Blog Articles

Most countries have regulatory authorities like the Food and Drug Administration that monitor and establish rules around food, drugs, dietary supplements, and more. These agencies have their own complex laws and regulatory standards, and they often vary substantially. What may be a legal, unregulated ingredient in one country is a prescription drug in another, and…

  Later this month, LegitScript will officially begin the initial phase of our certification program for drug and alcohol addiction treatment providers. This aligns with the timing of Google’s implementation of its advertising policy around addiction services; advertisers with LegitScript certification will be able to request certification with Google starting later this month.   Over…

A UK man was sentenced last week to seven years in prison for the death of a woman to whom he sold the industrial chemical 2,4-dinitrophenol (DNP), a compound abused by bodybuilders and other people for weight-loss purposes. Bernard Rebelo, now 31, was convicted of manslaughter after 21-year-old Eloise Parry, also from the UK, died…

This week, the Center for Safe Internet Pharmacies (CSIP) released a report prepared by LegitScript on the state of opioids sales on the dark web. This months-long survey looked at the way in which drugs, in particular opioids, are sold on the dark web and to what extent this secretive portion of the internet is…

Tobacco use among youth in the US is down, but e-cigarettes still pose the greatest challenge to reducing nicotine consumption among middle and high schoolers. These are the findings of the 2017 National Youth Tobacco Survey, released this month by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the US Food and Drug Administration…

In April, the US Senate introduced the SARMs Control Act of 2018, which would empower the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to regulate selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs) as an extension of the Designer Anabolic Steroids Control Act of 2014. Few people understand what SARMs are, and even fewer know how to spot them. This becomes…

The US Food and Drug Administration recently issued warning letters to three businesses marketing and distributing kratom for making unproven claims about their products on their websites and social media, including the claim it can help in the treatment of opioid addiction and withdrawal. These claims make the products unapproved new drugs sold in violation…

The US House of Representatives voted this week to repeal parts of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the 2010 legislation that brought significant changes to financial regulation in the United States after the Great Recession. Because Dodd-Frank led to the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), payment facilitators and…

A search of “Apetamin” online yields pages of results of websites selling brown bottles with bright orange labels. Many search results include social media accounts showing full-body selfies of women who attribute their curves to this “weight gain syrup.” But Apetamin is not a harmless vitamin supplement as payment facilitators might think – it’s a…

  Last month, LegitScript launched a new certification program for drug and alcohol addiction treatment providers aimed at reducing the influence of opportunistic providers that have been cashing in on patients’ recovery efforts and insurance billing opportunities. The program is also an opportunity for legitimate providers that are certified and monitored by LegitScript to advertise…

  Payment facilitators typically prohibit merchants selling firearms because of card brand rules, and because the complex web of jurisdictional laws in the US makes it difficult to track the legality of weapon purchases. Despite this prohibition, some merchants try to skirt the terms and conditions of payment processors by selling firearms that aren’t technically…

The abuse of prescription drugs is a complex, multifaceted problem that can’t be solved alone by government agencies, pharmaceutical companies, advocacy organizations, groups of industry professionals, or members of the public. But it can be solved by the combined efforts of all of these. National Prescription Drug Take Back Day not only highlights the action…

I’m pleased to announce that today, LegitScript is launching a certification program for drug and alcohol addiction treatment providers. I’m also pleased to share that Google, also today, announced that starting in July, all drug and alcohol addiction treatment providers in the United States that wish to advertise on Google AdWords will be required to…

With the gaining momentum of the alt-right movement over the past few years, the US and other Western countries have seen an increase in hate groups and other extremist organizations that frequently operate and organize through the internet. Although the First Amendment of the US Constitution offers broad protections for speech, card brands, payment facilitators,…

Would you like instant access to thousands of movies, premium TV channels, and pay-per-view content for a low monthly subscription fee, or even for free? These are two examples of the promises that providers of Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) make to consumers to entice them to purchase their products. However, merchants who offer unauthorized IPTV…