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Prescription Drugs South of the Border
http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1655031&nav=168XKx...
(Feb. 19) -- The growing gap between American consumers and affordable medicine is motivating more and more people to go pharmacy hopping in Mexico.
The U.S. Government says it's risky, but the people we met say it's all about the bottom line.
When Eyewitness News last told you about prescription bargains in Mexico, we were in the quiet border town of Algodones near Yuma, Arizona. It's a
magnet for seniors in RV's, seeking Celebrex and Viagra at bargain rates.
But our trip to Tijuana was a world apart. The busiest land border on the planet sees more than 45,000 vehicles everyday, and tens of thousands of
pedestrians. A person seeking just prescription medication has to go to a lot of trouble to get it here. The U.S. Customs Border Patrol is now a part
of Homeland Security. Ford says agents are vigilant, but try to use common sense about what they'll allow:
Ford says, "Residents can go south to Mexico and return with non-controlled prescription drugs as long as they're in possession of a U.S. doctor's
prescription, and is within certain quantities and it's declared and in it's original packaging. You can bring back about three months supply of
ordinary medicines -- if you have a U.S. doctor's prescription."
But the border patrol will clamp down hard on drugs that can be abused, including Valium, steroids, a muscle relaxant called Soma, and date-rape
drugs.
Ford says, "A lot of people are abusing the availability of drugs down in Mexico. Attempting to bring in medicines without prescription they really
shouldn't be in possession of. But for those people who are getting medicines for healing, it's reasonable.
The savings are substantial -- up to 50% or more on everything from blood pressure medication to topical creams. Las Vegas resident Lynn Bishop says
she saves quite a bit.
Bishop says, "The Retin-A, I think, is $30 a tube with your prescription. I think it is. I haven't bought it in the U.S. for years. There -- $8. Why?
I don't know, you tell me. Same product."
Thousands of Americans go to Tijuana for alternative treatments that are illegal in the U.S. I shared a taxi with a desperate cancer patient who said
he'd run out of options in the U.S. and was willing to try anything. Many U.S. doctors would say he's wasting his money.
Safety is also a concern raised by Las Vegas pharmacist Don Frisch.
Dr. Frisch says, "The problem is, it's buyer beware. A lot of the medications purchased over the border are actually, have the potential of being
adulterated. They can be counterfeit. Even if they look the same, have the same markings as the drugs we have here in the U.S., they may be totally
false."
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Anonymous
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Foreign drug warning issued
http://yumasun.com/artman/publish/articles/story_9751.shtml
BY JACOB LOPEZ
Feb 19, 2004
A caution sign by the FDA warning people who are going into Algodones, Baja Calif. to purchase medications
Warning!
If you buy drugs in a foreign country, you are risking your own health.
That is the advice the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is posting at the United States border, including
the nearby U.S. Ports of Entry at San Luis, Ariz., and Andrade, Calif.
Border agents have been also handing out pamphlets with the same warning to people entering the U.S. at the local border stations.
Michael Freeman, port director at San Luis, Ariz., said the pamphlets are intended as a community service to let people know to be careful when buying
prescription drugs from Mexico.
"We're not trying to frighten anyone," Freeman said. "This is a notification we want to give to the public as a caution to be cognitive of what you
are getting."
The manager of Farmacia Matriz, a pharmacy in Los Algodones, Baja Calif., who did not provide his name, said on Wednesday the drugs his store sells
are no different from the drugs sold in the U.S., except that they are manufactured in Mexico or elsewhere. He added many of the drugs manufactured in
Mexico are made by U.S. companies ? such as Pfizer and Glaxo Smith Kline.
He said he has not seen any negative results from selling the drugs, and that he is not concerned the pamphlets will affect business at his pharmacy,
which was packed with people buying prescription drugs.
Local winter visitor Virginia Deffries, who frequently buys prescription drugs from pharmacies in Algodones, said people have been throwing the
pamphlets in the trash just north of the border because they are upset that the government is trying to scare people into buying drugs from U.S.
pharmacies.
Deffries said price is the reason hundreds of people go to Mexico to buy their drugs. She said that although many of them may be generic, they do the
same job, and she has had no problem with drugs purchased in Mexico over 20 years of using them.
"It's very upsetting for our government to do something like this when you can see that it's special interest," Deffries said. "The drug companies are
behind this because they want to have you buy something (in the U.S.)."
