Diet pills website ‘should have been shut down’ a year before student’s death

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/25/diet-pills-website-parry-student-death

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The website believed to have sold diet pills to Eloise Parry, a 21-year-old student who died in April after taking eight of them, should have been shut down a year before her death.

Parry died on 12 April after taking a fatal dose of the pills, which contained 2,4-Dinitrophenol (DNP), an industrial chemical that promises a “quick fix” for rapid weight loss. The website believed to have been used by Parry, which cannot be named for legal reasons, has been shut down, but letters seen by the Observer reveal that concerns were first raised in May 2014, when the Canada-based website registrar, Tucows, was warned that a string of websites registered with the company were operating as illegal online pharmacies – including the site that was to be used by Parry.

The letter was sent as part of Operation Pangea, a programme targeting illicit sale of medicines online, which is coordinated by Interpol and involves hundreds of agencies around the world. Tucows, which took no action over the letter at that time, received several further requests to shut down the site, including letters from Health Canada and the US Food and Drug Administration.

A letter sent by the office of criminal investigations at the FDA on 11 June named Parry and said she “likely received the DNP” from a site registered with Tucows. It went on: “In addition to the correspondence you already received from Health Canada dated June 5, 2015 (attached), we are again asking Tucows to suspend and lock these domain names before any additional people die or become seriously ill.”

Speaking at the inquest into Parry’s death on Thursday, the investigating officer, DS Andy Chatting, said a site believed to have been used by Parry had been closed down, but added that sites “pop up again” in almost identical formats hours later. The inquest heard that Parry had battled with bulimia and her death was “an accidental consequence” of taking the pills. Parry’s GP, Dr Carla Ingram, said she did not believe Eloise was suicidal or addicted, but that she had “no apparent ability” to stop taking DNP.

The court heard that Parry had sent a message to her college lecturer on the morning of her death, saying: “I screwed up big time. Binged/purged all night and took four pills at 4am. Took another four when I woke. Started vomiting soon after. I think I’m going to die. No one is known to survive if they vomit because of DNP. I’m so scared. I’m sorry for being so stupid. Thank you so much for everything, I never deserved it.”

A source who works with US law enforcement agencies said it “took someone dying” before requests for the registrar to investigate and close down the site were taken seriously. As part of its accreditation agreement with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), Tucows must “take reasonable and prompt steps to investigate and respond appropriately to any reports of abuse”.

A spokesman for Tucows told the Observer that there was no clear legal ruling on the matter at the time. Tucows itself had sought the counsel of Health Canada, and “immediately locked the domains down” as soon as it received that advice. “We believe strongly that a domain name registrar should never be put in the position of being that legal authority on matters across industries and jurisdictions,” said the spokesman.

DNP and other dangerous drugs are available widely online. Several websites registered with Tucows and still operating offer products including addictive, prescription-only medicines used for conditions such as insomnia or anxiety, as well as pills offering pain relief and help with weight loss. So-called diet pills – notably sibutramine, which was taken off the market in the UK because of dangerous side effects, and phentermine, which is legal but not in the prescribing guides used by NHS GPs – are available for around £80 for 30 tablets.

DNP, a synthetic chemical used in fertilisers, is not a banned substance, but it is illegal to sell it for human consumption. An attempt earlier this year to ban the possession of DNP failed because the substance did not have any psychoactive properties and so did not fall under existing laws that could make its possession a criminal offence.Fiona Parry, Eloise’s mother, said whether or not DNP should become illegal was something for government departments to discuss, but added: “I would very much like to see much harsher and stiffer penalties for distributing and supplying these substances … At the moment, those who choose to do so feel it is well worth the risk.”