In 2011, Google paid $500 million after settling a prescription drug case with the US Justice Department in which they were caught illegally buying ads for human growth hormones and steroids for their search pages in the US. But, like Diddy said: mo' money, mo' problems. Mississippi state Attorney General Jim Hood has accused Google of again failing to take off search results that contain links to purchase prescription drugs without the all-important prescription.
"On every check we have made, Google’s search engine gave us easy access to illegal goods including websites which offer dangerous drugs without a prescription," says Hood. "This behavior means that Google is putting consumers at risk and facilitating wrongdoing, all while profiting handsomely from illegal behavior."
With 20-percent of Americans over the age of 12 having admitted to abusing prescription drugs, Google's failure to act in this department, if true, means they are leaving a door open for many people to continue fueling their addictions. But the next question would be: how much responsibility should Google be held accountable for? They are a search engine, after all. Yet, they have the power to censor, like they do for Neo Nazi search results in Germany and France, so it's within their grasp to do so for prescription drugs. As of now, it's just a matter of not wanting to.
