Austin Skeptical Society

I didn’t cover this Mansfield, Texas woman’s DIY botox insanity in length when it first became news (though it it did find its way into one of my link-dumps), but there’s some great news: she’s been shut down.

WIRED magazine covered both stories, and did a good job of explaining why self-injecting a toxin is a very bad idea.

These sites are brazenly circumventing regulations that protect consumers from bad or fake drugs and ensure that the chemicals are used correctly. The laws were designed precisely to prevent Americans with little to no medical training from doing things like buying a form of toxin, mixing it with saline and injecting it into their faces.

The web site’s proprieter had a host of made-up credentials, of course, something we’ve come to expect from woo-pushers of all sorts.

The domain’s registration details are private, but medspacanada.com, which refers back to discountmedspa.com, is registered to Cristie Stone, with the same phone number and e-mail address listed on discountmedspa’s website. The physical address listed for medspacanada.com is the home of the Manitoba Society of Pharmacists, which has no record of Stone.

“Not only is Christie [sic] Stone not a member or the Society, I can honestly say that I have never heard her name before,” wrote Jill Ell, executive director of the society, in an e-mail to Wired.com.

…

“Laurie belongs to the Texas Medical Council and is licensed to sell these products to the women that want to use them and understand that it is their responsibility to use them safely,” she wrote.

Wired Science could not find an organization called the Texas Medical Council. It does not maintain a website and has not been mentioned in the press. A representative for the Texas Department of State Health Services had never heard of it.

In any case, after WIRED managed to order and acquire a case of the toxin without even a hint of the word “prescription,” the Texas Attorney General’s office got wind of her and took the necessary steps to shut her down.

D’Alleva faces civil penalties of $25,000 per violation per day for each time she broke the rules for selling prescription drugs under the Texas Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. In a post to the website, she claimed to have more than 2,000 customers.

In any case, this was some good work by WIRED, the Texas Department of State Health Services, and the Texas Attorney General’s office. I’m glad to see one fewer pseudo-doctor practicing in Texas, and hope to see the trend continue.