Is it Illegal to order prescription drugs from Canada?

[2moretrees]

I'm very confused with this issue. I've heard that it is illegal to order prescription drugs from canada, but at the same time I read in newspeapers that States are encouraging people to do so. Is it illegal or not?

[Tree0164]

I am as well. I have read that it is illegal but then we have had some cities and towns do their prescriptions through canada.

Inquiring minds want to know

[jeffrey]

This is certainly not an area I'm an expert in, but the answer appears to be techinically "yes" but with little risk on individuals who do so. The main concern the Food & Drug Adminstration has with buying prescriptions drugs from foreign countries is that their quality can't be verified. Here are a couple of links that may provide more information:

http://www.fda.gov/importeddrugs/
http://www.fda.gov/ora/import/kullman.htm

[jeffrey]

Here's a bit more information on this subject...due to the US trying to limit supplies given to Canadian pharmacies, they are starting to get supplies from other countries:

"Drugmakers' efforts to limit supplies to Canadian pharmacies that sell to U.S. residents have led some of them to seek drugs from Europe and elsewhere around the world.
Some Canadian pharmacies are already asking customers if they are willing to accept drugs from Britain, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, Israel or Chile. And some are looking at additional countries.

"We're not going to stop," says Tony Howard, president and CEO of CanaRx, a company in Canada whose Web site brings together more than 20 Canadian pharmacies that sell to U.S. residents. "We have a pharmacy division developed a year and a half ago to recruit new pharmacies. All we're doing is saying, 'OK, let's expand that to the world.' "

Later this month, CanaRx plans to add links to pharmacies in Europe, including the Mediterranean region. Such a worldwide effort is not universal among the estimated 150 Canadian online pharmacies that serve the U.S. market. While many Canadian pharmacies are seeking partners in other countries, some will consider only a very short list.

"The quality of the U.K. pharmacies gives us comfort," says Paul Clark, CEO of Hometown Meds, an online pharmacy based in Carman, Manitoba. "Once you start going outside of there, you are running into maybe some risk..." [rest of the story <A HREF="http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/drugs/2004-09-07-canada-drug_x.htm">Here</A>]

[jeffrey]

Here's a bit more...it appears that customs does seize the drugs coming from Canadian pharmacies on occassion. <A HREF="http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2004-09-16-drugs-usat_x.htm">Story Here</A>

<i>Hundreds of people in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Vermont had their Canadian prescription-drug orders seized and thousands more had their shipments delayed after about 450 packages arriving in Miami from the Bahamas were seized by U.S. Customs in July.

The seizure was the first large-scale effort by U.S. Customs and the Food and Drug Administration to halt prescription shipments from Canadian pharmacies, although individual packages have been halted in the past.

More may occur, however, as an increasing number of Canadian pharmacies look to Europe, Australia and other regions to fill orders for U.S. residents.

That's because drugs from those countries cannot be mailed through Canada. In this case, the Canadian pharmacy, CanadaRx.net, set up a pharmacy in the Bahamas, to which wholesalers in Europe and elsewhere sent medications. The products were then mailed from the Bahamas...</i>