Gilbert Meza, spokesman for the FDA in Arizona, said the administration is concerned that people may be buying drugs that are unsafe because they are
not approved by the FDA, which approves all prescription drugs sold in the United States through the scientific process of detailed trials, reviews
and assessments.
Meza said the pamphlets follow an examination done in January by the FDA, U.S. Customs and the U.S. Border Patrol of more than 1,700 unapproved drugs
which were purchased in foreign countries and brought into the United States.
"What we found were lots of the drugs being bought were basically unapproved drugs that lacked any kind of assurance of safety (or) effectiveness in
their quality and purity," Meza said. "And most of them were not labeled properly."
Meza said any labeling on prescription drugs that come into the United States should be in English so people can read it and understand what they are
buying.
"The problem there is you're buying something unknown," he said. "And you have no idea what you bought, and you're taking it at face value. To
circumvent the doctor by saving money can put you really at risk."
Joan Ulrich, a winter visitor who frequently buys drugs in Mexico, said she has been buying prescription thyroid medication in Mexico since 1985 and
has never had any physical problems.
She said her doctor in Columbus, Mont., tests her once a year and has never found a problem that would come from the drugs. She said her doctor even
advises her to buy the drugs in Mexico because they are cheaper.
"He tests me every year," Ulrich said. "And I'm right on. Perfect."
Michael Polzin, a spokesman at Walgreens headquarters in Deerfield, Ill., said while people may be saving money by going to Mexico to buy their drugs,
they are also risking their health.
He said people can buy cheaper generic versions of name-brand drugs in the United States that are FDA-approved. For instance, if someone buys the
name-brand drug Prozac ? used to treat depression ? at a Walgreens store, he or she will pay about $106. At the same store, the cost of its generic
version ? sluoxetine ? will only be about $45.
Deffries, who has bought drugs from Mexico for the past 20 years, said most of the drugs sold in Mexico are about half the price of the cheapest drugs
sold in the United States.
She said the only time she will buy drugs in the U.S. is when they are not available in Mexico. Then, she said, she will buys the generic version if
it is available.
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Mexitron
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Location: Fort Worth, Texas
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I get ear infections pretty easily, so when I'm on a 10 day trip into the seven sisters I want to have some erythromycin along(its a long drive to a
pharmacy from there!). I've asked U.S. doctors to give me a prescription ahead of time--just in case, but no go.....so I buy erythromycin in TJ on
the way down now.
A couple months ago I came down with that nasty old respiratory flu that's nailing everyone this year...two days into it I woke up in the middle of
the night with acute bronchitis fast turning into pneumonia...., I was shaking so bad from the chills I could barely walk. As I was commiserating
over the thought of a $1,500 ER bill I remembered that I might still have some erythromycin in my Baja First Aid kit....I stumbled around my garage
looking for it and Eureka! I still had about 7 pills.....I started popping them and by noon the next day the pneumonia had begun waning. and by the
next day was mainly gone...of course I went into the local doc and got refill and checkup, but those Baja antibiotics really saved my hide, or at
least my pocketbook!
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Stephanie Jackter
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Location: Arizona
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Probably both hide and pocketbook!
I keep ear drops and lydocaine spray, pentrexil and augmentin on hand at all times from Nogales and they have come in very handy. I just used some
pentrexil which I opened the capsule and sprinkled onto an infected wound my cat had. Not to speak of the hassles I avoid when my kids come down with
an ear ache.
I also have a friend with emphasyma that I buy 500 dollars worth of drugs for in Nogales every 3 months. If she had to buy the crap in America, she
would be paying tripple that and literally wouldn't be able to afford to eat. Whether those warning sheets have any inherent merit or not is a moot
point. People don't go to Mexico to buy their drugs so they can take a joy ride. They buy there because they simply cannot afford to do anything
else. No amount of CYA maneuvers by our government will change that fact - only getting a reign on out of control pharmaceutical companies will.-
Stephanie
When the goin' gets tough, the wierd turn pro
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Skeet/Loreto
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thanks for a good report.
Most of the Drugs purchased in Mexico are the same as what you get in the States.Same Bottle, Brand etc.
I use Penicillin on a regular basis, Socor etc. Found that the Price on Socor has gone up lately.
Something is going to have to happen!!
Steph. it will only happen when we as a group put pressure on the Pill companies.
Like fighting City Hall.
Skeet/Loreto
"IN God We Trust"
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