Canada's presc. drugs Americans are buying are SAFE for God's sake!

[glarius]

First it's our "commie" health care system that's driving them crazy and now they're attacking our "unsafe" prescription drugs!....What a joke...All polls show Canadians OVERWHELMINGLY want to keep our "commie" health care system, and to say our much lower priced prescription drugs are unsafe because Americans want to purchase them is ludicrous!.....If we had to pay the going price in the USA for my husband's (and my) prescriptions, we would have to do without some of them....I have so often seen so-called spokespeople for health care on American TV, and the lies and distortions they tell about the Canadian medical system is criminal....We have some problems, which we are working on, but it is far superior to the HMO deals you have down there...And our drugs are exactly the same as the ones you are paying such high prices for....Not only Canada, but all the industrialized countries in the world have universal health care for their citizens...You deserve better than what you are getting from your government....

P.S. This rant is because of a report I just saw on CNN saying that "many wonder if the drugs from Canada or Europe will be safe!"

[Liberal Veteran]

1. You don't have to sell me....

I know you buying them from same companies we are, so of course your pharmaceuticals are safe.

Maybe some day your backward "cousins" to the south will catch up and realize that Canada is a great role model in almost all respects.

[glarius]

2. It just angers me when I see lies about things that effect the lives of

people....

[Heddi]

6. Please know, though

that CNN is not indicative of Americans--really.

Last year my hubby and I went to Vancouver BC and met a guy in a bar and we started chatting him up and I said "I really have to say that I apologize for my country and the person who supposedly leads it. Not all of us voted for him. Not all of us agree the way things are going" and he said it was nice to hear that, because sometimes he wonders if we're really as "AMERICAN" as we're portrayed---not all of us are


I'm becomming an RN (registered nurse) JUST so we can live in Canada. I love it there, and I love the people. That's the country I should have been born in (if not, the Netherlands is a close second )

[glarius]

8. I know about CNN

When it was owned by Ted Turner it was a REAL news network. It was reporting what was happening honestly...Now it just seems to be a propoganda machine for the Bushies....And I know most Americans didn't vote for the moron too...He seems to be going down in the polls....Lets hope the tend continues!!!...Good luck with your nursing!

[Hand]

3. For frig's sake...

They're all made by the same crooked pharmaceutical companies--Pfizer, Squibb, yadda yadda yadda--that control everything. Additionally, Canada (and, I imagine, Europe) virtually always takes its cue from the US FDA when approving drugs--well, almost always. A lot of European nations (and maybe Canada as well, I'm not sure) have been far more careful about certain drugs such as Halcion (a sleeping pill that also makes you crazy). Bush* 41 loved the stuff; ate it like candy while zooming around on Air Force One and getting his biological clock all effed up. Manic arsehole.

BTW, remember thalidomide? It wasn't allowed in the US because... a Canadian researcher red-flagged it.

The whole thing's a load of codswallop from a bought congress and bought media.

RANT RANT RANT RANT RANT... etc.

[Maple]

4. Just a tactic is all

Puts a doubt in people's minds, so they'll tend to buy American.

And something to take to the govt, so they get banned.

Every country tests the frickin' drugs, so it takes forever getting to the consumer.

Western countries should simply accept another western country's testing as valid.

Pick the highest testing standard and go with that.

[short bus president]

5. nobody but the drug lobby

worries about Canadian drugs. It is INCREDIBLY disheartening to see FDA toadying up to big pharma on this issue, and you can bet it's seen as a slap in the face to FDA's counterparts in other countries. I don't recall FDA being so touchy about this issue back when it was run by career people instead of a bunch of raving fucking political-appointee shrubhumpers. These days they're even coming out 100% behind direct-to-consumer Rx advertising (Janet Woodcock can linguate my ballsack - just another shrubhumping whore). FDA, like EPA, may be so poisoned by this administration that it'll have to be destroyed to be saved.

[Zero Gravitas]

7. Safe for people

but not for the drug companies bottom line (they need the profit to pay for massive media blitz pushing drugs for made up "syndromes"). You don't think that the US Government is being run for the best interests of the American People do you?

[TreasonousBastard]

9. "Many" don't wonder....

just a few getting caught up in the propaganda.

I would worry if they start importing from Mexico, though, or don't properly trace the source of the stuff. Far too many counterfeit drugs on the world market. Not a problem with legitimate Canadian or European sources, but elsewhere...

