Warning Received for Buying Pills Online

bob50

Hi Guys

I today received a letter from the Irish Medicines Board saying it waa illegal to get prescription tabs mailed to Ireland I also got a letter last week from the Customs informing me of my order had been seized

Ok Hands up i know now its wrong i ordered Acne pills which you can only get on a prescription here i ordered these from a online comapny in India

I am worried about the medicines board letter where they ask you the name of company bought from and how i became aware of the company in India when you answer these two questions they will "reaess your case"

any help will be greatly appreciated

IrishTonyO

bob50 wrote: »

Hi Guys

I today received a letter from the Irish Medicines Board saying it waa illegal to get prescription tabs mailed to Ireland I also got a letter last week from the Customs informing me of my order had been seized

Ok Hands up i know now its wrong i ordered Acne pills which you can only get on a prescription here i ordered these from a online comapny in India

I am worried about the medicines board letter where they ask you the name of company bought from and how i became aware of the company in India when you answer these two questions they will "reaess your case"

any help will be greatly appreciated

Just give them the name of the site you used and they will issue you with a warning.

dudara

Posts split out and moved to new thread in Online Buying & Auctions

dudara

jor el

bob50 wrote: »

I am worried about the medicines board letter where they ask you the name of company bought from and how i became aware of the company in India when you answer these two questions they will "reaess your case"

Importing prescription drugs, either with or without a prescription, is illegal, so just co-operate with the Medicines Board and customs requirements.

Apart from being illegal, it is incredibly stupid and dangerous to buy any drugs (prescription or non-prescription) online. You have no idea where these drugs came from, whether or not they are authentic, or what might be in them. You should count yourself lucky.

Wudyaquit

The stupid thing was putting your real name on the parcel.
I'd seriously doubt the medicines board would be bothered prosecuting someone for this even if you told them to go ride themselves. They've a fairly broad remit doing inspections of sites and reviewing all medicines that come in. Wasting resources on prosecuting someone who was importing pills for their own use isn't going to be a priority.
Deep breaths. You can get through this.

jor el

Do not discus how, or encourage people, to import drugs. It is an illegal act, and that discussion is banned by the charter.

brianwalshcork

jor el wrote: »

Importing prescription drugs, either with or without a prescription, is illegal, so just co-operate with the Medicines Board and customs requirements.

Apart from being illegal, it is incredibly stupid and dangerous to buy any drugs (prescription or non-prescription) online. You have no idea where these drugs came from, whether or not they are authentic, or what might be in them. You should count yourself lucky.

Yeah, the only safe drugs are the overpriced ones from your local pharmacist. Consider the high price to be like a quality mark for goodness sake!

Jor El, how do you know that the OP didn't purchase from a reputable soure? There are cowboys on the internet, but not everyone is one.

Sneakee

I didn't realize it myself when I ordered veterinary non prescriptions for horses, cats and dogs for the mother from USA(FDA approved).(We have a lot of animals) It was a range of spot on flea stuff, worm doses, etc, all of which the same brands you can buy over the counter without vet note.
I had no idea and only thought it was prescription medicines that were illegal to order, I had ordered before and there was no issue(small order, same stuff). So ordered a larger order a few months later.
This was a favour for my mom as I have no interest in the animals.
I noticed it was delayed but took no notice. It arrived a few days later and put the box in the spare room till they were needed for the animals.
Then the morning after, two customs officers knocked on the door looking for myself, I was in work, they threatened the mother and me with immediate legal action(heavy fine and court appearance) and were seizing the order.
They had said that the products required a prescription(which they did not) and I believe they thought we were trying to sell them on. My mom said she didn't realize this and they simply said ignorance is not an excuse..PRICKS! Anyway, they were convinced by the story it was for the animals and that we had quite a few animals to justify the order. They were also threatening my mom that they would go into my place of work to talk to me!!! I was fuming when I heard that as I would get the sack for people like this coming into the workplace!
What really pissed me off was, if they simply sent a letter stating that the order was illegal and that they were seizing the order and that I have no history of this, fair enough, but to come in the morning and accusing my mom of a crime and searching our home for more stuff(which there wasn't) when a stern warning letter and seizure would have sufficed. Anyway, lesson learnt, I do a lot of internet ordering(electronics, gadgets,books), well aware of customs and exercises(TAX) but my lack of knowledge regarding the medication products got me into trouble. I never ordered that kind of stuff only for the mother on the two occassions and won't ever again. I checked the website that I ordered from and it had a disclaimer about customs possibly seizing orders tucked away in small writing...if I'd seen that, I def would never have ordered.
Take it from me, never order or send any medicines by mail from outside Ireland.
Where was Captain Hindsight when I needed him!

jor el

brianwalshcork wrote: »

Jor El, how do you know that the OP didn't purchase from a reputable soure? There are cowboys on the internet, but not everyone is one.

