A local family blames an online pharmacy for their mother's drug addiction and death. Her family says that for months she ordered a powerful medication online without a prescription.
“I still can't believe that she's gone,'' said Jerry Clearwater. ''I’ll never see my wife again.”
On Friday Clearwater got the visit from police that everyone dreads: Officers told him his wife, 44-year-old Laura Clearwater, died in a car crash. Police said her car went out of control and hit a tree at about 5:30 p.m. as she headed west on White Lane near Gosford Road.
Clearwater blames the crash and his wife's death on her addiction to the prescription drugs she bought online.
Jerry says a doctor prescribed a muscle relaxer six months ago for a back injury Laura suffered while skiing. Clearwater said the prescription expired, but Laura was already hooked.
He said his wife started ordering the muscle relaxer Soma from an online pharmacy called myrxbill.com.
Without a real doctor's prescription, Clearwater and his family say a three- month supply arrived at their door every two weeks.
''The (online) doctor actually never physically saw her,'' Clearwater said. ''The doctor just said, ’Oh, you have a pain.' He's talking to her on the phone. A doctor. How can you prescribe something to somebody and never even see them?''
Local pharmacist Andy Stout said that's the problem. With no doctor or real pharmacist watching, websites make it very easy to abuse powerful drugs like Soma.
''No doctor and no pharmacist?'' Stout said. ''You are just going to end up in trouble.''
LegitScript.com is a website recognized by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy that tries to verify if online pharmacies are legitimate. President John Horton said as of right now, no government agency or board regulates Internet pharmacies.
''Ninety-nine percent of Internet pharmacies are not legitimate,'' he said. ''And a lot of websites, just like the one that it appears sold drugs to this woman, are nothing more than Internet drug pushers,” Horton said.
Horton says he knows myrxbill.com and other sites tied to it are not legitimate online pharmacies.
Horton says there are some red flags you need to know before ordering prescription drugs online. He says if the site does not require a real doctor’s prescription, if the drugs come from outside the United States, or if it claims to have doctors that prescribe over the phone, chances are it is not a legitimate pharmacy.
17News tried contacting myrxbill.com, but got no return call Monday.
Before Laura Clearwater died, her family says they wrote numerous emails and called to the site but the drugs kept coming.
Clearwater's family said she finally agreed last week to get help and was supposed to check into a sober living facility this week.
The corner's office says it could take eight to ten weeks to determine if Clearwater had drugs in her system.
