WEB MEDS

Mary Parks, a prescription drug addict a decade ago, remembers well how she
would replenish her stash.

She'd call in fake prescriptions to drug stores. Much of her free time was
spent traveling to different pharmacies so no one would notice her habit.

Others less savvy, she recalls, would visit several doctors simultaneously,
making up ailments that would require pain killers. But they often were
thwarted by computer databases in doctors' offices and chain pharmacies
that flagged the frequent visits.

Today's addicts don't fear recognition or being caught in a lie. Gone is
the barrier to addiction for the timid or time-pressed.

A click on the computer keyboard sends an order off to a pharmaceutical
company in Asian countries or Mexico - "no prescription needed," Web sites
trumpet.

"Thank God I got sober before that," says Parks, a resident of Hinsdale and
co-founder of Pills Anonymous chapters in DuPage County. "I don't even want
to learn about it. It might give me ideas."

But others are learning about the ease of online drug purchases, which are
fueling an upswing in addictions.

According to congressional testimony this month, emergency-room visits
related to abuse of narcotic pain relievers have increased nationwide 163
percent since 1995. Health officials estimate 6.2 million Americans abused
prescription drugs in 2002.

Pills Anonymous, a support and recovery group similar to Alcohol Anonymous,
has witnessed more addicts each month fueling their habits by buying drugs
online.

Those addicts filter in and out of the group, as the constant temptation of
buying drugs from foreign companies not regulated by the U.S. government
makes kicking the habit harder than ever before.

The anonymity of buying makes it elusive to get a handle on the number of
online addicts.

"It is virtually impossible to know what you do at home on the Internet,"
said Ed Childress, special agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
Also, doctors don't isolate drug-abuse statistics by form or use. That
means people abusing prescription painkillers are lumped in with heroin
addicts, under the broad heading of opiate users.

Middle-aged abusers

Suburban doctors and substance abuse counselors say the number of adults
coming in for help with prescription drug addiction has doubled or tripled
in the past year at area hospitals - and most report having surfed the Web
to get their fixes.

"Patients come in here and talk about the amounts of pills they are getting
in the mail," said Beth Sack, program coordinator of chemical dependency
services at Linden Oaks Hospital in Naperville. "It is appalling."

Most abusers are middle-aged, health experts say.

"They may have used it when they were younger for pain, and now they find
they can get it on the Internet," said Linda Lewaniak, clinical director
for chemical dependency services at Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health
Hospital in Hoffman Estates, where the number of patients abusing
prescription drugs via the Internet has doubled in the past year.

Health officials fear, though, that teens soon will make up a larger chunk
of online addicts. School nurses have reported an increase in teens talking
about using prescription drugs to get high. Lewaniak said she has seen a
few teens trickling into therapy, and that could be the beginning of a new
trend here.

Often, the type of local user, as well as the drug of choice, mirrors
earlier trends on the coasts, where the drugs originate, or in larger
cities. Nationally, 14 percent of teenagers report abusing prescription
drugs. One out of every 10 high school seniors last year had abused the
painkiller Vicodin, making it the second-most popular drug after marijuana,
DEA Administrator Karen Tandy said.

'No problem!!!'

The rise in Internet purchases of prescription drugs took off on the East
and West coasts in the mid-1990s. The Midwest has been experiencing the
phenomenon only in the past few years, the DEA's Childress said.

That doesn't surprise health and law enforcement officials, who typically
see the Midwest lag behind in drug trends. As a trend builds steam in one
state, a user or dealer will spread the news to friends elsewhere.

"These things aren't random," Childress said. "Somebody introduces a new
drug or a new strategy on a way to obtain a drug and it takes off."

Recently, Web sites have launched marketing campaigns. E-mail spam provides
links to overseas pharmacies that offer such come-ons as "No prescription?
No problem!!! Order from online overseas pharmacies. SAVE UP TO 80% - NO
DOCTOR'S VISIT NEEDED!!"

The Bush administration this month announced plans to work with Internet
service providers to develop pop-up ads warning visitors about these Web
sites and that the "no prescription needed" line is a lie.

"As a citizen of the United States, you can't just have something shipped
to you," Childress said. "You have to have a license to get controlled
substances."

The DEA has closed down a few pharmacies and physicians importing large
volumes of drugs without valid prescriptions, but crackdowns abroad have
been less fruitful.

"Most of these (Web) sites change very regularly," Childress said. "That
makes it more difficult to trace them and track them down. We don't, of
course, regulate the Internet, and technology advances by leaps and bounds
almost daily."

Even if agents are lucky enough to trace the site back to a pharmaceutical
company overseas, they then need the help of the local government to issue
an indictment. Childress wouldn't disclose how many governments have agreed
to enforce American import laws, saying only that "We work very closely
with our counterparts in foreign countries."

Meanwhile, the flow of prescription drugs into this country continues.

"We even had a patient receive a package (of pills) from Mexico while in
treatment," said Richard Ready, medical director of New Day Center of
Hinsdale Hospital.

Law enforcement officials have asked Internet providers to regulate who
puts up sites on their system, and there has been some talk of charging
U.S.-based Web servers as brokers in the drug transactions, but no action
has been taken.

U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, a Republican from Virginia, introduced legislation to
set requirements for displaying drug information online, but it's a fine
line between stopping abusers and still allowing people with legitimate
prescriptions to shop for values online.

And that still leaves the question of how to monitor foreign servers.

"We are aware of it," Childress said, "and we are very diligently working
on that problem."