There is no reputable source of prescription drugs online, for the simple reason that what they are doing is illegal. The buyer simply has no idea where these drugs were sourced, whether the seller is deemed reputable or not.

Sneakee wrote:

My mom said she didn't realize this and they simply said ignorance is not an excuse..PRICKS!

Ignorance is never an excuse for breaking the law, and you can indeed be prosecuted for breaking a law you weren't aware of. This does not make them pricks.

Sneakee wrote:

They were also threatening my mom that they would go into my place of work to talk to me!!! I was fuming when I heard that as I would get the sack for people like this coming into the workplace!

They could very well have come to your place of work to question you, but your company would not be in a position to sack you for that. Don't exaggerate the situation just to make it look like Customs are the ones in the wrong, when it was you that was to blame.

Viper_JB

jor el wrote: »

Ignorance is never an excuse for breaking the law, and you can indeed be prosecuted for breaking a law you weren't aware of. This does not make them pricks.

I dunno I would class not being aware of a law as a perfectly good excuse to break it, I'm sure if you were to go through every law in the state there's probably hundreds of rules and regulations you've broken simply because you did not know about them, I've heard allot of bad stories about customes officers, just because you are in a position of authority, it does not give you the immediate right to treat everyone you deal with like trash, how ever this does seem to be a fairly common trait amoung them.

jor el

Viper_JB wrote: »

I dunno I would class not being aware of a law as a perfectly good excuse to break it,

You may consider it so, but the law is very explicit in this regard, and ignorance is not an excuse. It would not be accepted by a court or an officer of the law. The fact that we may all have broken some law that we were unaware of is irrelevant. If we're caught, ignorance is not a defence, and we face whatever sanction or penalty goes along with breaking that law.

Sneakee

Even the Garda and solicitors do not know every one of the laws in this country.
That is their speciality, not mine and they have shelves of law books to use as reference!

I bet they look out for this one
Any person who shall pretend or exercise to use any type of witchcraft, sorcery, enchantment, or pretend knowledge in any occult or or craft or science shall for any such offense suffer imprisonment at the time of one whole year and also shall be obliged to obscursion for his/her good behavior.

I would still say PRICKS as they had come in aggressive manner and had no evidence to back up their assumption that I was dealing the products. They looked at the quantity and therefore assumed I was dealing them.
What they did in my view was nothing short of entrapment, they had knowingly allowed me to commit a crime when a potential crime could be avoided by issue of a warning letter informing me of this and immediate seizure of goods. They allowed me to recieve illegal goods knowingly.
You know what, I'd have no issue and the lesson would have been learned.
I think they were looking at some great bust up of a illegal vet drug ring and were sorely dissappointed.
If they had come, I would have asked them to leave the business premises as as they have no business with the company and entered illegally into the business site.
I would only have spoken to them when I finished work or off premises. That sort of threat was out of order.
In the end I think they were all hot air and expected something bigger(That the box was distributed to others and lead to a bigger find).
When they realized it was just for personal use and had fuk all of a case,maybe they wanted to scare the bejayzus out of me and the mother which they did but the action was over the top.
My only crime was that my credit card was used and was not clued up in this kind of stuff(I am now!).
Call me paranoid but I wonder have the Garda and C&E powers to flag my credit card just in a way to monitor my buying behaviour. Can I ask my credit card provider this and are they obliged to reveal this?
Anyway, it was well over a year ago and lesson learnt.
Jor el I see your world is very Black or White, right or wrong, I've dealt with people like that, usually those people have no concept of living in a very grey world where no one is quite good or bad. I encounter many people like that in my industry. :P
I think, those dicks acted above their position, I don't like the fact they prob did a background check on me and looked to see if I had any criminal dealings. (I don't). I hope they did and would have realized that I have no background or history to suppose this.
All it needs is an Officer on a bad day and you could be left with a court appearance if they desired when a warning is enough.
I'm not anti-establishment either if I come across like that and I'm as lawful a citizen as I can be and I respect authority.

