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Podcasts Take Two
Amazon's illegal market for prescription drugs
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Jun 2, 2014
Listen • 7:55
Amazon's illegal market for prescription drugs
Physician and journalist Ford Vox recently discovered the extent of Amazon's marketplace for illegally sold drugs like antibiotics and muscle relaxants.
Superbugs develop as we use - and overuse - antibiotics. One way to stop the spread of these bacterium is to take antibiotics responsibly.
Superbugs develop as we use - and overuse - antibiotics. One way to stop the spread of these bacterium is to take antibiotics responsibly.
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Photo by Gene Han/LarimdaME via Flickr Creative Commons
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Physician and journalist Ford Vox recently discovered the extent of Amazon's marketplace for illegally sold drugs like antibiotics and muscle relaxants.

You can find just about anything on Amazon these days: books, clothing, lawnmowers, baby strollers and even prescription drugs.

Physician and journalist Ford Vox recently discovered the extent of Amazon's marketplace for illegally sold drugs. It was delivered to his front door in the form of a prescription skin cream his wife inadvertently ordered.

While the federal government has gone after similar websites for selling controlled substances found on Amazon — such as certain forms of anabolic steroids — these drugs continue to pop up on Amazon marketplaces with seeming impunity, Vox writes in a piece for Slate.