Last October, U.S. Customs caved to Congressional pressure and stopped seizing prescriptions sent from Canada. Now, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) is proposing a one-year extension to this program. (See Extension sought on importing medicine.)
Sen. Vitter should read the news coming out of Canada before extending this unsafe plan. He should also recognize the pesky fact that imports from Canada are dropping rapidly thanks to Part D.
Unfortunately, I fear that Sen. Vitter wants to legalize drug diversion so that we'll forget about his own illegal diversions.
Can you please post the percentage of reported people injured by imported prescription drugs vs total estimated imported drugs.Since European countries have an open system of purchasing drugs, what is the percentage of reported injuries vs total prescriptions sold?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, no one knows the answer to either question with any certainty. It's often hard to distinguish an adulterated drug from disease progression. (Just ask Rex Van De Kamp.)
ReplyDeleteRegardless of the incidence, I don't see why we should create gaping security holes in our drug distribution system. Read Dangerous Doses for an "I-can't-believe-it-happened-in-America" story of diversion and counterfeit drugs in Florida.