Buying Medicine In Canada Makes You A Criminal

Thousands of older Americans are breaking the law. Most don’t even realize they are engaged in criminal activity.
In an attempt to save money they are purchasing prescription medicines in Canada or Mexico. They’ve been driven to a life of crime because they can no longer afford the bills at their local drugstore.
We received the following letter from one reader: “I am on prescribed drugs that if bought here in the States average out to just about $1000 a month. I used to be a missionary and got room, board and health care only. As a result I receive only about $600 per month in social security.
“I have found that using mail order from Canada cuts the price of my pills about 30 percent. But since I am in Texas, at times I make a trip just across the Mexican border and buy a 90-day supply at about one third of the U.S. cost.
In Mexico I can get the same trademark drugs as here, so why shouldn’t I?”
According to Joe McCallion of the FDA, “If you buy drugs that come from outside the U.S., the FDA doesn’t know what you’re getting, which means safety can’t be assured.” Saving money on prescription drugs is not an adequate reason to relax the law against importing drugs. The FDA “doesn’t condone the use of buying foreign-made versions of drugs available in the United States, even if they are sold under the same name. They are still unapproved products,” warns McCallion.
That’s true even if they are manufactured by such trusted companies as Abbott, Eli Lilly, Merck or Pfizer in American plants. Only American drug manufacturers can legally re-import their own medications.
Desperate citizens, like this reader, are out of luck: “I had breast cancer last year and have to take tamoxifen for five years. It costs me $110 a month at my local pharmacy.
“My income is only $1000, so by the time I pay rent and utilities there’s not much left. I had to stop taking Lipitor because I couldn’t afford two expensive drugs.
“How can I buy tamoxifen from Canada? I have no computer, so I’ll have to use the postal service.”
The answer is, legally, she can’t. Even traveling to Canada to buy medicine would be against the law, though politicians in Maine have organized bus trips for their citizens to do just that.
To qualify for legally importing a medication for your own use, the medicine must not pose an unreasonable risk to the patient. It must be for the patient’s own use, with documentation of the prescription from a doctor licensed in the U.S., and must be no more than a three-month’s supply. Many people could meet these conditions, but in addition, the drug must be for a serious condition and not available in the U.S. That rules out tamoxifen and the vast majority of other medications.
Saving money on medicine, even life-saving medicine, is not the FDA’s concern. The agency simply has rules to enforce. If you buy your blood pressure or cholesterol medication outside the U.S. to save money, that makes you a criminal by FDA standards.
Perhaps it’s time for Congress to change the laws or deliver on its promise to provide prescription drug coverage for senior citizens.