Some riders on a bus trip to Canada this week said the journeys in search of lower-priced prescription drugs are becoming more of a necessary tradition than a short-term fix to their struggles with rising prices.

That’s because major relief efforts have yet to come to fruition.

Maine’s landmark prescription drug pricing legislation of 2000 remains stalled before the U.S. Supreme Court because of a stiff challenge by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association. And even though some state and manufacturer-sponsored programs are helping some get drugs less expensively, broader federal action isn’t expected soon.

For those reasons, Viola Quirion of Waterville is resigned to making the drug runs to Canada again and again.

Wednesday, Quirion sat in the front row of a bus carrying nearly 40 people to New Brunswick. Together, 24 of the bus riders ultimately found savings of more than $18,000 after which many first-time riders said they’d make the trip again.

As the bus wound north Wednesday on a rainy and foggy Route 9, Quirion talked knowledgeably about pharmaceutical prices and efforts to help seniors afford drugs. Quirion had trundled onto the first bus trip in the 1990s and has been on about six trips since then. Now she knows well the route to a Calais doctor’s office where prescriptions valid in Canada are written and the Canadian roads to the Atlantic Super Store where they are filled.

Early on, Quirion expected that the trips wouldn’t continue to be run because she anticipated action as the media described the trips. Quirion, who had worked for decades at Hathaway Shirt Co., was even featured on a “60 Minutes” segment in which seniors told about the dilemma of rising drug prices and limited retirement income. Some said the trips made them feel like refugees of their own country.

In 2000, Quirion thought the passage by lawmakers of the Maine Rx program would end the trips. The law, which had won support against long odds, would force drug manufacturers to negotiate the prices they charge the uninsured. The negotiated price would have to be in line with the lower prices charged the Department of Veterans Affairs.

But the pharmaceutical industry’s dogged legal challenges have delayed the program. The matter is now stalled in the Supreme Court.

Quirion may not be optimistic about federal changes in the immediate future, but she is defiant that significant action still will come. She notes that as the trips become more common, television stations and newspapers continue to tell the endless stories of seniors forced to choose between buying food, fuel oil or life-saving drugs. The media continues to tell how people in their 70s and 80s pack their bags and pull out their canes for a trip in which they’ll have to spend a night in a foreign country to get lower-cost drugs.

“People have more knowledge about it and I think it’s going to change their vote,” Quirion said.

Reactions along the trail of the latest two-day trip illustrate at every stop that the trips are becoming almost commonplace.

When the bus stopped outside the Calais office of Dr. Laurie C. Churchill seniors got out in the cold rain and went into the office, they were greeted with smiles and a table was laid out with complimentary sandwiches and drinks. Churchill is licensed in Maine and New Brunswick, so the prescriptions she writes and then faxes to New Brunswick are legally valid in Canada.

For nearly three hours she met with the uninsured individuals seeking the lower-priced drugs. Some remarked that Churchill, who reviewed prescriptions from their regular doctors, is much more patient and willing to talk than other physicians they’ve seen.

Later, as the bus stopped at the Canadian Customs office just over the St. Croix River, a young agent was not surprised by a busload of Americans headed to the pharmacy for drugs.

“Save lots of money,” she said with a smile to the passengers as she left the bus.

At the Atlantic Super Store, the bus was met by the store manager and director of pharmacy. Again, tables of complimentary roast beef and other sandwiches, rolls, cookies and sweets were laid out.

The spread was courtesy of a chain store that now brings employees from Saint John to help meet the rush brought by the bus. In just a few hours, the store does business equaling a week’s worth of pharmacy sales, said Greg Hatfield, store manager.

The ongoing publicity has increased the store’s sales to Americans, said pharmacist manager Vaughan McCluskey. Now, people who visit Maine or who are snowbirds visit the pharmacy to refill prescriptions from places such as Florida, Texas and New York. The pharmacy, which is part of a grocery and general merchandise store, fills five to seven mail prescriptions from the United States every day, he said.

Although most of the riders on this trip were senior citizens, Todd Pelletier, 34, came from Bangor to get a drug for his epilepsy. Pelletier, who is employed, has no prescription insurance. After reading about the trip in the newspaper, he discovered he could pay just $111 a month by going to Canada for a drug that costs $240 a month in Maine, he said.

“I think it’s worth it,” he said of the trip.

Drug prices in Canada are negotiated between the government and pharmaceutical manufacturers for everyone in the country.

After the pharmacy stop, the bus unloaded again at the St. Stephen Inn. Almost everyone on board was chatting happily about huge savings and clutching large plastic bags filled with prescriptions.

It’s a regular stop for the bus trips. The members got their rooms, which were paid for by the Maine Council of Senior Citizens, with help from two other organizations. The bus and expenses for the trip came to about $5,000, said John Carr, vice president of the Maine Council of Senior Citizens.

Everyone traveling on the bus had a story. Ray Maiorino, 81, of Falmouth, served as a Marine in World War II and survived battles at places like Iwo Jima, Saipan and Tinian. Maiorino, who has opted so far not to get coverage through the Department of Veterans Affairs, said he and his wife have private insurance. But they already have surpassed the $1,200 drug deductible for 2002. Both saved nearly $2,000 by taking their first bus trip to Canada.

Maiorino, who is retired from Jordan Meats but continues to work delivering cars for auto dealers around Portland, is incensed that the drug companies use the money they make from prescriptions to advertise against efforts to lower drug prices. He said some politicians have tried to make a difference but “the pharmaceutical companies are too damn powerful.”

Asked about the drug industries’ argument that they need to charge the uninsured higher prices to maintain research and development he said it’s “BS.” They get a lot of federal money for research, too, he said.

The next day, after breakfast at the inn’s restaurant, the bus made the short trip to U.S. Customs.

Here many riders had to unload to get their prescriptions out of their bags, which were stored under the bus so they could be searched. Inside the bus, a group of seniors giddily bantered with a younger agent who identified himself as Jim.

Rolande Pelletier, 74, of Arrowsic showed Jim her prescriptions.

“If I don’t have that I don’t breathe and I don’t talk to you,” she said.

“I want you to breathe,” he said. After numerous exchanges with a group of passengers who were always ready for a laugh, some of the comments became more and more off-color. When Jim finally was ready to clear the drug-laden bus to complete its journey he made a closing announcement: “One last thing, keep an eye on that one right there,” he said pointing to Pelletier, who wore a wide grin.

Pelletier’s spirits were buoyed by the knowledge that she saved nearly $1,700 in prescription drugs. She said she talks so much because she lives alone with two dogs and “they don’t talk to me too much.”

Several of the bus riders complained about the length of the trip, which was more than 500 miles for those who got on in southern Maine. But some said they enjoyed the company and laughs as well as the prescription savings.

Gisette Plourde, 70 of Saco said her first trip was well worth the effort. Not only did she save about $500 on a prescription, she also got nearly a year’s worth of samples from Churchill for a heart drug the St. Stephen pharmacy didn’t have.

She had nothing but nice things to say about Churchill, whom she praised for taking so much time to talk with her about her conditions. She said she’d definitely come again.

Meanwhile, another 80 people already have contacted organizer Neena Quirion (no relation to Viola) and are on a waiting list for future trips.