It seems like I can’t turn on the evening news or open my hotmail Inbox hearing about it. As far as I know, Canada has always had the policies about OTC & Prescription Drugs that they have now. What’s with the sudden collective awakening south of th border?
Extra Credit Assignment: Discuss the legal and ethical issues raised by the availability of OTC pain killers, allergy medication, and the obligations of law-abiding Americans regarding same.
Extra-Extra Credit Assignment: Name something Canadians come to the States for (besides the occassional Hockey Game).
US prescription drug prices are the highest in the world due to the complete lack of government price regulation. Essentially, the pharmcos can charge whatever they damn well please. Canadian drug prices, on the other hand, are mitigated by government regulation and bulk discount pricing. This results in drug prices that can be as little as 1/3 to 1/2 the price of the same product in the US.
Some enterprising pharmacies in Canada have taken advantage of this discrepency to sell these drugs back to Americans, thus undercutting Amercian resellers. Understandably, this has pissed off the large drug companies who have been making veiled threats of curtailing supply to Canada if it doesn’t take steps to stop over-the-border prescription sales. It’s possible that Canada may see shortages of some drugs if sales to the US continue to grow.
Further complicating matters is that some American municipal and state governments bordering Canada have passed legislation designed to facilitate the purchase of Canadian drugs in order to appeal to their powerful senior citizens constitiuencies.
This, admittedly, is just my limited understanding of the issue as it currently stands and hopefully somebody will be able to correct me if I’ve gotten any of the details wrong. All in all, I think these issues have a real potential to become hot-button campaign issues in the upcoming American elections.
I really don’t have much input on pain-killers except to note that codeine is available over-the-counter in Canada but prescription only in the US. I don’t think Americans are allowed to take it over the border unless they can prove they have a prescription for it.
And, sorry to disappoint you Winston, but the last time I crossed into the US was, indeed, to see a hockey game. A rather dull snoozefest between the Buffalo Sabres and the Chicago Blackhawks if I recall correctly.