Posted At MaineToday.com
By: Portland Press Herald
You'd think being from New Hampshire, Sen. Judd Gregg would know something about horses and barns. Apparently, however, the Republican hasn't spent enough time is his state's rural regions to know how difficult it is to get a horse back into the barn at daybreak.
For that matter, Gregg has obviously not spent much time with his constituents, either. If he did, he'd know that Americans are already importing prescription drugs from Canada - a lot of them.
Gregg and Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine got into a tussle at a hearing Tuesday. At issue was a bill Snowe is sponsoring to make it legal for pharmacies and wholesalers to import drugs from Canada and other countries.
Snowe's bill would limit such imports only to drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration and manufactured in plants that have undergone FDA inspection.
The legislation would add a measure of safety to a widespread practice, especially in border states like New Hampshire and Maine. People are now going to Canada to buy low-cost prescriptions because drug prices here have become difficult for many to bear.
In arguing to preserve drug company profits, Gregg used a line of reasoning that is largely discredited. He suggested that importing drugs from Canada or elsewhere would pose undue risk to consumers.
Trouble is, with thousands of prescriptions being filled across the border in recent years, there's not a single documented case of serious injury or death resulting from the practice. That doesn't mean there aren't some manageable risks with drug importation, and in fact Snowe's bill does a good job of minimizing those.
Far more dangerous than the remote possibility of problems with imported drugs is the very real impact of high prices. When people have to skip taking medication because they can't afford it, they put their health in jeopardy.
Drug imports can help make medicine more affordable, and any risks can be managed.
