Rx from Canada

If you are among the many Mainers who get their prescription drugs from Canada, don’t worry about reports of increasing seizures by U.S. Customs. Canadian pharmacies that send mail orders to the United States expect seizures from time to time. If a package doesn’t reach the customer, the pharmacy simply sends a replacement at no additional charge.

Many of the shipments are in unmarked packages, so customs inspectors have no way of knowing whether they contain prescription drugs. Seizures thus are made when routine sampling happens to turn up a drug package.

With U.S. drug prices rising steadily, and with widespread confusion and dissatisfaction with the new Medicare Plan D drug plans, Americans have turned to Canada, where a flourishing supply system has developed. Canadian prices are often only half what U.S. pharmacies charge. For example, 90 20-milligram tablets of Lipitor, a popular cholesterol-reducing remedy, cost $336 at a Wal-Mart pharmacy in this country but only $164 at the MedCenter Canada pharmacy in British Columbia.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration calls this trade almost entirely illegal, citing “safety risks,” unapproved labeling and packaging, and uncertainty as to quality and origin. But resistance to the FDA’s strictures is on the increase, most recently by Montgomery County in Maryland. The county executive has filed a lawsuit claiming that the agency unfairly barred it from importing lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada for its employees.

Canadian authorities seem quite aware of possible hazards in the prescription-drug market. The Canadian Council of Better Business Bureaus warns that some online pharmacies offer to diagnose a patient and prescribe medication, while some others require no type of prescription. The council urges customers to trade only where pharmacies require prescriptions by the customers’ own doctors.

In selecting a Canadian online pharmacy, a customer may find help at PharmacyChecker.com, which evaluates pharmacies and compares drug prices. Another source is the Canadian International Pharmacy Association, at http://www.ciparx.ca/, which evaluates and certifies Canadian pharmacies.

A 2003 study by the Illinois Office of Special Advocate for Prescription Drugs concluded that Canada’s manufacturing and regulatory system is comparable to the U.S. system. And a 2004 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that prescription drugs it ordered from Canadian Internet pharmacies were correctly formulated, packaged and delivered.

The Bush administration, instead of trying to obstruct the Canadian imports, should be helping Americans find reliable sources for the cheapest drugs available. After all, that’s what globalism and free trade are all about.