A coroner is warning the public about the danger of buying drugs over the Internet after the death of a Vancouver Island woman.
Toxicology reports now confirm the pills appear to have killed 57-year-old 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 not 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, said Regional Coroner Rose Stanton.
"In the days prior to her death, she was suffering from hair loss and vision problems and they are symptoms of poisoning," said Stanton.
Police found more than 100 pills bought by Bergeron in her home on Quadra Island. None were labelled, but were sold as anti-anxiety drugs and sedatives.
"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, including uranium, strontium, arsenic and lead.
The website that sold the pills has since shut down. But health experts say fake pharmacies are an ongoing scam.
"The big thing is that you don't know where it's coming from or who makes it," pharmacist Ian Lloyd told CTV. "There's no accountability because it could be manufactured anywhere. And in this case, it was."
While pharmacists say Bergeron's death is proof that people should avoid buying any prescription drug via the Internet, those who represent online pharmacies say there are legitimate online drug stores that sell real pharmaceuticals at low cost.
"This person went to buy drugs for which she did not have a prescription, and the site didn't ask for one, which should send up a big red flag," said
Gord Haugh, the general manager of the Canadian International Pharmacist Association.
"If they don't want a prescription you could well lose your money and something more."
Health Canada warns that consumers have no way of tracing dubious 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 麻豆影视net 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.
With files from CTV's medical specialist Avis Favaro and medical producer Elizabeth St. Philip
