How can I test mail-order medications for purity?
I don’t know a way to test them yourself, but if you’re just looking for peace of mind that you’re getting real and correct meds, this might help. I recently read this blurb on the Terra Sigillata blog: If you’re willing to spend a few bucks, an independent consumer rating subscription service called PharmacyChecker.com is a reputable resource for buying drugs from Canada or other online pharmacies. Established by the founder of the dietary supplement rating service, ConsumerLab.com, PharmacyChecker provides detailed information on licensure and 40 other characteristics they have verified regarding specific site (ficitious sample evaluation of TrustWorthyPharmacy.com and DubiousPharmacy.com are illustrated here). A 90-day trial subscription is $15 but it seems that the 12-month membership for $19.95 is the better deal. (Disclosure: I have no fin
Seems like the only really good way to tell what you’ve got would be to use a mass spectrometer, and those aren’t exactly cheap. I’d say maybe you could ask around at the local university and see if perhaps you could find a professor who’d run an analysis for you, but these days I doubt you’d find anyone willing, because of the obvious liability problems. Unless you know someone personally who’d be willing to do it on the down low, that’s probably not going to happen. (And I’d never recommend that you ask, because it would probably mean them risking their job.) Any sort of test you can easily perform, can also be easily performed by the people making the counterfeits. E.g., I’m sure they have copies of the PDR and can fake things like the density, solubility, pH, etc. Definitely a tough problem.
