There are other signs the government is serious about cracking down on illegal online pharmacies.
The DOJ said the fine amount is the money UPS collected from suspect online pharmacies.
Ten people with ties to online pharmacies have been convicted over the last two years.
It praised international co-operation between Thailand and the United States, through which online pharmacies were closed.
Currently legal online pharmacies must be registered in each of the 50 states, just like brick-and-mortar outfits.
Online pharmacies and others can thus provide links to such corporate websites, earning referral revenues from the drug companies.
Many spammers align with online pharmacies and direct those who click on links in junk mail to the pedlars of fake pills.
In the shady world of online pharmacies, the rich are getting richer.
In February 2010, as I wrote in a blog post, Google had disclosed a new, tougher stance on advertisements from online pharmacies.
FORBES: Google's $500M Charge Related To Pharma Advertising Probe
The DEA says addicts get the drugs from "doctor shopping, " online pharmacies and other Internet sources, theft from pharmacies and, yes, traditional drug dealers.
Drugfree and the Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies are planning research to find out why one in six Americans have bought drugs from web pharmacies.
Policing drugs trading on the internet is a high priority, said the board, which is urging governments to set up regulatory controls for online pharmacies.
The latest raids in Operation Pangea (an international police campaign against illegal online pharmacies) involved 100 countries and shut down more than 18, 000 online pill-pushers.
But in a Sept. 21, 2010 blog post, Google lawyer Michael Zwibelman wrote that the company has struggled with the problem of online pharmacies for years.
By 2003, big drug makers seeking to protect their U.S. sales shut online pharmacies out of the Canadian supply chain, forcing them to seek supplies elsewhere.
It's not just the online pharmacies who hope Congress will "just say no" to the proposal to federally regulate online pharmacies, issued by the Clinton administration today.
Controlling online pharmacies isn't any easier for the private sector, says Jean-Marc Podvin of Sanofi-Aventis, the manufacturer of drugs like Allegra and Ambien, the drug Marcia Bergeron was attempting to purchase.
But the fact that the same cross section of users now visit online pharmacies at three times last year's rate points to an explosion in the Web's drug trade, MarkMonitor's researchers say.
By driving traffic to drug sales sites with spam e-mails, the more than 7, 000 online pharmacies tracked by the study drew millions of daily visitors and estimated sales in the billions of dollars annually.
Google said in February 2010 it would begin allowing ads only from U.S. pharmacies accredited by the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy and from online pharmacies in Canada that are accredited by the Canadian International Pharmacy Association.
He added that this new regulation could leave online pharmacies in the undesirable position of seeking approval from industry groups populated by traditional drugstores, which have no interest in facilitating online sales until they can get in the game themselves.
Controlling online pharmacies isn't any easier for the private sector, says Jean-Marc Podvin of Sanofi-Aventis (nyse: SNY - news - people ), the manufacturer of drugs like Allegra and Ambien, the drug Marcia Bergeron was attempting to purchase.
"Rogue pharmacies are bad for our users, for legitimate online pharmacies and for the entire e-commerce industry so we are going to keep investing time and money to stop these kinds of harmful practices, " Google lawyer Michael Zwibelman wrote on the company blog at the time.
Also check the cost at online pet pharmacies, such as 1-800-PetMeds, Drs.
The Microsoft spokesman said that in recent years the company has spoken with industry and government officials, including Justice Department representatives, about ways to combat online advertising by illegal pharmacies and changed its practices as a result.
If you buy online, order from one of the 18 sites that belong to Vet-VIPPS accredited pharmacies.
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