back to article Broadband leads to drug abuse, say US boffins

Greater internet access leads to an increase in drug abuse, according to docboffins in the US. The researchers consider that this is due to the fact that the internet offers the opportunity to illegally purchase prescription drugs from rogue online pharmacies. "We know we face a growing problem with prescription drug abuse in …

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  1. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    You don't need broadband!

    to contact a dodgy pharmacy. Dialup will do.

    But you may take up broadband because you're interested in media on demand, whereas for dialup you need to be interersted in the Internet. Or to already know about the questionable pharmacies.

    Where does Dr. House get his supply? Usually at work, I think. Likewise Nurse Jackie.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      err mm ...

      You did know they are fictional characters right ?

  2. Lockwood
    Alert

    Is that the right source?

    "Broadband leads to drug abuse, says Daily Mail" sounds equally valid

    1. Marvin the Martian
      Troll

      And in another headliner from Correlation Today Magazine:

      Some things up over the last decade are:

      -- stock index

      -- world population

      -- price of metals

      -- price of medicine

      -- broadband speed

      -- broadband penetration

      -- drug use

      -- global surface temperatures

      Feel free to make links between any two or more, and write the rest of the article.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Affects best Helen Lovejoy voice...

    ... Won't somebody think of hte children!!!

  4. Ooo-wait-BUT!
    FAIL

    prescription drugs =/ rogue online pharmacies

    Which is it?

    Real drugs (proper prescription) or the stuff that gets sold from rogue online 'stores'?

    ...then we can discuss the unrelated and consistent rise in demand for all forms of drugs as it pertains to an increasing population in a global economy with increasingly less disposable income.

    Fail... for obvious reasons.

    1. mmiied
      FAIL

      no you fail

      the articler said there was no corisponding increse in other drug admisions so they tryed to rule out a overall increase in genral drug demand

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Title

    "During the same period admissions involving abuse of alcohol, heroin or cocaine - substances not available online in the US - showed minimal growth or actually decreased"

    If someone wishes to pass out on their sofa it's still better than them drinking themselves into a "Err Whatsh yous lookin at, pal? Yous lookin fer trouble...hic? Have at you!" fight on the street. Is it not?

  6. Carl 17
    Thumb Down

    Let us get rid of money and free will

    As these are also required to purchase illegal goods

    1. Jerome 0

      Re: Let us get rid of money and free will

      Oh, did these scientists recommending banning the internet? Silly me, I must have missed that in the article.

  7. Khoos
    Boffin

    And now the correct conclusion, please

    To me the right conclusion would be 'pharmacy spam works'. The broadband just helps the spam get delivered.

    1. Jimbo 6
      Happy

      Can't disagree...

      ...but I think there is an additional conclusion, which is that Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection works, too.

  8. John G Imrie

    Flying Spaghetti Monster says

    Correlation != Causation.

  9. Naughtyhorse

    the problem of foreign Internet pharmacies, which are outside the jurisdiction of the US government

    if only there was some kind of internationally agreed legal framework to stop this..

    a kind of international law if you will, to which _everyone_ is subject. that would sort it out

    US Gov FAIL

  10. Tom 38
    Boffin

    cum hoc ergo propter hoc

    Correlation != Causation

    Fucking pseudo science bullshit.

  11. Gareth Gouldstone
    Happy

    Just think ...

    if they spent half the money used to fight illegal drugs on producing a safe, legal high then they could tax it and watch the money roll in.

    When will they learn the lessons of Prohibition? Human nature is such that people will always find some way of getting out of their nuts; much better that it is legal and known rather than illegal and unknown substances.

    We could then have sensible conversations with our kids about how to safely use drugs, instead of letting them find out by trial and error.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Thank you!

    Thanks to that article I now know what to search for on the net.

    No more mixing with shady characters at pubs suspiciously close to investment banks for me !

  13. Rob 5
    Stop

    Not about drugs...

    Rather, it's about competition. You've got doctors over-prescribing like mad, pharmacists (basically glorified supply clerks) handling fulfilment and all of them making a tidy little profit from their guild and government enforced monopolies.

    The argument from the rent-seekers is that it's about safety. But it's not. Chlorhexedine mouthwash (sold OTC as Cordosyl in the UK) is prescription only in the USA, so's the dentists can make an extra buck. Paracetamol and codeine (another OTC product in the UK) is supposedly a tightly controlled narcotic, though docs here hand them out like sweeties.

    It's all about the profit. Folks sourcing prescription meds from other sources cuts into that profit, so must be deprecated.

