Is Buying Canadian Prescriptions A Crime?
51049
Health & Fitness
Oct 25, 2007
acbuddy
Is Buying Canadian Prescriptions A Crime?
Americans have begun buying their prescription drugs online from internet pharmacies based in Canada. If you've ever looked at some of these Canadian drug websites, you may have noticed that many of the drugs are 80% cheaper in Canada then they are in the United States, which begs several questions. Firstly, Canadians pay fantastically less for the same medicines than Americans because the Canadian government stipulates a price ceiling at which they allow drug manufacturers to sell to Canadian drug distributors, and the government also controls the prices at which Canadian distributors can then sell those drugs to the public. So, the pharmaceutical industry is tightly regulated and price controlled by the Canadian government, resulting in very cheap, very affordable prescription drugs. This socialized system for prescription drugs is not anywhere to be found in the United States. In the U.S., drug companies are allowed to sell medicines to the public at whatever prices the market can bear. Isn't that nice? We live in a country so free that our drug companies can charge us $350 for 20 tablets of Viagra or Cialis, whereas in Canada you can get it for $90. As a result of these enormous price discrepancies, internet pharmaceutical suppliers in Canada have launched extensive marketing campaigns targeted at the U.S. to capitalize on the American demand for affordable prescriptions. Visit any search engine and type in the words "Canada drugs" or simply type in the name of any prescription drug you can think of, and you'll find a ton of Canadian-themed sponsored links for online pharmacies based in Canada selling drugs that are so cheap it makes your eyes pop. But is this legal? According to the FDA, the importation or re-importation of drugs into this country from a foreign source is against the law. Simply put, it is technically illegal to buy drugs from Canada that were either manufactured in Canada or manufactured in the United States and then sold to Canadian distributors. Is this dumb? Absolutely. The FDA says that they can't guarantee the "quality" of the drugs from Canada, that these drugs might be dangerous, that they might have been poorly manufactured or improperly formulated, or manufactured in facilities in Southeast Asia. So, the FDA is dismissing the idea of allowing Americans to legally purchase drugs from Canada because the products might have been made in a bathtub in Cambodia, because I suppose Canadians are too dumb to make this stuff on their own. This is an absurd excuse on the part of the FDA. The FDA could regulate the Canadian pharmaceutical trade, and investigate as to which Canadian pharmacies, online or offline, are making the drugs themselves and/or buying the drugs directly from American drug manufacturers, as opposed to those that are making them in foreign countries. Most of the drugs sold by Canadian internet pharmacies are drugs that were made in the USA, and have simply been sold to Canadian distributors. Some of these drugs are manufactured by Canadian manufacturers. But rather than publish a buyers guide for Americans and allowing us to buy our drugs from "certified Canadian pharmacies", they make the whole practice illegal to increase the profitability of the American drug industry. Yes, it is true that there are some rogue companies on the internet masquerading as Canadian pharmacies that are actually Mexican pharmacies that don't even have a doctor and pharmacist review your medical history before sending you the medicine. But the FDA could easily set up a legal Canadian-American drug trade where the FDA makes it legal for Americans to buy their drugs from a select group of Canadian pharmacies that buy all their products directly from the U.S. or manufacture their drugs in the facilities of Canada's major drug companies. This isn't likely to happen, however, because we have an administration in Washington that is for the corporations and by the corporations, and an FDA whose sole purpose is to protect the windfall profits of the drug manufacturers while allowing drug companies to make and sell hugely overpriced, noxious drugs that kill us, like Vioxx and others they've allowed onto the market that produce harmful and sometimes lethal side effects. If the FDA sponsored a system of legal and regulated prescription drug buying from Canada, this would force American pharmaceutical companies to drop their prices by 80% to compete, resulting in a better situation for the consumer. The drug companies would still make profits, because the demand for the drugs would go up tremendously if they suddenly became affordable for people without health insurance, but the profits wouldn't quite be the same. For the time being, Americans will continue to have to choose between buying food for their family or buying health insurance they can't afford that hardly covers the costs of the drugs they can't buy.
Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make an HTML form
send email to acbuddy
Write a Review
Add to My Favorite
Refer it to Friend
Report Article
Other links owned by this user
Lexapro has been widely heralded as an effective medication for treating depression, but it presents a number of adverse side effects
Category:
If you thought you could never lose money by investing in bonds, think again
Category:
Find out why XQuery will become more important as alternative computer platforms become more popular
Category:
Canadian drugs are unbelievably cheap, but is it legal to buy a prescription from a Canadian based pharmacy?
Category:
If you are about to buy life insurance but do not know the first thing about it, here is a quick introduction
Category:
If you have a website, establishing an affiliate program might be the key to successfully promoting your business without spending money on advertising
Category:
Even though Lipitor is FDA approved, recent research suggests that its use poses dangerous long-term health consequences
Category:
There is a right way and a wrong to launch a website, here are the steps you should follow for marketing your online business
Category:
Try not to fall prey to these online investment scams that have bilked investors out of millions of dollars
Category:
Tamiflu is a reliable alternative to the flu vaccine for those who can not obtain flu shots, and may even help fight the bird flu
Category:
Lexapro has become a popular antidepressant, but the side effects it produces has medical professionals questioning its safety
Category:
Research suggests that the short-term beneifts of taking Lipitor might be outweighed by the long term consequences to your health
Category:
Wellbutrin is a widely prescribed antidepressant, but there are potential side effects
Category:
For those of you out there who are desperate to understand how Google ranks websites, here are some of the criteria they use
Category:
If you have a website but do not have your own merchant account, here are some solutions for accepting online payments
Category:
Most novice investors think of bonds as a safe, guaranteed investment, but this is simply not the case
Category:
People visit online casinos and place sports wagers on the internet every day, but is it legal?
Category:
If you are new to investing, these are some strategies you can use to reduce market risk
Category:
Lipitor has become an immensely popular drug for treating high cholesterol, but it might be hazardous to your health
Category:
Other links at Health & Fitness
If you are looking out for the best possible natural medication for your shingles, it is the best to grab zoosterol. There are no toxic constituents present in the medicine and it also proves to be beneficial as it cures any problem caused due to shingles
Category:
It's hard to avoid cravings, yet necessary in order to lose weight. Which is why you may want to consider the following steps to help you avoid these weak moments of temptation when they arrive to throw you off course.
Category:
Bad breath - two words that strike fear into the hearts of many people. It seems that it is almost one of the worst kinds of personal hygiene that you can get wrong. And it's so easy to prevent...
Category:
An unpleasant noise produced due to the vibrations is termed as snoring. Vibrations are caused due to the soft tissues and the weak throat muscles. Snoring is caused due to many factors like excess fats, drinking etc. However the are also various ways and
Category:
Learn to prevent common gym injuries with these 5 tips. Most athletic related injuries can be avoided with knowing the proper techniques for working out. Many women are not taught the correct way for exercising and are forced to try and teach themselves t
Category:
Site Sponsor
Directory Statistics
Articles: 68285
Categories: 501
Yahoo Entertainment
