Do you shop the Internet for drugs? Know the source or you could be dead.

In recent times, the Kansas City area has seen a deadly and scandalous scenario involving a millionaire pharmacy operator who diluted cancer-treating drugs at high profit to himself and at great harm to his customers.

Here was a smooth, glib, trusted operator in whom people invested their faith only to be harmed, sometimes fatally. Many were shocked that such morally corrupt activity would be fomented by someone with whom many patients had firsthand contact.

This was a man who knowingly courted disaster for profit and did it with a friendly face that heightened the betrayal of trust in his status.

That kind of one-on-one tragedy being the case, why would anyone trust the various drug and substance pitches by totally unknown sources on the Internet? It is bad enough that people get done in by somebody they think they know. Imagine the harm and deceit that can be wrought by the faceless Internet.

If you are not conversant with the Internet, e-mail and such, have some of your friends and family tell you about the constant flood of pitches for various substances. No need to worry about a prescription, we are told. Put yourself in our hands and you’ll get what you need at less cost. Recently, Melissa Healy wrote in the Los Angeles Times:

“Along the Internet’s Main Street — and its various side streets and alleys — they are everywhere, promising easy access to the pills that pump you up, chill you out, slim you down and shift your sex drive into overdrive. They are, to some Americans, a medicine chest of fun, purveyors of all the stuff that addicts need and the adventurous want to try but are afraid to request from their doctor.

“Too shy to ask for Viagra? Worn out your welcome cadging pain-pill prescriptions from local doctors? No problem: There they are, these denizens of the Internet, relentlessly spamming America. … These are not the online pharmacies of the large chain stores or the cyber arms of legitimate retail pharmacies, although it is sometimes hard to recognize the difference. These are the Internet’s ‘rogue pharmacies’ and they have prompted wonderment from consumers, frustration from state and federal authorities and worry from the medical profession.”

Do these offerings come from legitimate laboratories or from some dirty, rat-infested back rooms in Mexico, Thailand, India? It is impossible to track down them all.

Medical authorities are at a loss on how to deal with such crooks who have the potential to do so much harm. State and federal officials are also at a loss. And as long as these hucksters are making such enormous profits, the onslaughts will continue.

There are legitimate entrepreneurs operating in the drug and compound field via the Internet. But seldom has there been a better reason for potential customers to exercise the old bit about “Let the buyer beware.”

Because what you don’t know could kill you.