    1. James Micallef Silver badge
      Stop

      Not to mention...

      ... the people who know eff-all about medicine try to self-medicate with ODC meds just because they saw an advert. Sure they have all the statutory warnings in tiny print at the bottom of the ads, that's not stopping your average hypochondriac punter. All this over-reliance on stuffing unneeded chemicals into people's bodies, and then the result is superbugs in hospitals (and on farms which stuff our meat full of antibiotics, another horror story for another time).

      It's profit motive even with proper prescription meds -doctors prescribing newer meds that are 3% more effective and 200% more expensive than the older ones, simply because their friendly medical rep splashes out to offer them a fancy dinner every month or so.

  14. maclovinz
    Grenade

    And yet...

    There will NEVER be a WAR on PRESCRIPTION Drugs....

    Gotta love BIG pharmaceutical.....and their lobbyists, too!!!

    But yes, WEED is still the worst drug ever! I mean, it even leads to other things like....

    Laughter, mass Dorito consumption...and sleep.

  15. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
    FAIL

    Global warming

    The planet is warming up. The US use of illegally obtained prescribed drugs is going up.

    Quick! Increase "green" taxes to save the people /and/ the world.

  16. Chris Harries
    Happy

    Or maybe better education

    I thought it would lead to greater drug use because people can find out for themselves the dangers (or rather lack of comparing against fags and booze) behind illegal drugs.

  17. kain preacher

    There will NEVER be a WAR on PRESCRIPTION Drugs....

    Um yeah there is . Its targeted at the Dr and Patients. Narcotics are regulated by the DEA and any CII rugs that are prescribed have to be written on a special tamper proof script pad. To the people people who think it's about getting money for the Dr you are wrong. If you think it's about the pharmacy to make money you even more wrong . By the time you toss insurance in there about %50 of the drugs are sold at a lose. Thats why you rarely see independent pharmacies in the US now . What cause this was the war on drugs and t hen was expanded to state side and crazy rules.

    Back ground. Most folks don't know that the war on drugs was originally about US military personal getting high in Vietnam. What happened was a major over reaction by Nixon and the late 60's early 70 ushered in some new fangled anti drug laws designed to protect us from the undesirables.

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    Coincidence? I think not

    I suppose the fact that employee narcotics screening has rocketed in the USA, in parallel with Broadband, is irrelevant here?

    1. Mermaid Dick
      Black Helicopters

      You forget

      that drug testing is a big business in itself. Screening kits for drugs of abuse are a rising market. Confirmation testing by mass spectrometry isn't bad either (the IT angle).

      1. maclovinz

        Can't test....

        for prescription drugs....because they're all OOOOOoootay!

        Just wouldn't want that now would we!!!

  19. Slipoch

    US incompetence

    Ignoring the blatant disregard for reality that this article has (correllation != causation et al)

    If online phamacuticals were on the increase maybe....just maybe that's because they cost so much in the US.

    Some of the Asthma medication I buy in Aus for $5 costs over $100 in US, and with no government health care or subsidies at all can you blame them?

    In some states, the US actually falls behind the third world in medical care, kinda sad.

    To the some of the above who decided to make it a comment about illicit drugs: Marijuana has an adverse reaction in about %30 of people, I personally know someone who is now permanently sectioned with delusional schizophrenia off it, and that was his first hit (home grown, given to him by his father who smoked), typically it is the other active ingredient/chemical in weed that causes these (CBA or something like that)

    If you also look at crime rates where heroin, cocaine and marijuana are tolerated they are far higher than prior to the tolerance. please note that these countries (Denmark in particular) do not count many (sometimes any) crimes as being drug-related. Thus the numbers of drug-related crimes seem to drop.

    Oh and I believe Britain actually started banning drugs way before the US, I could be wrong however.

  20. Msan
    WTF?

    Maybe it's all the pop up ads

    for drug treatment driving the increase of treatment for drug addiction? Simple I know, but I was taught about spurious correlations at school.

    On the other hand, an increase in wanking linked to greater internet access is totally plausible.

  21. Is it me?
    Stop

    So what did that really mean?

    10% rise in a leads to 1% rise in b, Hmmm, so what were the base numbers then, are 1% of all broadband users drug addicts, or is it 0.001% of broadband users making on-line drug purchases have lead to a 1% rise in the numbers of drug related hospital admissions. This story in nonsense, without knowing the base.

    Come on reg, dig a little and tell us the truth, oh wait that wouldn't be a story would it.

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