The real problem is that the US is the only place the drug cos. can get the high markups they SAY they need to continue research.

[glarius]

10. Of course they need money for research, but it is NOT necessary to have

obscene profits in order to afford research...That's just more bullshit!

[Clete]

17. BS

They need that yes, but a lot of the money goes to profits to be traded on the stock market. It also seems to me that the government funds a lot of the research with your tax money. I have nothing against that, but the pharmaceutical companies shouldn't be able to tack it on to the price of drugs as well.

I also have been in rural communities where they sell drugs for farm animals in feed stores, but the locals also take them because they can't afford the drugs made for humans. The animal drugs are far cheaper than the human ones for a lot less.

[blondeatlast]

19. Nowadays their research is in how to make

pills for gastrointestinal disorders be only taken once a day. They aren't researching better treatments for cancer, diabetes, AIDS, or other deadly or debilitating diseases; they aren't profitable. As a longtime diabetic, I am at the drugcorps mercy.

How much could they lower costs in the USA if they would just stop advertising? I had no idea what that damn "purple pill" was for till I asked my doctor. She told me that was a sneaky way of getting people to ask their docs to prescribe it.

I have nothing but revulsion for them--but I have to patronize them to stay healthy and alive. They are reprehensible.

[wellstone_democrat]

11. Hey! Don't be a damned 'moran'!

It isn't *us* the American citizenry, its the pharm companies backed by their tame politicians. Even the biggest freepers I work with want Mexican and Canadian drugs. Most here drive to Mexico in 4 hours or order from Canada on-line. We know the scam and even the quisling network NPR pointed out on Morning Edit. the other day that slapping a label on a bottle at a "non approved" facility would serve to make the drug itself 'non approved'-=---no one missed the scam that I talked to. No one, but no one thinks that there is anything wrong with Canadian drugs. We know from Maine to Texas as our border citizens take bus tours to fill prescriptions that all is well.

I think they might over-reach on this one and shoot themselves in the foot.

[Clete]

12. I am in the process of getting Canadian drugs.

Hubby and I can't afford the $500 in drugs we now use on a pension. Our expenses are a drop in the bucket though compared to some of our peers.

[blondeatlast]

20. Where from? My mom needs this help!

Thanks, Clete. PM if you prefer.

[flpoljunkie]

13. Ted Kennedy,1 of 53 Senators who signed letter against drug reimportation!

Can anyone explain why he would do this? And does anyone know who the other Democratic senators are who signed this letter?

I do not see why this would preclude adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare--especially since neither the House or the Senate bills control the costs of drugs in any way!

[glarius]

16. I was surprised to see that Kennedy had voted against it too....He has

always seemed to me to be so progressive and he's for universal health care too, isn't he?....

[brook]

14. I'm happy to say...

that I have provided the information on obtaining prescription drugs to a half dozen or so people who had been having touble keeping up with the costs on their pensions. They are saving a third to one half - on hundreds of dollars a month - and are thriving!

I also lived in Mexico for years - and had excellent medical care. I would have no qualms about obtaining medicines from a legitmate pharmacia anywhere in Mexico.

America needs to get over the idea that it's the only country with *standards*. * has shown how false a notion that is, hasn't he?

[Clete]

15. Good post, Brook.

People need to know the facts about this. It is a bandaid to the real problem though, the need of our nation to have universal health care for everyone, and the need to take healthcare and drugs off of the free market system.

[brook]

22. You're right...

it IS only a bandaid. Universal healthcare IS the answer. I just wonder if we'll get it in our lifetime. I can't help thinking of how much good could be done here in the USA with the $$$$ we're throwing down the ratholes of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Gonna take a 'happy' break now - and go see my lil great-grandaughter.
(maybe in her lifetime?)
C'ya later.

[blondeatlast]

18. No problems here, in fact

I would buy some of my mom's there. Is it legal to purchase them thru mail order across the border?

[Clete]

21. Only from Canada as far as I know.

Many Californians, Texans and others near the border hop over to Mexico, not only for pills, but for dental work like bridges and such, which is a lot cheaper there. I haven't heard of any of the pharmacies doing mail order, but maybe someone else knows.

[jagguy]

23. its the ones from Mexico that worry me

.

[flpoljunkie]

24. I understand that Mexico is excluded from participation in

the reimportation bill passed in the House in the week hours today. FDA approved drugs may be reimported from Canada and the European Union, but not Mexico.