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U.S. to ease Canadian drug import rule

The bill allows 90-day supplies of medications bought in Canada but still prohibits foreign purchases via mail order or Internet.

By Doug Trapp, amednews staff. Oct. 16, 2006.

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Washington -- Americans traveling to Canada to bring back cheaper prescription drugs soon might no longer need to worry about U.S. Customs and Border Protection seizures.

A provision in the recently passed Homeland Security Appropriations bill will keep border agents from confiscating medication as long as it is a 90-day supply of noncontrolled, Food and Drug Administration-approved prescription drugs.

The measure does not legalize the purchase of drugs from other countries via the Internet or by mail order, said Lynn Hollinger, spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection. But Customs on Oct. 4 announced that it will stop seizing mailed packages of imported drugs from Canada as long as they contain noncontrolled, FDA-approved medications and don't look suspicious.

The FDA continues to have reservations about the safety of imported drugs. Consumers who import drugs from other countries are in violation of the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. While the agency has and may seize their drugs, it has instead focused its enforcement actions on commercial entities illegally importing large amounts of drugs.

House and Senate leaders had reservations about the provision but not enough to upset the delicate balance of compromises ensuring that the Homeland Security spending bill would pass before the elections break.

An aide for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, MD (R, Tenn.), said the senator wanted to see more safety provisions in the bill, which President Bush is expected to sign.