PORTLAND – As thousands of Mainers turn to the Internet and mail order to buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, pharmacies around the state are feeling the impact of the lost sales.

Community Pharmacy, a statewide drugstore chain, has lost substantial revenue, making it more difficult for the company to grow or hire more staff, according to pharmacist John McMenamy.

“A lot of people are buying from [Canada] – but you can’t blame them,” said McMenamy, who works at the Gorham location. “If they’re going to save 40 to 50 percent up there, it’s a no-brainer.”

Bangor-based Affiliated Healthcare Systems estimates that just under 5,000 Mainers order Canadian drugs through its nearly 3-year-old “Canada Rx” mail order program, while an unknown number go through larger chains.

One such organization, Rx Savings Center, is establishing itself in Maine, thanks to new agents such as Jim Willey of New Harbor.

Clients give their medical history to Willey, and sign legal papers giving Rx Savings Center permission to fill their prescriptions at a Winnipeg pharmacy and mail them directly to their homes, he says.

“It will save a lot of elderly from having to buy bus tickets to go to Canada,” Willey said.

Even as federal and state agencies across the country crack down on a practice they call illegal and unsafe, an estimated 1 million to 2 million Americans are responding to the rapid rise in drug costs by purchasing Canadian drugs in person or through a third party.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is ramping up warnings about the safety of imported drugs. This month, the Justice Department sought an injunction to close Rx Depot, a chain of storefront operations that help senior citizens buy drugs from Canada.

There is no definitive answer on whether Affiliated Healthcare’s program is violating state law, but federal authorities have known about the program for the last two years and have not taken any action, according to Dennis Smith, an assistant attorney general who works with the state’s pharmacy board.

Affiliated Healthcare Systems, a for-profit subsidiary of Eastern Maine Healthcare, says it has saved millions of dollars for its clients, most of them senior citizens or people without insurance.

The program includes about 206 doctors who are licensed to prescribe in Maine and Canada. Their scripts are faxed to the Canadian pharmacy, Cockburn’s Corner Drug Store in St. Andrews, New Brunswick, and medications are shipped back to Maine.

The pharmaceutical industry’s trade group, Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Research of America, calls such programs a poor substitute for a prescription drug benefit in Medicare or patient assistance and discount programs.