The Bush administration's Fodd and Drug Administration Deputy Director Lester Crawford has said terrorists might use prescription drugs imported from Canada to launch an attack on America.  His initial statement in the fall of 2003 expressed fear that terrorists would contaminate drugs reimported from Canada to the U.S.
Some of America's foremost legislative minds, Senators Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Bill Frist of Tennessee, and Orrin Hatch of Utah, Republicans all, have issued similar warnings.
The issue came up again today as Vermont Governor Jim Douglas and attorney general William Sorrel file suit against the FDA for blocking Vermont's successfull drug reimporation plan.
At first I thought the fear mongering by the Administration and the Republicans is shameless.  If terrorists thought injecting poisons in pills was the way to go, wouldn't it be logical to just do it to drugs already here in the United States?  Then it occurred to me, of course not!  Nobody can afford to buy those!

WHO ARE THE REAL TERRORISTS HERE?
America is supposedly the richest country in the world.  Yet, we have 44 million citizens with NO HEALTH INSURANCE AT ALL and that number is rising.  Tens of millions more have health plans so stingy they are not covered for prescription drugs.  The U.S. is the proud purveyor of the most expensive prescription drugs in the world, so our citizens who don't have the luxury of prescription drug coverage--millions of them elderly--are forced to turn to Canada because they can't afford to pay $400 a month for the medicines they need.
I cannot believe this is happening in my country.  I cannot believe our people have to put up with this medical atrocity.  THIS IS WHAT YOU GET WHEN YOU LET THE PRIVATE SECTOR WRITE ALL YOUR LAWS!
The drug companies always tell the outrageous lie that if they stop charging us through the nose, they cannot do research to create new drugs.  NONSENSE!  The only reason that argument has any merit whatsoever is because our politicians and our media are enslaved to their corporate paymasters and do what they're told.
The federal government is funds the most pharmaceutical research of all, and the federal government hands over new developments to the private sector so those whiny drug execs can make out like bandits.
It's time to start calling our corporate-owned government and their big business accomplices TERRORISTS for a change.  The number of Americans who died medically preventable deaths since 2001 due to corporate greed I'll bet dwarfs the number of casualties we suffered on 9/11.

How obtuse can you get?  They don't really expect us to turn to our own citizens and say, "Sorry Grandma, no heart medicine for you, there might be a terrorist geni in the bottle."  However, Commissioner Craword and his ilk can't deliver the true message of the corporate paymasters, "Dear American Family: F**k off!"

When I was in high school, a buddy of mine "terrorized" one of our teachers by slipping a couple of Feen-A-Mint laxative medicine gums into the teacher's ever-present pack of Chiclets Gum.

Heh heh...  ;D

I can one up all of you. Some a$$pipe slipped LSD into an English teacher's coffee when I was in high school. While not a prescription drug, it certainly messed with her mind. ::)

The drug companies p*ss me off. My granny is on a fixed income and most of it goes for her meds that she needs to live (she had quadruple bypass surgery a while ago). The good thing is that she has 14 devoted children who make sure she gets everything else she needs. I can safely say that most of America's older generation is not that lucky. :P

I can one up all of you. Some a$$pipe slipped LSD into an English teacher's coffee when I was in high school. While not a prescription drug, it certainly messed with her mind. ::)
That is SUCH an evil thing to do to somebody.  You do that to a fragile mind unsuspecting and it can send them to a psych ward for few days, maybe more.

Does the Ex-Lax in browies really work, or would the baking process destroy the laxitive properties?

The drug companies p*ss me off. My granny is on a fixed income and most of it goes for her meds that she needs to live (she had quadruple bypass surgery a while ago). The good thing is that she has 14 devoted children who make sure she gets everything else she needs. I can safely say that most of America's older generation is not that lucky. :P

That's one reason people in generations past had so many children.  It wasn't just lack of contraception.  Children stood a very good chance of not surviving childhood.  The more children you had, the more likely somebody would be around to help you out in your old age!

OK, while we are on practical jokes with laxatives...

The infamous late porn star John Holmes once gave one of his actresses some chocolate pudding laced with LSD and Ex-Lax without her knowledge.

As she started to "trip" and the chocolate volcano started to erupt, old Johnny told her that she was melting.

That guy was a piece of work.

OK, while we are on practical jokes with laxatives...

The infamous late porn star John Holmes once gave one of his actresses some chocolate pudding laced with LSD and Ex-Lax without her knowledge.

As she started to "trip" and the chocolate volcano started to erupt, old Johnny told her that she was melting.

That guy was a piece of work.

Oh, c'mon!  That's just another variation on the urban myth.  Gotta be!  Besides, Holmes was too busy pimping his missus for cocaine money, when he wasn't giving his colleagues in the adult film industry AIDS.
::)

The refered to urban myth is so-and-so from such-and-such rock band overdosed on LSD.  He thought he was an orange and wouldn't let anyone come near him because they would peel him.  Alternatively, because they would make him into orange juice.

Heres the citation from snopes.com.  Snopes doesn't mention the rock band, but I always heard it about someone from a rock band, earlier on Jefferson Airplane, later on The Butthole Surfers.
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/drugs/orange.htm
Another bunk myth about acid that used to go around in more gullible times.  Sounds like something out of "Dragnet."
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/drugs/lsdsun.htm

Oh, c'mon!  That's just another variation on the urban myth.  Gotta be!  Besides, Holmes was too busy pimping his missus for cocaine money, when he wasn't giving his colleagues in the adult film industry AIDS.
::)



Hey, Johnny was into so many scams and dirty dealing he would have had PLENTY of time for a simple practical joke.

