Some online pharmacies have a free live chat feature on their websites. Here, customers can have a one-on-one chat with a live person, who’s supposed to answer questions about the purchasing process.

But the reps only answer some questions--and repeatedly give out vague information. On Sunday February 15, 2009, I chatted with Holly, an online Customer Service rep at www.Online-discount-pharmacy1.com.

The Drug Enforcement Administration’s clampdown on rogue pharmacies has left wholesalers with their backs against the wall. Take the case of Cardinal Health. In the fall of 2007, the agency shut down three of the drug wholesaler’s warehouses and pulled its license for, in part, not notifying authorities of unusual spikes in orders of everything from Botox to Vicodin.

It’s illegal to market human-growth hormone or hGH as an anti-aging treatment. But as I found out, it’s not that difficult to find an online pharmacy willing to sell it to you. Most Web sites even have doctors of their very own to write you the prescription without an office visit.

Of course, this is illegal. Apart from the 2008 Ryan Haight Bill, which specifically prohibits this type of online sale, there are specific FDA restrictions on hGH, as well.

What would sports pages in the U.S. do without Barry Bonds? The disgraced baseball player was in court and in headlines once again this week when the government released its first evidence in its criminal case against Bonds, alleging that he lied to a federal grand jury.