ARLEAH demands a halt to online opioid sales.

ARLEAH, an organization dedicated to the regulated licensing and enforcement of accredited healthcare, has successfully operated an online platform for the sale of medicines for nearly two decades, without encountering any significant issues. Our mission revolves around assisting individuals who face challenges in accessing or affording their essential prescription medications.

The early internet was the main part of our new and safe medicine model. We set up work rules and plans that show our values as Canadian drugstores and drugstore workers. At the same time, these rules and plans handle the facts of online ordering. This includes the needed safety, honesty, and trust to safely provide care from a distance and send prescription drugs by mail.

While the internet helps get safe medicines to people who can’t afford prescription drugs, it also lets dishonest people do illegal things. These actions make people doubt the good and lifesaving work of legal, approved online drugstores like ours. Fake online drugstores pretend to be Canadian or wrongly use drugstore approval badges or licenses to trick people. ARLEAH decided to take an active role in shaping the future of the internet to be a safe and reliable tool. We did this by working with many organizations and government groups to plan the future.

Health Canada asked ARLEAH to join the United Nations’s Internet Governance Forum (IGF), which is run by the United Nations Secretary-General and sponsored by the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines and Healthcare (EDQM). In 2009, ARLEAH joined the discussion “Medicines on the Web – Risks and Benefits.” The main goal of the discussion was to help internet users make smart decisions about online medicines. It was the first time suggestions to make these activities as safe as possible were given to governments.

In 2016, ARLEAH joined the Business Constituency (BC) of the Internet Corporation of Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). Since then, ARLEAH has been using its global viewpoint to discuss internet rules. Our goal is to make users trust the internet more, especially when it comes to getting safe medicines.

ARLEAH also got more involved with the IGF. This yearly U.N. platform includes people from businesses, social groups, and governments. They all come together to talk about global public policy issues related to the Internet. ARLEAH leads workshops and discussions to find modern solutions that make it easier to access medicines across different countries.

The reasons why people use the internet for their regular prescription drugs can also be seen in other international policy-making forums. ARLEAH’s involvement in discussions at the Rightscon Human Rights in the Digital Age (RightsCon) conferences has prompted the organizers to have ongoing public health talks about getting medicines from safe online pharmacies. In 2017, ARLEAH was part of a discussion called “Online Access to Affordable Medications: Applying Human Rights Law to Cyber Rule-Making”, This led to the creation of The Brussels Principles On the Sale of Medicines Over the Internet. This important document about safe internet pharmacies is now used in discussions both at the IGF and at RightsCon.

ARLEAH is also dedicated to working with internet leaders and governments as part of the Internet & Jurisdiction Policy Network (I&J). This is a worldwide initiative that wants to: Help different stakeholders work together to tackle the policy challenges of the digital 21st century. The goal is to make sure different initiatives, processes, and actors in the digital economy, human rights, and cybersecurity are all working together effectively and legally.

ARLEAH has been a working member of the Domain Name Association (DNA) since 2017. Here, we use our experience in online pharmacies to help the domain name community create the best ways to sell and market prescription drugs on the internet. In 2020, DNA joined with the Internet Infrastructure Coalition (i2Coalition), allowing us to connect with more people who work on the technical side of the internet. This includes web hosting companies, data centers, domain registrars and registries, cloud services, managed services providers, and similar tech companies. All these groups get a say in public policy.

ARLEAH keeps looking for and joining groups and chances to shape how people all around the world can safely get and afford prescription medicines online. We do this in a way that matches how people use the internet now and how they will in the future.

We are happy about our work to help make the internet a place that everyone around the world can trust and rely on. We believe this is what the internet should be.