Abbie Boudreau and Scott Zamost
CNN Special Investigations Unit

These pills were sent to CNN's Drew Griffin, even though he was never seen by a doctor.

Editor's Note: Four Emmy nominees for Outstanding Investigative Reporting on a Regularly Scheduled Newscast were announced today. CNN's David Fitzpatrick and Drew Griffith were nominated for their pieces on online prescription drug abuse.

Drew Griffin and David Fitzpatrick
CNN Special Investigations Unit

Every night before he went to bed, he would open a prescription bottle of the muscle relaxant Soma and swallow the 8 or 9 pills his wife says would be the only way he could get to sleep. Only last summer the doses were increasing.

She thought the drugs, arriving at her doorstep every week were being prescribed by a treating physician. Her husband had been in a car accident, suffered from back pain, and Soma was the one drug that could relieve the aches.

She was wrong. Although she wants to protect her husband’s identity and hers so as not to embarrass her husband’s family, she is willing to tell the story of how he died.

She found him last August in bed in a pool of vomit. The cause of death, accidental overdose.

The widow says there is no doubt her husband was an addict. She also says the internet sites that sold him the drugs were his pushers.

"Absolutely” she told CNN. “That's exactly what they are."

"These pharmacy people that are doing this and these doctors that are doing this. They don't give a dag gum about people; it’s just the almighty dollar that’s all it is."

Any drug in the world by clocking a mouse

A CNN investigation into just how easy it is to purchase prescription drugs, online, without a prescription reveals a growing and largely ignored new battle in the war on drug abuse.

Carmen Catizone, the executive director of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy says prescription drugs are the new crack and heroin, and internet sites that sell them are the new drug dealers.

"You can order virtually any drug in the world by simply clicking a mouse and going to various websites that exist out there," Catizone told CNN.

To prove it, a CNN investigative reporter logged on to the internet site linepaharmacy.com, a site that advertises a long list of prescription drugs for sale. The site sent us an email saying "all orders made are still subjected to Doctor's evaluation."

The CNN reporter placed two orders with the site: one for Prozac, the other for the anti-depressant Elavil. A health survey on the site was already filled in. The reporter submitted a credit card and a shipping address.

Within 24 hours the Prozac had arrived at the reporter’s front door. The Elevil arrived two days later. Both prescription bottles had a doctor’s name and pharmacy on the label. The reporter had neither seen a doctor, talked to a doctor on the phone, nor had ever heard of the doctor.

Lawmakers: “Show us the dead bodies”

Catizone insists the purchases made to CNN were illegal. But he says pharmacy laws are subject to individual state control, and though illegal in every state, individual pharmacy boards in the fifty states have virtually no investigative power, budget or resources to shut down the growing number of sites selling drugs over the internet.

The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy has tried to lobby congress, asking form some federal oversight or federal prosecution to stem the tide of the growing, illegal internet pharmacies. But Catizone says legislators gave the board a chilly response.

"Show us the dead bodies, and if that was me or my family that's a pretty sad statement for our legislators to give," Catizone says.

Network of pharmacies and doctors

The internet sites work with a network of small pharmacies inside and outside the U.S. According the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy, unscrupulous doctors are paid to have their names used on the prescriptions, even though the doctors never see the patients or even review the orders.

Nancy Fitzpatrick, a Washington State woman who tried to commit suicide with internet purchased drugs showed CNN her prescription of Soma which was delivered by a pharmacy in American Forks, Utah and prescribed by a doctor in Long island, New York. Fitzpatrick, the sister of a CNN investigative producer, says she had no contact with the doctor or the pharmacy.

The doctor, Dr. Kareem Tannous, lives in a $4 million dollar estate on Long Island and runs three health clinics. When confronted about the prescription’s in front of his Valley Stream, NY clinic, Tannous hustled to his car and drove off without answering a single question.

Workers inside Roots Pharmacy in American Forks, Utah also refused to answer questions. The second story office in the small foothill town has a bolted security door, closed circuit security cameras. The workers inside refused to even open the door or provide the name of the owner.

In the reception area on the first floor, dozens of boxes of empty FedEx envelopes were waiting to be filled. And with CNN cameras rolling, one of the workers emptied a large clear plastic trash bag filled with empty wholesale prescription drug bottles. Most of the containers were labeled Carisoprodol, the generic name of the muscle relaxant Soma.