Besides he never pimped his missus.  He pimped his teenage girlfriend that he had on the side.  Until she got fed up and turned him in to the cops.

And no star that he, ahem, "performed" with after he was diagnosed got AIDS.  Of course this was due to luck only.

The reason prescription drugs is so high in the US is NOT the $$ they spend on research, it's the $$ they spend on advertising.  If I'm not mistaken, Canada has a limit on the amount of advertising $$ that can be spent as well as pricing limits.

As for the terrorists using imported drugs to launch another "attack", IMO that's all a bunch of "bunk". 



I agree. I wish that they pharmacudical companies would not advertise perscription drugs. Half the time, they don't even tell you what it is for and the other half, it sounds like the side effects are worse than the condition you are taking it for. And most of what they are advertising are NOT life saving drugs. I'm sure they could do more research if they didn't spend all boocoo bucks on advertising.

As for the reimportation of drugs from Canada, I think that is just a band-aid for the situation. I really do believe that the government should have price limits (like they do in Canada and other nations). It doesn't make any sense if these drugs are made here in the U.S. why do have to go to Canada for cheaper prices. One word-GREED 




Cat

Hey Ossama hey Saddam lets get down to the pharmacy and spike Chaney's heart meds... :D

Do your Senators EVER get outside of Washington...yeah Canada is the huge lawless breeding ground of terrorism...the biggest spiking problem here is that addictive chemical they rub on the inside of a Timmy's double-double that keeps you run thru the old drive thru 6 times a day.

I agree. I wish that they pharmacudical companies would not advertise perscription drugs. Half the time, they don't even tell you what it is for and the other half, it sounds like the side effects are worse than the condition you are taking it for. And most of what they are advertising are NOT life saving drugs. I'm sure they could do more research if they didn't spend all boocoo bucks on advertising.

As for the reimportation of drugs from Canada, I think that is just a band-aid for the situation. I really do believe that the government should have price limits (like they do in Canada and other nations). It doesn't make any sense if these drugs are made here in the U.S. why do have to go to Canada for cheaper prices. One word-GREED 




Cat


You guys are absolutely right.  I just wonder how long it will take people to wake up to the travisties.

Hey Ossama hey Saddam lets get down to the pharmacy and spike Chaney's heart meds... :D

Do your Senators EVER get outside of Washington...yeah Canada is the huge lawless breeding ground of terrorism...the biggest spiking problem here is that addictive chemical they rub on the inside of a Timmy's double-double that keeps you run thru the old drive thru 6 times a day.




Of course Cheney has heart problems.  Transplant a rat's heart into a human body, there are gonna be complications.

Well, they were going on about a drug shipment from Canada intercepted in Miami via the Bahamas that had drugs from half a dozen European countries in it.  That was supposed to show consumers could get shady deals from Canada.  But that shipment was ordered from a Canadian website, not a legit Canadian pharmacy.  Perhaps Canadian web entrepeneurs are taking advantage of gullible Americans saying, "Oh yeah, we're Canadian, get your cheap drugs here."  That's different.  You can order drugs from a shady website based here in the U.S., or anywhere else in the world.

If the number one objective of the Bushies was the War on Terror and terrorist contamination of Canadian drugs was a real issue, don't you think the Adminsitration would make it a priority to get cheap American drugs to consumers?  Heck no, that would be letting the terrorists WIN!  Force the drug companies to moderate their prices and BOOM, score one for Al Qeada!
:-\\

Of course Cheney has heart problems.  Transplant a rat's heart into a human body, there are gonna be complications.

Well, they were going on about a drug shipment from Canada intercepted in Miami via the Bahamas that had drugs from half a dozen European countries in it.  That was supposed to show consumers could get shady deals from Canada.  But that shipment was ordered from a Canadian website, not a legit Canadian pharmacy.  Perhaps Canadian web entrepeneurs are taking advantage of gullible Americans saying, "Oh yeah, we're Canadian, get your cheap drugs here."  That's different.  You can order drugs from a shady website based here in the U.S., or anywhere else in the world.

If the number one objective of the Bushies was the War on Terror and terrorist contamination of Canadian drugs was a real issue, don't you think the Adminsitration would make it a priority to get cheap American drugs to consumers?  Heck no, that would be letting the terrorists WIN!  Force the drug companies to moderate their prices and BOOM, score one for Al Qeada!
:-\\


Couldn't do that!  There go my fat dividend checks!  (not really)

The reason prescription drugs is so high in the US is NOT the $$ they spend on research, it's the $$ they spend on advertising. If I'm not mistaken, Canada has a limit on the amount of advertising $$ that can be spent as well as pricing limits.

As for the terrorists using imported drugs to launch another "attack", IMO that's all a bunch of "bunk".


I agree it's bunk.  We should be able to pay the same as Canada if not less...heck the stuff is made here.

I don't think we need advertisements for drugs, anyway.  The doctors know what to give to the patients, we should leave it at that.  Half the time the ads don't even say what the drugs are for...they just advertise.

Not only do they make it here, but who do you think the try it out on to see if it works?  We are all a bunch of guinea pigs when it comes to human trials. 

Not only do they make it here, but who do you think the try it out on to see if it works?  We are all a bunch of guinea pigs when it comes to human trials. 



And we get to pay the highest prices for that "privlige".




Cat