Bush urges ban on Net drug sales

WASHINGTON - President Bush urged Congress yesterday to pass legislation aimed at ending illegal sales of highly addictive prescription drugs on the Internet, citing a growing number of fatal overdoses.

Bush used his weekly radio address to highlight his administration's 2008 national drug-control strategy, which the White House released yesterday. The strategy seeks a 10 percent cut in youth drug use with continued interdiction efforts such as random student drug testing, community outreach, and screening and prevention at doctors' offices.

The president said that while an estimated 860,000 fewer young people are using drugs today than in 2001, the abuse of prescription drugs persists.

"Unfortunately, many young Americans do not understand how dangerous abusing medication can be, and in recent years, the number of Americans who have died from prescription-drug overdoses has increased," Bush said.

One factor behind the trend is the availability of highly addictive prescription drugs on the Internet, he said.

Bush's drug-policy adviser, John Walters, said the government is now focusing its "supply, demand and prevention policies with the goal of seeing the same reductions that we have achieved for illegal 'street' drugs."

A measure passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee in September seeks to stem the abuse of prescription drugs via the Internet. It requires that doctors meet with patients in person before prescribing medication and stiffens penalties for those who violate the rules. The bill awaits full Senate consideration.

"The damage can be done on a wide scale by a relatively small number of criminal actors here," Walters said. He mentioned cases of "rogue" Internet pharmacies that often do not require prescriptions or allow prescriptions to be faxed, making it easier for customers to forge documents or use prescriptions at multiple pharmacies.