The Minnesota Board of Pharmacy has fined two Bemidji pharmacists thousands of dollars for filling a prescription for painkillers. A St. Cloud man bought the drugs over the Internet and died of an overdose in 2006.
The man's death resulted in a new state law tightening restrictions on Internet prescriptions. Now a Byron, Minn. pharmacy faces a fine of $25,000, and two of its pharmacists will pay thousands in fines because of that new law.
Byron Marketplace Pharmacy filled more than 400 prescriptions a week from a Pennsylvania doctor during three months in 2007.
The executive director of the state Board of Pharmacy, Cody Wiberg, says the fines should serve as a warning to pharmacists and consumers.
"To consumers, this is potentially dangerous, potentially illegal for them," said Wiberg. "For pharmacists it's unethical, clearly now illegal, and pharmacists shouldn't be involved in this."
The new law prohibits pharmacies from filling prescriptions that are not based on legitimate relationships between doctors and patients.