Study: U.S. Can't Keep Illegal Meds Out

[deadparrot]

WASHINGTON - The government has not developed an organized way to stop people from illegally importing prescription drugs, a congressional study issued Thursday said.

The Government Accountability Office said the sheer volume of imports, hidden amid the rest of the mail, has it difficult for the
Food and Drug Administration and Customs and Border Patrol officers from locating many of them. A requirement that the FDA give notice to people whose drugs are seized has also drained resources.

People are importing such drugs, often through Web sites, in greater and greater numbers because they cost less than they do at U.S. drugstores. But the FDA says it lacks the means to determine whether the drugs are safe and authentic.

Tracking Internet-based pharmacies to their sources is also difficult, and if they are overseas they operate outside the reach of U.S. law enforcement, the report said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051111/ap_on_go_co/drug_imports

[krkaufman]

1. This is what the DEA and FDA are now spending their time on?

Yes, excellent use of gov't resources. Policemen for the drug companies.

[rodeodance]

7. they have been doing it for a long time now.

[niyad]

2. gee, the drug companies are losing money to other countries, right? this

MUST be stopped immediately!! imagine people buying less expensive drugs elsewhere, why,. why that is unamerican.

[anotherdrew]

3. did anyone really think they could?

maybe the terrorists will just start selling us fake viagra

[mike_c]

4. kinda gives the concept of the suicide bomber...

...a whole new dimension.

[Jack_DeLeon]

5. Fuck the war on drugs...

prescription drugs are not defacto illegal.

Fuck the DEA, and any government agency that wants to fuck over the average citizen that is trying to take care of thier health or the health of a loved one.

[wakeme2008]

6. WHAT's ILLEGAL MEDS ???????????????????

Fuck these are just prescription drugs that are not overpriced in Canada and other places....

[rodeodance]

8. This is an issue which Congress needs to address--something people

care about!!!

...It is unclear how many prescription drugs are imported illegally into the country through the mail. Some estimates from Customs officials, cited by the GAO, said hundreds or thousands of packages containing such drugs may come through daily. FDA estimates have ranged between 2 million and 20 million imports annually, the GAO said.

While an interagency task force convened to come up with solutions "has taken positive steps toward addressing issues associated with enforcing the laws on personal imports, it has not fully developed a strategic framework that would allow the task force to address many of the challenges we identify in this report," the GAO said.

In a statement, Rep. John D. Dingell (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., said the report shows "the agencies most responsible for stopping this chaos are completely out of ideas."

Importing these drugs "is a clear violation of federal law, yet people are willing to take a risk because they are desperate for cheaper medicines," said Dingell, who commissioned the report along with Sen. Norm Coleman (news, bio, voting record), R-Minn. "If this fact does not sound an alarm to the administration that something is desperately wrong with how we deliver affordable medicines to our citizens, then apparently nothing will."

[DiverDave]

9. yep, these drugs are KILLERS

the Canadians have been dropping like flies...the "Librul" media has been covering it up!!

What a bunch of maroons (with apologies to Bugs Bunny)

[pecwae]

10. Not to mention

the DEA has some physicians sacred shitless of writing legitimate pain control prescriptions for legitimate chronic pain conditions that some have taken to internet sources to get back some semblance of a normal life.

I've taken pain meds for over a decade for several problems. When I move to a new area the hunt is on for a physician who doesn't have the DEA breathing down his back for writing low dose narcotic pain prescriptions. I don't take these drugs for recreation, they don't give me a 'high.' But, one would think I'm asking for heroin and I uusually wind up getting them from an international source. The cost is much, much higher.

Of course, if I were asking for an SSRI or statin drug the physician or the DEA wouldn't care; although both these drugs almost killed me, one through withdrawal, the other through severe side effects.

What a waste of government resources! The entire 'war on drugs' from top to bottom - useless.