The Swedish national medical products agency is running a very cleverly marketed campaign right now to inform people about the perils of buying medicine over the Internet. They are running fake advertisement spots on television, mimicking the typical medical adverts found in the US (and the few other countries where such advertising is allowed for prescription medicine), with a trustworthy doctor talking about the benefits of this and that… and slowly going into weird land about how the products might not be want you think and maybe don’t contain the right stuff, etc.Finally, you are pointed to www.crimemedicine.com, a site setup for this campaign. All very clever. In fact, so clever that some people reported the spots to the consumer watchdog as being illegal advertisements… brilliant!
It is mostly in Swedish, though, but they have some English-language information at http://www.crimemedicine.com/lib/html/english.html.
I think this is pretty important stuff, way too many people are buying counterfeit and illegal and usually dangerous medical stuff over the Internet. That is not how you deal with your health: if you have a problem, go to a doctor or at least a physical pharmacy and talk to someone with proper credentials. Never ever self-medicate with stuff you find of the net. Or even sometimes buy in physical pharmacy in less well-policied countries. Real medications can be expensive — but most of the time, you are getting what you pay for. As always.