Why should law enforcement
agencies do their own footwork when they can simply threaten others
into doing it for them? Specifically, why should the United States
government trouble itself with enforcing its silly rules against
you and I purchasing our medicine over the Internet when it can
hold package delivery services liable for delivering our orders
from point A to point B. It’s deputization, the hard way, and cargo
delivery giant FedEx is on the receiving end as Uncle Sam looks to
conscript assistance for its prohibition efforts.
According to a
press release from the United States Attorney’s Office from the
Northern District of California, FedEx is delivering drugs. That’s
probably not a shocker, considering the number of sealed packages
the company moves. But just how nefarious is this drug
business?
beginning in approximately 1998, Internet pharmacies began
offering consumers prescription drugs, including controlled
substances, based on the provision of information over the
Internet. While some Internet pharmacies were managed by well-known
pharmacy chains that required valid prescriptions and visits to the
patient’s personal physician, others failed to require a
prescription before filling orders for controlled substances and
prescription drugs. Rather, these Internet pharmacies filled orders
based solely on the completion of an online questionnaire, without
a physical examination, diagnosis, or face-to-face meeting with a
physician. Such practices violated federal and state laws governing
the distribution of prescription drugs and controlled
substances.
Oh noes! Somebody is selling Uncle Bob discount little blue
pills! For shame. And he’s willingly buying them! Shocker.
So…Why the fuck should FedEx care?
As it turns out, the feds say that “as early as 2004, DEA, FDA
and members of Congress” told the delivery company that willing
buyers and sellers were engaging in transactions that make
politicians very, very sad. FedEx apparently established internal
systems for tracking online pharmacies, but shipments still got
through. This makes the feds even sadder, and they insist FedEx has
been “conspiring” to let the packages through.
FedEx says this is all
bullshit. The company insists that, in response to the
government’s crusade to keep Uncle Bob from buying his little blue
pills at a discount, it’s asked the feds for a list of suppliers it
shouldn’t service. The feds haven’t gone beyond the bitching phase
to offer anything helpful.
We have repeatedly requested that the government provide us a
list of online pharmacies engaging in illegal activity.
Whenever DEA provides us a list of pharmacies engaging in illegal
activity, we will turn off shipping for those companies
immediately. So far the government has declined to provide such a
list.
So, what do the feds want FedEx to do? The indictment isn’t
specific, but FedEx hints that the government wants the company to
paw through everything it ships and block the stuff that officials
don’t think people should be allowed to send from place to
place.
FedEx transports more than 10 million packages a day. The
privacy of our customers is essential to the core of our
business. This privacy is now at risk, based on the charges
by the Department of Justice related to the transportation of
prescription medications.We want to be clear what’s at stake here: the government
is suggesting that FedEx assume criminal responsibility for the
legality of the contents of the millions of packages that we pick
up and deliver every day. We are a transportation company –
we are not law enforcement. We have no interest in violating
the privacy of our customers. We continue to stand ready and
willing to support and assist law enforcement. We cannot,
however, do the job of law enforcement ourselves.
Oh, awesome. Instead of government-conducted NSA-style
surveillance of our personal activities, we’ll get coerced
surveillance by a private company. It’s like contracting out an
astoundingly creepy law-enforcement task, but without the actual
contract. Or any compensation.
It’ll probably have interesting consequences for delivery speed,
too.
This is modern, efficient government for you: Arm-twisting
private enterprise into engaging in intrusions that nobody should
be committing, presumably at a cost-savings to the taxpayers being
intruded upon.
For the record, I don’t give a damn if FedEx is transporting
containers of heroin, so long as the shipper and recipient are
happy with the price and speed of delivery.
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