ONLINE SALES SPUR ILLEGAL IMPORTING OF MEDICINE

WASHINGTON -- The federal government's seizures of imported drugs soared
last year to thousands of parcels containing millions of pills as consumers
turned to online drugstores based overseas for bargains, illicit substances
and prescriptions they are embarrassed to seek from their physicians.

Customs inspectors intercepted all sorts of drugs, including steroids,
hormones, aphrodisiacs, impotency medications, anticancer pills, painkillers
and tranquilizers sent from Thailand, China, Mexico, Switzerland and many
other countries.

A big demand for medications of questionable worth.

But the shipments that they impounded are probably only a small fraction of
what consumers are illegally buying from fly-by-night Web sites, many of
which offer to mail drugs in unmarked envelopes with few questions asked,
customs and health officials say.

The United States Customs Service seized 9,725 packages with prescription
drugs last year, about 4.5 times as many as in 1998, when they confiscated
2,145 packages. The number of pills and tablets impounded by the Customs
Service jumped to 1.9 million, from 760,720 in 1998.

Federal officials said the drugs that were seized had not been approved for
use in this country, did not comply with American labeling requirements or
fell below federal standards for the quality and purity of drugs. Because of
controls like these, most imports of drugs from Internet suppliers are
illegal, although buyers are rarely prosecuted.

In an interview, Raymond W. Kelly, the commissioner of the Customs Service,
said: "The Internet has given us a lot more work. We've been deluged with
prescription drugs coming in from overseas. It's a major challenge to deal
with this huge increase in volume."

President Clinton recently announced an initiative to protect consumers
buying drugs on the Internet. But his proposal dealt mainly with online
pharmacies based in the United States, which would, for the first time, have
to get approval from the federal government before they could sell drugs.

That has left administration officials scratching their heads over what can
be done to police the virtually unregulated foreign Web sites that have
sprung up to cater to the American market. "That's much more difficult than
domestic enforcement," said Chris Jennings, the health policy coordinator at
the White House.

Regulation of offshore Internet sites is tricky for the Clinton
administration because Vice President Al Gore and other Democrats
continually berate drug companies for charging higher prices in the United
States than in other countries, and one of the main reasons consumers buy
online from foreign pharmacies is to get lower prices.

Other consumers turn to the Internet to get drugs that are illegal to sell
here, or to get legitimate medicines like Viagra, the anti-impotency pill,
without the trouble and possible embarrassment of consulting a doctor.

The Food and Drug Administration advises consumers: "Don't purchase from
foreign Web sites at this time. Generally it will be illegal to import the
drugs bought from these sites, the risks are greater and there is very
little the U.S. government can do if you get ripped off."

A Web site called Drug Quest says it can, for a fee, help Americans "buy
almost any drug without a prescription" from pharmacies in Mexico, the
Caribbean and other parts of the world. These pharmacies sell drugs at
"drastically discounted rates" and ship the merchandise discreetly so that
"95 percent of their shipments arrive unmolested," says the Web site,
operated by a Florida company called LMB Enterprises.

Another Web site, operated by Vitality Health Products in Bangkok, Thailand,
promises "prescription-free pharmaceuticals by e-mail at incredibly low
prices."

And it seems to have a medicine for every malady:

"Hair loss? Try Minoxidil and Finasteride (Propecia). Erection problems? Try
Viagra, Yohimbine and Trazodone. Aging skin? Try Retin-A and AHA creams.
Poor memory, I.Q.? Try Piracetam, Hydergine and Vinpocetine. Hormone
replacement? Check out testosterone & Premarin."

Vitality says, "We guarantee to send your order discreetly packed, without
any reference to the contents on the outside of the packet." But it says:
"Be warned. Medicines sent by post are much more likely to be stolen in
transit or intercepted by the authorities than other mail-order products. If
your order is lost, stolen in the post or confiscated by the authorities, we
guarantee to refund your money immediately."

The company even has a Web page on "customs problems," which tells consumers
what to do if an order is seized by the Customs Service.

Thomas Falanga, a supervisory customs inspector at Kennedy International
Airport in New York, said: "You can probably buy anything you want over the
Internet and have it shipped to your house. We've found a big increase in
prescription drugs and anabolic steroids from virtually all parts of the
world."

Mr. Falanga said inspectors could not possibly examine every item because
more than 100 international flights arrived at Kennedy each day and most
carried huge amounts of mail.

Some packages carry customs declarations falsely describing their contents.
Government records show, for example, that potent unapproved drugs like GBL
and GHB have been labeled as wood softener or bubble bath, even though the
products are promoted on the Web with claims that they can build muscles,
enhance sex, reduce stress and induce sleep.

When the Customs Service seizes drugs, it may send a warning to the
purchaser. In rare cases, if the shipment includes a large quantity of drugs
with a high potential for resale and abuse, customs agents may deliver the
drugs and arrest the buyer.

But Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the Customs Service, said the agency usually
refrained from taking action when consumers imported small amounts of
prescription drugs -- up to a three-month supply -- for their own use, and
the drugs posed no "unreasonable risk" to the users.

"We won't arrest Granny just because she wants to get her drugs cheaper,"
Mr. Boyd said.

A New Zealand pharmacy routinely ships drugs and hormones in parcel post
letter packs, saying such envelopes attract less attention from inspectors.

Another company, International Anti-Aging Systems, based on the island of
Guernsey in the English Channel, offers dozens of drugs including Proscar,
Prozac, Viagra, tetracycline, injectable human growth hormone and "brain
nutrients, or smart drugs," on the Internet.

The company tells buyers that they are responsible for compliance with
import requirements. Moreover, it says, buyers bear the risk of financial
loss if their products are seized by the Customs Service, and consumers
cannot hold the company liable for "any entrapment procedures that may be
perpetrated by law enforcement and government agencies."

Many foreign Web sites promote Viagra, the anti-impotence drug made by
Pfizer. Andrew B. McCormick, a spokesman for Pfizer, said the company had
successfully urged state pharmacy boards to shut down Web sites that sold
Viagra without requiring patients to be examined first by doctors. But, he
said, it is more difficult to take action against foreign Web sites.

Viagra has been approved in 90 countries, but Mr. McCormick said sales in
the United States exceeded those in the rest of the world combined.

Federal authorities have repeatedly seized drugs sent to the United States
from a Swiss pharmacy, Victoria Apotheke in Zurich, on the ground that they
were unapproved or misbranded. On its Web site, the company describes itself
as a fully licensed retail drugstore established in 1880. It offers "a wide
range of 14,000 products available to be sent to customers all over the
world," and it says it can help consumers "obtain medicines not available in
your country."

Debby Fry Wilson, a spokeswoman for one of the best-known online pharmacies,
drugstore.com in Bellevue, Wash., said her company complied with all federal
and state requirements.

Ms. Wilson noted that state officials, using state laws, had already shut
down some unlicensed online pharmacies. But, she said, "most of the illegal
operators are doing their business on foreign soil." Representative Thomas
J. Bliley Jr., the Virginia Republican who is chairman of the House Commerce
Committee, said he was skeptical of the administration's proposal to
regulate online pharmacies.

"I'm reluctant to set a precedent for regulation of the Internet before the
full potential of electronic commerce is understood," Mr. Bliley said. "A
large number of illegitimate online pharmacies are based offshore, but the
administration's proposal does not appear to address that problem."