"They need to be stopped,” Fitzpatrick says. “It just boggles my mind that it's so simple."

Editor's note: Read a report on this investigation at CNN.com/health, and check out CNN producer David Fitzpatrick's blog on how online drugs affected his family.

Program note: Watch for Drew Griffin's report on Thursday's AC360° at 10p ET

Drew Griffin and Kathleen Johnston
CNN's Special Investigations Unit

(CNN) - When the Democratic National Committee meets Saturday on the thorny issue of seating the Florida and Michigan delegations at its August convention, party officials will have to fashion a solution that satisfies supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton and presidential nominee front-runner Sen. Barack Obama.

It may take a Solomon-like decision to appease both candidates.

Clinton has argued that the primary results of two of the nation's largest states should count because, otherwise, millions of voters are being disenfranchised. Obama has said he is willing to work out some compromise.

FULL STORY

Abbie Boudreau is a correspondent for CNN Special Investigations Unit.

By Abbie Boudreau
Correspondent, CNN Special Investigations Unit

It was toward the end of the day, and my producer, Scott Zamost and I were scrolling through story tips from CNN viewers.

There was one that jumped out at us.  It read, “Please, help me,” and the subject line said, “YouTube Video of Crying 16-year-old Rape Victim Pleas for Help.”  There was a link to a video posted on YouTube by a Florida girl.

Right away, we watched the video, and the first thing we thought was, "Can this be real?"

Within minutes, we contacted the young girl, Crystal. We talked at length with both Crystal and her father, Dennis. Quickly, we learned this girl was real, and she had a real story she wanted to share.

Two days later, we flew to Florida to meet Crystal and to learn more about why she posted a video about her most private moments, for the world to see and judge.

She told us she felt she had nothing to lose, and she was desperate to find someone who would listen to her story.

Crystal may be one of the first to post a video like this on YouTube, but she is also among a growing number of young girls who talk about their most private experiences online to perfect strangers.
 
Experts say the reason more girls are detailing their lives on the Internet is because they are desperate, and in many cases, they feel it’s the only way to seek justice and make people listen - when most people in their lives don’t seem to care.

The Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network, or RAINN, says this new trend can be very dangerous, considering potential online predators that could be trolling the Web, looking to re-victimize these young girls.

I wonder how big of a deal it is for people to reveal their deepest, darkest secrets to strangers online. 

I mean, in Crystal's case, her plea for help seemed to work.

She got our attention, and as a result, she is now seeking professional help for her depression and anxiety.

But do these cases always have happy endings? And also, maybe we should ask ourselves what the world is coming to when teenagers resort to posting videos on YouTube to find the help they need.

Read the full story

It started with an e-mail. In fact, it was the last of more than 600 e-mails CNN received in the wake of the Northern Illinois University shootings on Valentine’s Day. But this one stood out to me.

A frustrated and clearly anguished mother of a teenager was telling us she could relate to the massacre. That’s because her own son planned a school shooting when he was a high school junior in Idaho.

I immediately contacted Elaine Sonnen and spoke to her for at least an hour. I was immediately fascinated by her story - she saw the warning signs in her son, Richard, and was able to stop him from killing his classmates. But she still worried that he could be violent if he stopped taking his medication.

Still, there was little she could do because he was now over 18 and living on his own. She wanted to talk, but we knew the story would not be complete without hearing from Richard himself.

“Do you think he would talk to us?” I asked her. She agreed to call him and find out.

Within minutes, Richard was calling me to find out what the story was about. He told me he was interested in talking to me about his past, with the hope that other people his age could learn from his story.

This is one part of our hour-long Special Investigations Unit documentary, “Campus Rage.”

I also investigate a case where a senior in college is threatening suicide. He's depressed, he's stopped going to class and told a friend he bought a gun. The university found out about this troubled student but what happened next is being called into question.

Here’s a question for you: If a college finds out one of its students is depressed and is a threat to himself or others - do you think the college has the responsibility to share that information with that students’ parents? Or do you think the school should respect a student’s privacy and leave the parents out of the picture?  What do you think?

Watch a preview of the show

- Abbie Boudreau, Correspondent/CNN Special Investigations Unit

Program note: How do you stop a killer bent on revenge? Nearly a year after the Virginia Tech massacre, an all new CNN Special Investigations Unit examines the warning signs this weekend in "Campus Rage." Watch Friday and Saturday at 8p ET.