Counterfeit prescription drug trade: $75 billion (60 Minutes)

By Sanjay Gupta for CBC's 60 minutes, March 12, 2011
(CBS News) There is a new front in the war on drugs, and it's not the kind of drugs you might think. We're not talking about cocaine, heroin or methamphetamines. This is about drugs that could wind up in your medicine cabinet: counterfeit prescription drugs, made with cheaper - sometimes even dangerous - ingredients such as highway paint, floor wax, and boric acid.

Criminal counterfeiters will go to any length to evade detection. We found a shadowy network of criminals with made-up names, constantly changing locations and lots and lots of money: an estimated $75 billion a year
Just in case you think the world is slipping out of control...try taking in this story based on another fraudulent operation, only this time under the guise of 'respected' pharmaceutical labels.
Who knows now whether or not the little pills sitting in the medicine cabinet contain substances that could seriously injure or even kill any person who innocently takes them? Really, no one knows. Your doctor cannot know; your pharmacist cannot know; and only when those drugs have been submitted to critical scrutiny in a laboratory can anyone really determine if they are safe. And such a submission of all the drugs in all the medicime cabinets is just not going to happen.
Just what we all wanted to learn as we begin our week on a Monday morning!