A few years ago, stories of Americans going to Canada to buy cheaper drugs were all the rage. Here’s a twist on that: Canadians going to Mexico to get cheaper drugs.
The Canadian government has been intercepting shipments and travelers at the border and confiscating the drugs.
The drug in question is Thalidomide.
You no doubt remember this drug for its horrific side-effects, in babies.
But it is still used — by people who won’t get pregnant — to treat a rare form of cancer. It turns out that it’s one of the better drugs on the market, extending the lives of sufferers from myeloma.
Trouble is, only one province pays for one version of the drug. Other versions are illegal. Canada’s socialized health care system does not approve of cheaper versions of the drug hailing from Mexican factories. Those factories haven’t gone out of their way to deal with side-effects.
So Canada confiscates Thalidomide as if it were cocaine.
Do you ever get frustrated hearing these tales? I do. I don’t know about your frustration, but it seems to me that if someone’s going to take the trouble to go out of the country to buy a drug to treat themselves, the full weight of responsibility for safety and side-effects — as well as the choice — should fall on his or her shoulders.
Not the government’s.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
6 replies on “Border Guards Confiscate Prescription Drugs”
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Right on, on a very difficult problem that so many do not get. One would think, when dealing with life and death and horrible pain, that the patient should have the say…in all drugs.
I never thought I would hear myself say this, but I think the time has come to legalize all drugs and let the consumer/citizen decide how best to seek their own care. As a physician, I have seen tragic consequences from misuse of medicines and street drugs, but I have seen even more tragic consequences from a big brother government mentality. The freedom of choice in health care should be as much of a right as free speech. If the government will use its authority to regulate medicine, it won’t be long before it sends out the food police. Many promising treatments have been killed by our “kind and benevolent” government trying to “protect” us. If the government must intervene, then they should put warnings on every thing and let the consumer decide if its a risk they are willing to take.
someone finally gored your ox?
the whole conception of the war on drugs peoples who’s oxes were not being gored stood by or helped destroy the protections guaranteed by the constitution were stolen from them. its just your turn to complain. and there turn to stand and watch, disarmed for the greater good.
You don’t think the nanny state knows best? Whoda thunk it. This is/was brought to us by the duopoly of dems and ‘pubs(excepting Ron Paul). I believe it was Murray Rothbard that said, “Government is criminal enterprise writ large.”
Fanatics never know when to stop. Government stands among the heady group of “ultimate fanatics.”