Coroner blames online pills for B.C. woman's death
21/03/2007 5:48:08 PM
A coroner is warning the public about the danger of buying drugs over the Internet after the death of a 57-year-old woman on Vancouver Island.
Regional coroner Rose Stanton said the pills appear to have killed Marcia Bergeron, a woman believed to be a U.S. resident, who lived in the Campbell River area for part of the year.
The woman bought a sedative legally sold in Canada, which has been linked to overdose deaths abroad.
Bergeron also purchased an anti-anxiety medication that's for sale in Canada only with a doctor's prescription, Stanton said.
The exact cause of her death is still being investigated but preliminary results suggest she was poisoned.
"We are trying to get more information from her computer to see if we can find out what she thought she was getting,'' Stanton said.
Some of the pills also had traces of dangerous mineral traces that can pose a serious health risk.
Health Canada warns that consumers have no way of tracing these companies or finding out how to reach them if they have a problem.
"If you order from these sites, you may get counterfeit drugs with no active ingredients, drugs with the wrong ingredients, drugs with dangerous additives, or drugs past their expiry date. Even if these drugs do not harm you directly or immediately, your condition may get worse without effective treatment," Health Canada warns on its website.
The pills in question were purchased through a health-related website belonging to a group of companies that change websites and Internet addresses ever few days, according to the coroners service.
"These fake sites look very realistic,'' Stanton said.
"They would fool a lot of people. And they mention the names of organization and companies that don't exist.''
Karen Wolfe, National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities, encouraged the public to check the site's credentials before keying in their credit card number.
"You can't for certain know that the information that they publish on their site is to be trusted," Wolfe told CTV Newsnet on Wednesday.
"But by having the information that it's licensed in the province, you can certainly call the College of Pharmacists in the province that the pharmacy is licensed in to ascertain that it is, in fact, a true pharmacy," she said.
Anyone who is uncertain about a drug they have bought over the Internet should take it in its original packaging to a pharmacy for proper disposal, the coroners service said.
21/03/2007 5:48:08 PM
A coroner is warning the public about the danger of buying drugs over the Internet after the death of a 57-year-old woman on Vancouver Island.
Regional coroner Rose Stanton said the pills appear to have killed Marcia Bergeron, a woman believed to be a U.S. resident, who lived in the Campbell River area for part of the year.
The woman bought a sedative legally sold in Canada, which has been linked to overdose deaths abroad.
Bergeron also purchased an anti-anxiety medication that's for sale in Canada only with a doctor's prescription, Stanton said.
The exact cause of her death is still being investigated but preliminary results suggest she was poisoned.
"We are trying to get more information from her computer to see if we can find out what she thought she was getting,'' Stanton said.
Some of the pills also had traces of dangerous mineral traces that can pose a serious health risk.
Health Canada warns that consumers have no way of tracing these companies or finding out how to reach them if they have a problem.
"If you order from these sites, you may get counterfeit drugs with no active ingredients, drugs with the wrong ingredients, drugs with dangerous additives, or drugs past their expiry date. Even if these drugs do not harm you directly or immediately, your condition may get worse without effective treatment," Health Canada warns on its website.
The pills in question were purchased through a health-related website belonging to a group of companies that change websites and Internet addresses ever few days, according to the coroners service.
"These fake sites look very realistic,'' Stanton said.
"They would fool a lot of people. And they mention the names of organization and companies that don't exist.''
Karen Wolfe, National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities, encouraged the public to check the site's credentials before keying in their credit card number.
"You can't for certain know that the information that they publish on their site is to be trusted," Wolfe told CTV Newsnet on Wednesday.
"But by having the information that it's licensed in the province, you can certainly call the College of Pharmacists in the province that the pharmacy is licensed in to ascertain that it is, in fact, a true pharmacy," she said.
Anyone who is uncertain about a drug they have bought over the Internet should take it in its original packaging to a pharmacy for proper disposal, the coroners service said.
