VIAGRA ONLINE

THANKFUL AS many men may be by the easy availability of Viagra over the
Internet, federal and state officials should waste no time in cracking down
on companies that sell the drug without requiring traditional
prescriptions.

Chronicle science writer Carl T. Hall reported that one of the companies
peddling the exceedingly popular anti-impotence pill as well as other
prescription medicines on the Internet required only a short,
customer-completed ``medical history'' form.

The form is sent to the drug distributor along with money for the pills and
a $50 ``physician review'' fee. The ``review'' physician neither talks to
nor examines the hopeful buyer. That lack of contact between doctor and
patient is in disturbing contravention to the time-honored practice of
pairing doctor knowledge of a patient with a prescription for that patient.

Most prescribed drugs are not available over the counter for a good reason.
They may have side effects that require an evaluation of appropriateness on
a case-by-case basis. Viagra has been linked to 174 reports of side effects
and 31 deaths, although, as Hall reported, it is not clear whether the drug
itself or underlying health problems were to blame. While serious questions
still exist about the safety of a drug, as they do with Viagra, it is
extremely irresponsible to allow the medicine to be distributed through the
mails as if the pills were M&M's.

With every passing day, the public witnesses both the good and ill that
comes from the Internet marvel. The disclosure that scores of men are
essentially writing their own prescriptions to get a potentially dangerous
drug is an illustration of the Internet used for ill.

1998 San Francisco Chronicle Page A26

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)