad
actors behind these operations can easily conceal their identities and
activities. For those reasons, it has been difficult to obtain the kind of data
about the bad actors to enable the federal government to design an effective,
comprehensive strategy to stop these rogue Internet pharmacies.
With today's hearing, this Subcommittee can help the public and private
players achieve significant results in solving this problem. As we have learned
from fighting terrorism, a part of the solution is about gaining more detailed
intelligence about these rogue pharmacies and the bad actors behind them. We
will hear testimony from a private investigative firm about the results of their
work in probing about 180 websites that have controlled substances available for
purchase. In particular, by focusing on controlled substances, particularly the
Schedule 2 and 3 drugs offered on the Internet, the public and private sectors
can concentrate on getting comprehensive information about the limited number of
Internet operations selling controlled substances. With this better
intelligence, they have an opportunity to take more effective actions to stop
these transactions that pose a serious public health threat.
The people on the frontlines of federal and state law enforcement combating
this problem should be commended for their efforts in dealing with this highly
challenging and complicated threat. What I am very interested in learning about
today is what we in the Congress can do to help law enforcement by giving them
more authority and perhaps more resources.
I also want to express appreciation to the private industries represented at
today's hearing. While they should not be confused with law enforcement
agencies, these private companies have been working cooperatively with the
government, are taking steps to address this issue, and are an essential part of
the solution.
Easy Internet access to controlled substances is a dangerous reality, one
that today's hearing will show must be addressed immediately, legislatively if
necessary. With unified, bipartisan leadership from this Committee, we can help
the public and private sector act against an illegal industry that makes it
possible to do drugs and get them without a prescription.
I thank the witnesses and look forward to the testimony.
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