Got drugs?
After a visit from President Bush, Canada is now under pressure to prevent mail order and Internet pharmacies from selling prescription drugs to the United States. If this succeeds, it would be the end of a $700 million industry and the end of affordable prescription drugs for millions of Americans.
Bush’s administration maintains their major concern of the importation of drugs from Canada is the safety and risk to Americans because there is no guarantee of the drug’s regulation or safety.
Are they kidding? Sure, it would be risky if you were buying Prozac off of the back of a red pickup truck from some guy named Bubba, who also has a great deal on a Rolex watch, but we are talking about buying name-brand prescription drugs, the exact same product sold here, from a pharmacy. Many of these so-called “regulated” American pharmaceuticals are not even manufactured in the United States. Many are made, bottled and shipped overseas and imported in to the States. How is it any less safe to buy the same product made by the same company just a few more degrees north? Is it any less safe to buy Kraft macaroni and cheese from Canada than the United States? Are they afraid that Canada is “tampering” with these drugs? If that is the concern, then we have a lot more to fear than just buying drugs from Canada.
Dozens of pharmacists and pharmacies in America have been indicted for gross failures in their health care practices – from failing to label prescriptions correctly to just outright dispensing the wrong drug to a patient. These errors have resulted in countless injuries and deaths among patients. Just a few years ago, a self-made millionaire pharmacist in Kansas City, Mo., was sentenced to over 30 years in jail for diluting cancer drugs. Risky? You bet!
Even more disturbing, following the wake of the Vioxx scandal, more and more whistle blowers are coming forward with evidence that many “miracle” drugs recently introduced to the market by U.S. pharmaceutical companies are not safe. In fact, Dr. David Graham, associate director in the FDA’s Office of Drug Safety, was quoted as saying that the FDA was “incapable of protecting America against another Vioxx.”
Why are we so preoccupied about the regulatory safety of these drugs if the drugs are not even safe to begin with?
It seems what Bush and Bush’s administration is really concerned about is the loss of profit for the U.S pharmaceutical industry – which contributed a great deal of money to Bush’s reelection campaign. Since Canada has a socialized medical system, drug prices are regulated and kept to what is deemed as a reasonable price. The United States has no limit to how much can be charged for any drug. Drugs purchased in America account for more than 55 percent of the industries profits. Actually, the United States is the only industrialized country that does not have a cap on drug prices or profits. Same drug, same manufacturers, same company – different government, different objectives, more money.
Perhaps someday our country will be more concerned with the affordability and availability of health care and medicines – maybe when Medicare refuses to pay for Dick Cheney’s seventh bypass surgery or when Laura Bush has to choose between buying dog food for Spotty or Liptor for George, maybe then the pharmaceutical wars between profit and patient will come to a truce. Until then, will have look to the great white north. ‘Eh? Take off!
Moni Wood is a continuing education student in English. She can be reached for comment at [email protected].
