Illegal Internet sales of prescription-free drugs is a thriving business, despite efforts by federal and state agencies to control it, a study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) revealed.

The “You've Got Drugs!” V: Prescription Drug Publishers on the Internet” report found that 80 percent of Web sites selling drugs such as OxyContin and Valium, Xanax and Vicodin, as well as Ritalin and Adderall didn't require prescription.

Out of 385 Web sites advertising or selling controlled prescription drugs this year, compared to 581 in 2007, only 2 were certified by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy as Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites, a number which remained unchanged since last year.

The decline in the number of Web sites advertising or selling controlled prescription drugs reflects efforts of federal and state agencies and financial institutions to crack down on Internet drug trafficking, as Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA’s Chairman and President and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare pointed out.

However, he added, the problem that should concern us the most is the fact that anyone can get their hands on all sorts of drugs, which normally should be taken under doctor's orders, and even children can be exposed to dangerous and addictive drugs that they can purchase without prescription.

Even those sites that require prescription are easily exposed to fraud, the study finds, as half of them allow prescriptions to be faxed, giving the perfect opportunity to purchase drugs under false pretexts.

Furthermore, drugs such as Benzodiazepines (Xanax, Valium) are very popular, being offered by 90 percent of the sites, together with Vicodin, OxyContin, sold by 57 percent of the sites. Stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall are being sold by 27 percent of the sites.

In order to prevent these alarming statistics from repeating themselves, CASA recommended Internet search engines to block advertisements for controlled prescription drugs that do not come from licensed and certified pharmacies, and at the same time urged for more drastic measures to be taken in order to shut down Internet trafficking of controlled prescription drugs.