- From Paul Scavone
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- Folks...
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- This article will give you some idea of how little concern
the patent drug > companies and the FDA have for American consumers.
> > DOIN' TIME > If you think our jails are overcrowded now, just
wait until the federal government tries to put the state of New Hampshire
and the City of Boston in jail. That's going to be some serious overcrowding.
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- "Live free or die" is the bold state motto
of New Hampshire. And in that spirit, NH Governor Craig Benson announced
last week that his state will defy federal law and purchase prescription
drugs from Canada for Medicaid recipients and prison inmates. The estimated
savings would probably top $1.5 million.
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- On the same day, Boston's Mayor Thomas M. Menino told
reporters that beginning next summer his city will buy Canadian drugs for
city employees, creating a projected savings of $1 million per year.
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- And you can be sure that the FDA isn't one bit happy
about all this. But what are they going to do? Put Boston in jail? Beyond
issuing a stern warning, it will be interesting to see how far the FDA
attempts to go here. Especially when you consider that the FDA can't even
touch the biggest U.S. customer for Canadian drugs.
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- And you might be flabbergasted to find out who that customer
is. I know I was.
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- $AFETY FIR$T
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- Suddenly we have a real revolution in the works.
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- The New Hampshire and Boston announcements were made
only one day after President Bush signed the new Medicare bill into law.
At one point the bill contained provisions that would allow U.S. Medicare
patients to purchase less expensive Canadian drugs, or U.S. drugs re-imported
from Canada at rates much lower than they could find anywhere here at home.
But somewhere along the line those provisions were quietly removed from
the bill.
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- Now let's put our heads together and see if we can figure
out just who might have influenced various congressmen to remove those
boarder-hopping provisions that would have saved U.S. consumers millions
of dollars. Do you think lobbyists for drug companies might have had something
to do with it? And do you think it might snow in Canada this winter?
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- Meanwhile, FDA officials continue to maintain that the
economics of the situation are of no concern to them. They say it's a SAFETY
issue, implying that Canadian safety standards are not set at the same
superior level as those of the FDA. But so far their warnings about safety
concerns have done nothing to slow down the sales of Canadian drugs and
re-imported U.S. drugs to U.S. citizens. According to the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation, we bought more than $1 billion worth of drugs from Canada
last year.
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- THE REAL KICKER
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- And here's where it gets REALLY interesting.
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- According to a CBS evening news "Inside Story"
report last week, Boston and New Hampshire and all the buying power of
individual U.S. citizens are very small potatoes compared to the largest
U.S. customer of Canadian pharmaceuticals: The U.S. government.
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- If your jaw hit the floor when you read that, then you
look exactly the way I looked when I saw the CBS report. I thought I'd
heard it all, but this not only takes the cake, it takes the whole buffet.
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- The Department of Defense and the Veterans' Administration
are just two government agencies that are allowed a special waiver to purchase
drugs from Canada or any other country; something that citizens like you
and I can't do. Not to mention Boston and New Hampshire.
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- In the CBS report, Michael Valentino - a spokesman for
the Department of Veterans' Affairs - was asked to estimate how much his
department has spent on foreign drugs. He said, "It's been in the
hundreds of millions of dollars over the last several years."
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- GOOSE, MEET GANDER > So in spite of the supposed "safety
concerns" the FDA says are presented by these foreign drugs, millions
of veterans and others through the Defense Department have been supplied
with Canadian drugs for years.
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- Of course, what we're witnessing in all of this is some
of the most cynical cronyism you can imagine. Congressmen, regulators,
and lobbyists accommodate one another as they please, but when it comes
to the needs of citizens, or cities and states struggling in the current
economic climate, we're given restrictions and left to our own devices.
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- A couple of centuries ago a certain tea party in Boston
helped trigger a revolution.
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- Keep your eyes open for a harbor full of Lipitor, Vioxx
and Viagra.
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