GOP Leaders cave in: Americans will be able to import drugs from Canada

[ck4829]

House Republican leaders agreed to allow individuals to buy prescription drugs from Canada to take advantage of the country's lower prices, said Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.), who has been a leading House advocate for what is called reimportation.

House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) agreed to add the measure to a Homeland Security spending bill, Emerson said Thursday. Pharmacies and other businesses wouldn't be allowed to buy the drugs.

"I'm pleased we came to an agreement," Emerson said. "This is our compromise, not leadership's."

Emerson said she was told of the agreement by Rep. Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican who heads the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee. The effect would be that U.S. border inspectors would no longer intercept medicine purchased for personal use.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0609220218sep22,1,456147.story?coll=chi-business-hed

[PATRICK]

1. Personal use

Then the practice of stockpiling and buying for friends is what will be forbidden as well? This is a very, very odd populist exception is a reluctant victory and possibly, if the Congress wasn't so ineffectual and cheap itself, still contains the means to chip away at the traffic in Canadian drugs if they step up enforcement and required documentation. At the same time a trip across the border will become very expensive with passports and the rise of the Canadian dollar- which is not completely coincidental to American business interests in this case?

Just wondering.

[rodeodance]

2. so, now inspectors can get back to really protecting the borders and

people will have more money in their pockets (as bush always says about his tax cuts)

[hobbit709]

3. I found it interesting

when I started getting my meds from the VA, that two out of the five I'm on were made in Canada.
Evidently the VA was buying them from Canada for the same reason-it was cheaper.

[leesa]

4. Going for the elderly vote, eh?

[AnnInLa]

5. Oddly enough, Repuke Vitter of Louisiana

pushed this as part of a previous campaign promise. HOWEVER, this just prohibits custom officials from seizing small peronal amounts from US citizens who have crossed the border personally. It does NOT lift the ban on ordering via internet or mail from CA pharmacies. Vitter said he will keep pushing for the extras, but I think he cut a deal, and won't be pushing very hard, as long as he "scored" the easy part.

[Flubadubya]

6. A caveat not mentioned in the article...

I heard about this yesterday on the Lou Dobbs' show. It said that Americans will be able to go into Canada and bring back up to a 90-day supply of drugs without penalty or confiscation....

***** BUT *****

in general, American citizens will NOT be able to purchase drugs from Canada from the internet.

In other words, if you are lucky enough to live near the Canadian border, you're all set. If you live too far from the Canadian border to make it worth your travel, you're screwed.

This is not a very egalitarian law. So, to me it SUCKS big time.