without a prescription

The Louisiana Legislature proposed making coerced abortion a crime, and as the bill moved through the legislative body, lawmakers added provisions making abortion drugs “controlled substances” under state law and rendering it illegal for anyone but pregnant women using the pills to possess them without a prescription.

It is illegal to sell semagultide without a prescription, but drugs can be bought privately, including at supermarkets, chemists and high-street clinics, with pens costing between £200 and £300.

After the first self-administered injection of what was told was semaglutide - diabetes medication which is illegal to sell without a prescription - she started vomiting and feeling dizzy and sick.

In the year to September 2024, there were 130 instances of someone trying to buy medicines illegal to posses without a prescription and instead receiving substances contaminated with nitazenes.

A BBC investigation in November 2023 found online sellers offering semaglutide as a medicine, without a prescription.