WEB TABLET PUSHERS PUTTING LIVES AT RISK

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PEOPLE who purchase prescription pills from the internet are not only breaking the law – but dicing with death.

The warning from the head of Cumbria Constabulary’s organised crime unit comes as an increase in dealers using the web to facilitate their trade has been noted.

Posing as a buyer, the Evening Mail contacted one purported peddler who was using a popular online forum to advertise his wares to users in the Barrow area.

The dealer, who used the alias Jon Green, claimed he could ship up to 1,000 tablets of the anti-anxiety drug Valium to Barrow using the Royal Mail for just £185.

“I can supply 10mg MSJ Valium by next day recorded delivery and I accept PayPal,” he said. “Prices start at 50 tabs for £25, 100 tabs is £42 (and) 1000 is £185.”

When the Evening Mail emailed the dealer for more details about the proposed transaction, he offered advice cautioning against being taken advantage of by fraudsters.

“You are right to be worried (as) there are a lot of scammers out there who will ask for bank transfer etc then never send you anything,” he said.

“Always use someone who has credible feedback – I can show you plenty of mine.”

Another dealer using the same forum, who used the name HickoryDickory and claimed to be from Kent, said he had 10 boxes of Boots issued “genuine prescribed pills” for sale to users in the Barrow area for £150.

Detective Inspector Mike Brown heads up the Serious and Organised Crime Unit and said the abuse of prescription drugs was a “massive issue” among drug users in Barrow.

He said that in addition to buyers supporting organised crime through such online purchases, they were also putting their health at risk.

“The underlying issue with these is the danger that people face in buying them in that they don’t really know what’s contained in them,” he said.

“A number of years ago we recovered a batch which weren’t actually Valium but were being sold as Valium and the side effects of those tablets were creating a lot of violent crime in Barrow.

“There were a number of major assaults and woundings that were attributed to those drugs. This is the inherent risk of getting something that you don’t know the origins of.”

Illicitly produced pills such as the common Valium variants are not subject to regulation, meaning the dose of the active ingredient can vary widely – if it even exists at all.

Det Insp Brown said there were stiff penalties, including the possibility of significant prison time, for people in the upper echelons of the Class C drug trade.