# Bush Administration Claims Terrorists May Poison Prescription Drugs from Canada **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 19, 2004, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486 "2004-08-19T01:00:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/1 "2004-08-19T01:00:30Z")
In their losing battle to stem the tide of cheap imported prescription drugs from Canada, the FDA played the Al Qaeda card this week. Claiming that the importation of prescription drugs could be used by terrorists to poison Americans, FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford is using fear to protect the lucrative domestic markets of wealthy Republican donors in the pharmaceutical industry. [Attack on imported drugs possible, FDA says](http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=1642&u_sid=1176182) > [@](#): > > “Cues from chatter” gathered around the world are raising concerns that terrorists might try to attack the domestic food and drug supply, particularly illegally imported prescription drugs, acting Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Lester Crawford says. > > Crawford said he had been briefed about al-Qaida plans uncovered during recent arrests and raids, but he declined to comment further about any possible threats. Look for more of these chicken little tactics to instill fear of terrorists whenever one of the Administration’s talking points looks like it is going to be defeated. When a position cannot be supported by logic or common sense, Republicans can always be depended on to trot out the Al Qaeda boogeyman to scare the populace back into the barn and away from the sweet grass of freedom. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/2 "2004-08-19T01:34:06Z")
[Kerry advocates allowing more affordable drugs to be imported from Canada](http://www.healthtalk.ca/kerry_drugs_08112004_8902.php). _Shazam!_ Pharmaceuticals from Canada are a possible route for a terrorist attack, and John Kerry is soft on terrorism! Also in the news, terrorists may be seeking to use embryonic stem-cells in some unspecified way to attack America. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/3 "2004-08-19T01:41:38Z")
I read somewhere that the terrorists are gonna infiltrate the US this fall to vote Democratic. ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/4 "2004-08-19T01:42:51Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > In their losing battle to stem the tide of cheap imported prescription drugs from Canada, the FDA played the Al Qaeda card this week. Claiming that the importation of prescription drugs could be used by terrorists to poison Americans, FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford is using fear to protect the lucrative domestic markets of wealthy Republican donors in the pharmaceutical industry. > > [Attack on imported drugs possible, FDA says](http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=1642&u_sid=1176182) > Look for more of these chicken little tactics to instill fear of terrorists whenever one of the Administration’s talking points looks like it is going to be defeated. When a position cannot be supported by logic or common sense, Republicans can always be depended on to trot out the Al Qaeda boogeyman to scare the populace back into the barn and away from the sweet grass of freedom. I can count on this administration, every single day, sometimes several times a day, to do something scummy and outrageous. I can also count on the media giving them a nudge-wink pass, and rightists rationalizing the latest outrage. It’s fucking surreal. It’s beyond surreal. > [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Kerry advocates allowing more affordable drugs to be imported from Canada. > > Shazam! Pharmaceuticals from Canada are a possible route for a terrorist attack, and John Kerry is soft on terrorism! > > Also in the news, terrorists may be seeking to use embryonic stem-cells in some unspecified way to attack America. Thanks for both the explanation and a good laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/5 "2004-08-19T01:46:39Z")
LMAO. the FDA lost tons of credibility and showed itself to be a shill to the pharma industry when this drug importation issue started. FDA: “The drugs may not be safe” Reporter: “What if the FDA just checks out a few pharmacies to make sure the drugs imported are safe” FDA: “Some excuse I can’t remember. I think it was 'we would have to check too many” Reporter: “No you wouldn’t, you just need to check a few” Sad. Sad indeed. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/6 "2004-08-19T01:49:24Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > Also in the news, terrorists may be seeking to use embryonic stem-cells in some unspecified way to attack America. Uh-oh… The Clone Wars? ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/7 "2004-08-19T01:51:11Z")
> [@lissener](#): > > I read somewhere that the terrorists are gonna infiltrate the US this fall to vote Democratic. I thought it was illegal aliens. Democrats need illegal alien votes to make up for all the aborted Democrat fetuses. ([Vernon Robinson](http://vernonrobinson.com/index.shtml) actually said that. Thank god he was defeated.) ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/8 "2004-08-19T02:17:27Z")
I actually heard a Harvard medical researcher roundly debunk the FDA on this earlier in an [interview](http://freshair.npr.org/day_fa.jhtml?display=day&todayDate=08/18/2004) on NPR. He basically said that the US allows the drug companies to get away with murder in terms of drug prices, that we’re the last industrialized country to do so, and that we pay 40-100% more for the same drugs made in the same plants by the same companies as Canada, France, etc. do. Essentially, we’re getting repeatedly bent over the community barrel. And the FDA tacitly supports it. Yay. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/9 "2004-08-19T02:20:36Z")
Equipoise, yahoo me please. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/10 "2004-08-19T02:22:11Z")
