Not a day passes when our email inboxes do not fill with advertisements for prescription drugs. Several emails promise to provide drugs of most classes by overnight courier with out a prescription. While there are legitimate online pharmacies, and the practice of telemedicine or cyber-medicine is gaining acceptance, this change in the manner medicine has been practiced is rocking the foundations of the medical establishment. Being able to consult a physician online, and obtain prescription drugs sent to your doorstep by UPS has broad social and legal implications. The Internet facilitates making drugs available to those who may not have the ability to afford to pay for US prices, are embarrassed to see a physician face-to-face, or are suffering from pain, treating which puts most doctors in direct conflict with the 'war on drugs' but on the other hand there's the question whether these pharmacies make drugs available to recreational drug users without the oversight of a licensed medical practitioner.

The Significance of Alternatives

Medical care in the US has reached a spot where it's expensive and impersonal that has caused the buyer to become generally unsatisfied with the medical establishment as a whole. Examples range from the huge differences between the price of drugs in the US and Canada, long wait times in US pharmacies, and poor service in general. Silver Pearl / Oz Perhaps realizing this, US customs generally seems to tolerate the an incredible number of Americans that visit Canada annually to buy their medications, when it comes to most part, these 'drug buyers' are elderly American's that can't pay the high cost of filling their prescriptions in the US.

As opposed to to happen to be Canada or Mexico an incredible number of Americans are actually embracing the Internet for both their medical needs. Telemedicine (or cyber medicine) provides consumers with the capacity to both consult with a physician online and order drugs within the Internet at discounted prices. This has led to consumers embracing online pharmacies for their medical needs, and particularly pharmacies with a relationships with a physician, which allow the buyer to completely bypass the standard brick and mortar pharmacies, with the added benefit of having their physician act as an intermediary between the buyer and the pharmacy. According to Johnson (2005) that is as a result of consumers becoming very dissatisfied as it pertains to coping with both brick and mortar pharmacies and medical practitioners. As Johnson, notes, "Consumers are more likely to know the name of their hairdresser than their pharmacist." When Johnson (2005) rated the different professions within the healthcare system, he unearthed that pharmacists had the cheapest interaction using their patients than did any group. Today, as a result of this "consumers are buying 25.5 percent of their prescriptions online, in opposition to 13.5 percent of which are picked up at a brick and mortar pharmacy" (Johnson 2005).

Drugs and Society

What's brought so much awareness of online pharmacies is that it's possible to obtain nearly any drug with out a prescription online. Several prescriptions are for legitimate purposes purchased via an online pharmacy because the buyer is too embarrassed to go to the doctor or for other reasons including the unavailability of FDA approved drugs to the consumer. These drugs may include steroids that because of their misuse and being classed as a classed a type three drugs, are seldom prescribed by physicians. These drugs have a helpful purpose to those suffering from any wasting disease such as for instance AIDS, additionally they may play a role in ant-aging (FDA, 2004).

The Doctor Patient Relationship

Today a stop by at a physician is generally brief, much of the triage it is done with a nurse or perhaps a nurse practitioner with the doctor only dropping in for a few minutes, if at all. Oftentimes the patient is observed with a nurse practitioner. One of the arguments against telemedicine or perhaps a better term is cyber-medicine, is that the doctor does not need a real relationship with the patients and thus is in no position to create a diagnosis, and thus can not legally prescribe drugs.

Ironically when one compares the job up that one needs to go through to consult with an online physicians and compares this to a face-to-face visit with a brick and mortar doctor, one finds that the web physician, oftentimes, includes a better understanding of the patient's medical condition than does the doctor who meets face-to-face with the patient.