Bogus Canadian web pharmacy's death probe

A bogus pharmacy, which pretended to be based in Canada, has been held responsible for the death of a Canadian resident who bought drugs via the Internet. The British Columbia Coroners Office announced that Marcia Bergeron, from Quadra Island, Canada, had died from ingesting pills containing dangerous level of heavy metals, including strontium and uranium.

The coroner's report found that over 100 tablets were discovered in Mrs Bergeron's home, none of them labeled and some without packaging. Three drugs were identified, for which the victim was not found to have any prescriptions. These were: zolpidem, a sedative developed by France's Sanofi-Aventis under the brand name Ambien, that is available on prescription in the USA but not licensed in Canada; Pfizer's Xanax (alprazolam), a prescribable anti-anxiety remedy; and acetaminophen, which is an over-the-counter drug in Canada. The US Food and Drug Administration issued a warning in February about the first two of the drugs which, the agency warned, contained haloperidol, a powerful anti-psychotic drug (Marketletter February 26).

Margaret MacDiarmid, president of the BC Medical Association, told the Vancouver Sun newspaper that "the idea of taking any of these powerful medications without having a diagnosis and a treatment plan is really very frightening."