I think it is perfectly acceptable for our governors to pursue lower-cost imported drugs, basically because our national politicians do not have the kahunas to stand up to the extortionate drug companies. See “Shoots from the Grassroot Institute – Jan. 2, 2004” – Just Say No to Drug Reimportation
I definitely agree with the ideal of a free market in health care, but isn’t this one way to help bring it about? The Canadian (and all other countries’) price controls should be ended, so maybe this will get the ball rolling. We already have trade treaties, so why not include pharmaceuticals? Reimported drugs are the same exact drugs as those made in America; surely “libertarians” would not oppose free trade. It is amazing how daft conservatives can be on this issue; whenever consumers actually benefit from trade, they go and hide under the table with their roach-like pharmacratic friends.
The fact is that prescription drugs cause at least 100,000 deaths per year — often the third-leading cause of death. A relative of mine, for example, died from an experimental drug. Now add 7 percent-15 percent to drug prices every year, and what an expensive funeral. The drug companies spend far more saturating us with annoying advertising, than on research. They also directly fund the studies that inevitably support their drugs — talk about wolves guarding the henhouse.
Pharmaceutical companies can also indefinitely extend their patents by slight cosmetic changes to drugs, locking cheaper generics out of the market. America has become a gigantic Habitrail for drug-dependent guinea pig-like citizens, with seniors tapping their feeder bars for more fixes. B.F. Skinner would be proud of what we have created, now plunging deeper into debt to feed this greed machine.
We must face up to the fact that pills are not the solution to better health — but better nutrition is. If we spent one-tenth of the drug-dose-dollar billions, on natural and organic agriculture, we would have a healing Renaissance.
Unless, of course, you prefer eating fish packed in Prozac.
”’Brent J. Bielema is a resident of Fulton, Illinois.”’
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