VICTORIA — Pills bought on the Internet appear to have killed a 57-year-old woman on Vancouver Island, regional coroner Rose Stanton said Tuesday.
She said the woman, who lived in the Campbell River area, bought a sedative not legally sold in Canada and which has been linked to overdose deaths in other countries.
The woman also bought an anti-anxiety medication that's sold in Canada only with a doctor's prescription, Ms. Stanton said.
The coroners service and RCMP are still investigating the exact cause of the woman's death, but preliminary results suggest poisoning.
“We are trying to get more information from her computer to see if we can find out what she thought she was getting,” Ms. Stanton said.
She said some of the pills also contained heavy metals that can pose a serious health risk.
The coroners service says the pills were bought through a health-related website belonging to a group of companies that change websites and Internet addresses every three or four days.
“These fake sites look very realistic,” Ms. Stanton said.
“They would fool a lot of people. And they mention the names of organization and companies that don't exist.”
The coroners service is warning people about the dangers of buying medications online from an unknown company.
It said if anyone is uncertain about a drug they've bought over the Internet they should take it in its original packaging to a pharmacy for proper disposal.
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