[Gas them with chlorine dioxide, and then incinerate them](http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/07/nyregion/07vessel.html?ex=1092974400&en=0bad024022f14e9f&ei=5070): > [@](#): > > the lemons, still sealed in the containers, have not been handled by investigators. > > And they will not be. As a precaution, the lemon containers will be incinerated. But first, holes will be drilled into the containers and the lemons will be fumigated with chlorine dioxide gas, the kind used to kill anthrax in infected post offices, to kill any “biological agents that may be present.” > > Each of the 40-foot-long lemon containers, roughly the size of a tractor-trailer, will then be destroyed at the Ameri-Fuel incinerator two miles up Newark Bay from where the Rio Puelo is now docked. Crisis remediation courtesy of the [Boca Raton anthrax cleanup team.](http://www.bocaratonnews.com/index.php?src=news&prid=9173&category=LOCAL%20NEWS) Having already been [terrorized by Chilean grapes](http://www.pitt.edu/~ethics/Chile/case.html), when will America wise up and stop ALL food imports? ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/11 "2004-08-19T02:36:34Z")
Thank god _my_ drugs come from central and south America. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/12 "2004-08-19T02:40:27Z")
> [@Fear Itself](#): > > FDA Commissioner Lester Crawford is using fear to protect the lucrative domestic markets of wealthy Republican donors in the pharmaceutical industry. > > . I see no reason to exclude wealthy Democrats in the pharmaceutical industry. Wouldn’t _they_ want to protect their bottom line as well? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/13 "2004-08-19T02:52:01Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > I see no reason to exclude wealthy Democrats in the pharmaceutical industry. Wouldn’t _they_ want to protect their bottom line as well? If you say so. One would think they would donate to Democrats to push their agenda. [Then why are they donating so much to the Republican Party?](http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=21861) > [@](#): > > Since 2000, pharmaceutical manufacturers have made over $36 million in campaign contributions to the Republican Party. When Congress took up the issue of prescription drugs in 2003, the pharmaceutical industry spent $141 million on lobbying alone, hiring 952 lobbyists—nearly 10 for every U.S. senator. In return, Bush signed a Medicare Prescription Drug Law that offers few benefits to Medicare recipients, but delivers 139 billion dollars in increased profits to the pharmaceutical companies. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/14 "2004-08-19T02:57:36Z")
The pharmacuetical industry has a long standing tradition of support for American principles and the essential Christian values of entrepreneurship and fiscal prudence. As concerned corporate citizens, their support naturally gravitates to the candidate Al Queda most fears, for his candor, leadership, and love of freedom (Praise the Leader!) Attacking the imported drug supply would enhance the position of the pharm industry, thus channeling more funds to Al Queda’s most feared enemy. I have heard rumors to the effect that they were planning a subversive assault on our nation’s youth, seeking to sap thier moral vigor by flooding our streets with primo Afghani hashish, thus corrupting America down to the level of the depraved Dutch. Be assured, fellow Dopers, that I remain vigilantly alert for any such developments. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/15 "2004-08-19T02:58:42Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > I see no reason to exclude wealthy Democrats in the pharmaceutical industry. Wouldn’t _they_ want to protect their bottom line as well? The pharmaceutical industry directs two thirds of its political donations to republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/16 "2004-08-19T03:11:06Z")
> [@Squink](#): > > The pharmaceutical industry directs two thirds of its political donations to republicans. Your link isn’t working for me. Where is the other 3rd going? ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/17 "2004-08-19T03:26:11Z")
> [@spooje](#): > > Your link isn’t working for me. Where is the other 3rd going? Damn, “w” doesn’t work so well as a link. [Try this.](http://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.asp?Ind=H04) (If that fails, or you want to check other industries, use the drop down menu [here](http://www.opensecrets.org/)) Of course, the other third goes to the democrats. There’s no listing for Green, Libertarian, or Natural Law parties. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/18 "2004-08-19T03:39:03Z")
Sounds like they’re covering all the bases. All I’m saying is that democrats can be greedy fucks in business too. They, too, may benefit spreading money around to elected officials who could aid them. That’s all I’m saying. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/19 "2004-08-19T03:40:25Z")
I was always glad that i didn’t have to grow up during the feverish early days of the Cold War, when people were kept in fear by misleading and excessive government warnings, and when everyone who didn’t toe the line was automatically some sort of “commie” or “revolutionary.” Plus ca change, plus ce la meme chose. ---
**Author:** ![SolGrundy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@SolGrundy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SolGrundy)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2004, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486/20 "2004-08-19T04:04:03Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > _Shazam!_ Pharmaceuticals from Canada are a possible route for a terrorist attack, and John Kerry is soft on terrorism! > > Also in the news, terrorists may be seeking to use embryonic stem-cells in some unspecified way to attack America. 😃 Don’t forget that “radio chatter” suggests that al’Qaeda is sneaking anthrax into the country on the backs of same-sex marriage licenses issued in Massachusettes. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bush-administration-claims-terrorists-may-poison-prescription-drugs-from-canada/260486.md?page=2)