Sneakee

jor el wrote: »

They could very well have come to your place of work to question you, but your company would not be in a position to sack you for that. Don't exaggerate the situation just to make it look like Customs are the ones in the wrong, when it was you that was to blame.

It's very naive to sugget someone from C&E comes into your workplace to speak with me and would not raise eyebrows from my collegues and seniors. Companies do not like any negative attention and if you draw any, I'd imagine this will not serve you well when it comes to promotion or the next round of redundancies. They may not sack you directly for this but indirectly is another matter.

If they had asked what time I was coming home and if I could meet them, instead they wanted to know where I worked and no alternative to this.
My own mother admitted 100% to telling me to get the stuff for her but they still persisted in going to my workplace to meet me. It's only when they looked around and could see no evidence of distribution that it was merely for personal animal use due to the large number of animals.
I never suggested that they were wrong, they were lawfully 100% correct on the crime that I committed but absolutely wrong on the course of action they took to make me aware of this and the threats in doing so.

There is a big difference to knowingly committing a crime or unknowingly committing a crime. The latter was the case.

Anyway, no point getting all silly about this, end of the day I'm happy they left me off with a warning, I'm angry they upset my mom that day, they had her in tears because she was afraid that I would get in big trouble for this and that's why I was pissed off at them(the guys that came are still pricks in my opinion, but not all C&E people of course, I do watch Customs on RTE, althought I don't feel good thinking I could have been on it). :rolleyes:
It was a honest mistake and I would hope someone reads this and doesn't make the same mistake. The consequences could have been bad.
Jor el, I didn't come here for judgment, more as a warning to others who are not aware of this.
Very easy to think it was legal as everything is so easy to get off the internet these days, maybe that's the problem.

dollydishmop

So is it just the posting of prescription meds into Ireland that is illegal?

Its my understanding that, under EU law, you can fill a prescription in any EU state, and in the past with certain medications I have posted my prescription to a family member in the UK to fill for me, and post back. Even when paying the full charge in the UK it has worked out cheaper.

I have also filled my own prescriptions myself in the UK when visiting, and obviously I didn't bin them when I got on the ferry/plane...and nor would I

username123

jor el wrote: »

There is no reputable source of prescription drugs online, for the simple reason that what they are doing is illegal. The buyer simply has no idea where these drugs were sourced, whether the seller is deemed reputable or not.

This is rubbish and depends on your definition of reputable. There are reputable online sites that sell medication that happens to be on prescription in Ireland. One is free to check the whois and company registration information. The seller is not responsible for Irish law, the buyer is.

As a simple example, Canasten Oral tablets are prescription only in Ireland, but OTC in the UK. It is possible to order these from UK online pharmacies, check the whois and company registration, ascertain that the company is a bonafide UK registered pharmacy, have the branded medication posted to Ireland, and run into the customs issue (or not if youre lucky) here.
If you do receive them, the medicine has verifiable batch numbering should you wish to contact the source of the tablets and verify that they are ok.

To suggest there is no reputable source of prescription meds online is simply naive.

bob50

bob50 wrote: »

Hi Guys

I today received a letter from the Irish Medicines Board saying it waa illegal to get prescription tabs mailed to Ireland I also got a letter last week from the Customs informing me of my order had been seized

Ok Hands up i know now its wrong i ordered Acne pills which you can only get on a prescription here i ordered these from a online comapny in India

I am worried about the medicines board letter where they ask you the name of company bought from and how i became aware of the company in India when you answer these two questions they will "reaess your case"

any help will be greatly appreciated

Hi Guys i rang the Irish Medicines Board today and asked what was the story They told me it is in fact illegal to import Prescription drugs to Ireland Anyway all i had to was let them know the company i purchased the pills from and the matter would be closed

Just A warning to eveyone out there dont buy prescription medicines online from countries outside the eec They most likely will be seized by the customs and you will lose your money

Thanks for help