Everyone knows that the interwebs are the place to score pharmaceutical dope of all stripes. Whether you're hooked on Oxy, Xanax, or Cialis, there's an online pharmacy at your dispoal, willing to deliver the goods 24/7 even if you don't have a valid prescription. And you never have to put up with that irritating drug dealer "I'll be there when I get there" attitude. Oh, and they'll take credit cards. These sites have been accused of fraud and been scapegoated for many a teenage overdose, but none of that bad PR has managed to put a dent on this thriving industry. At least, not up until now.

The online prescription drug business somehow managed to piss off the Lords of teh Google Empire, despite the fact that their ads have been showing up everywhere for years. We'll never know what prompted Google's decision to sue a handful of so-called "rouge pharmacies", but the official records indicate that the miscreants from Mountain View are simply fed up with repeated violations of their advertising policies.

But there's more to it than that. The Google blog issued the following statement, which can be reasonably construed as a threat: "Litigation of this kind should act as a serious deterrent to anyone thinking about circumventing our policies to advertise illegally on Google. As we identify additional bad actors, we will add them to the lawsuit." In other words, Google is trying to make an example of these folks in the hopes of discouraging others from manipulating AdWords for quasi-nefarious purposes.
Now the question remains as to why Google decided to suddenly get fierce over something that's a routine part of the daily interweb experience. That answer probably lies within the DOJ, which recently decided to care about illegal prescription drug sales. I'm not saying that the DEA put Google up to this; the company has been involved in similar lawsuits before. But maybe this has something to do with all those data requests the government's been putting in lately.

Odds are Google will win the lawsuit and that symbolic victory won't change a damn thing. No one's going to stop selling Vicodin online. It's too easy and it's insanely profitable. So, Google can stab the spammers with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast......