[tri-med] FYI - Calif. OKs Web Site To Buy Canada Drugs

      ****I am forwarding this article or URL for your information (FYI) as I
      believe it may be of interest and is from a reliable source. As always,
      check the information with your own doctor or health care professional
      before starting or changing any treatments.****
      
http://www.intelihealth.com/IH/ihtIH/EMIHC267/333/21291/383840.html?d=dmtICNNews
      Calif. OKs Web Site To Buy Canada Drugs 
      May 27, 2004 
      SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Responding to consumer complaints about the 
high cost of prescription drugs, the state Assembly voted to create a Web site 
to help Californians buy cheaper medications through Canadian pharmacies. 

      By a 48-17 vote Wednesday, lawmakers sent the Senate a bill by 
Assemblyman Dario Frommer, D-Los Angeles, that would require the Department of 
Health Services to set up the site by July 1, 2005. 

      It would require the Web site to include a comparison of prices charged 
in California and Canada for the 50 most commonly prescribed brand-name 
medications and to list links to Canadian pharmacies that meet requirements 
designed to ensure the drugs they sell are safe. 

      To be listed on the Web site, a pharmacy would have to be licensed by a 
Canadian province and meet California's pharmacy standards. Also, the pharmacy 
could only sell drugs approved by the Therapeutic Products Directorate of 
Health Canada, which Frommer likened to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. 

      Frommer said many Californians are forced to go without medications or to 
reduce their dosages because of high prices for prescription drugs in the 
United States. "What good are the new breakthrough drugs if we can't afford 
them when we are sick?" he asked. 

      Prices of prescriptions are 40 percent to 75 percent lower in Canada, 
where the government regulates drug costs, Frommer said. 

      He said that many Californians are already buying mail-order drugs from 
Canada to avoid the high prices here. "All this bill does is allow Californians 
to know that the pharmacies they are dealing with are reputable and safe," he 
said. 

      San Francisco and five states -- Wisconsin, New Hampshire, North Dakota, 
Minnesota and Rhode Island -- have already set up similar Web sites, his office 
said. 

      The Senate has already approved a similar bill by Sen. Deborah Ortiz, 
D-Sacramento, that would require the state Board of Pharmacy to list on the Web 
Canadian pharmacies that meet standards for selling safe prescriptions. 

      Opponents questioned whether Frommer's bill would provide enough 
protections to ensure that Californians didn't get dangerous or inadequate 
medications shipped to Canada from other countries. Critics also complained 
that the bill would endorse breaking the law. 

      "There is one overarching concept that we need to understand," said 
Assemblyman Rick Keene, R-Chico. "It's the term illegal. It's illegal for us to 
do this, for us to facilitate an illegal activity. 

      "If we want people to have respect for what we do on this floor then we 
cannot facilitate helping people disregard federal law or the laws of this 
state.... We become hypocritical." 

      Assemblyman Robert Pacheco, R-Walnut, said the state could end up being 
sued if the bill resulted in a California resident receiving a faulty 
prescription. 

      Frommer said federal law "allows for the importation of drugs from other 
countries" but the FDA has never adopted guidelines to implement that 
provision. 

      He also said the FDA has not found "one incident of a drug imported from 
a Canadian pharmacy that was impure, counterfeit or bad." 

      Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
     

                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

Other related posts: