Drug importation is not only illegal, it is unsafe.  Unfortunately, far too many Americans, particularly seniors, are unaware of or simply ignoring those facts.  That’s why the Center for Individual Freedom’s Corporate Counsel, Renee Giachino, spoke with Al Cors, the Director of Government Affairs for RetireSafe, about the hazards of drug importation on the radio program “Your Turn — Meeting Nonsense with Common Sense.”  What follows are excerpts from the recent interview that aired on WEBY 1330AM, Northwest Florida’s Talk Radio.

GIACHINO:  It is my pleasure to welcome Al Cors from the organization RetireSafe.  Al is the Director of Government Affairs for RetireSafe, and we are going to talk with him about prescription drugs and importing those drugs from Canada and other countries.  Al, are you with us?

CORS:  I am, and it is a pleasure to be on the air with you this afternoon, Renee.

GIACHINO:  Thank you very much.  I appreciate your coming on the air with us.  I visited your website and it is a remarkable website — it is www.retiresafe.org for those listeners out there who want to pull it up on their computer while I am conducting the interview.  RetireSafe actually covers a whole host of different issues — not just the importation and the importance of getting good prices on medical prescriptions to our senior citizens.  Al, if you would please just give us a little background information about RetireSafe?

CORS:  Sure.  RetireSafe is a grassroots based organization with 300,000 senior supporters across America.  We are in every state.  Our mission is to preserve and protect benefits and options for older Americans and to help them to have a better retirement.

GIACHINO:  Just before the beginning of this year, I understand that RetireSafe conducted a report, or rather did some research on a report that was issued by the Department of Health and Human Services on drug importation.  I think it was done by the Drug Importation Task Force which is part of our government’s Department of Health and Human Services.  Al, if you would please tell us about what that report had to say about the importation of prescription drugs?

CORS:  Well, it said many things and — to sort of sum it up because I know that the task force took almost a year and took testimony from literally hundreds of people, some of the best medical minds in the country, even took testimony from people in Canada who had a stake in importation — in their findings, to put it succinctly, number one there is no possible way at this time that imported drugs, either from Canada and certainly not from other countries, could be deemed to be safe or could be guaranteed to be safe.  Number two, if drugs were imported from Canada and other places in a large scale way — in other ways as some are attempting to do in Congress — there would be very little savings because of the tremendous costs involved in even trying to begin to make those drugs safe for the consumers.

GIACHINO:  I think there is no doubt out there, and I think your organization stands behind just about any effort out there to help senior citizens — and anyone else for that matter — obtain their necessary prescription drugs at the best cost savings to the consumer.  I think we are all on the same page about that.  Where I think the issue becomes a little fractured is when we have to ask how much we are willing to give up for that cost savings?

That to me is what it really gets down to as a consumer and even more importantly as a parent — how much am I willing to give up in order to save some money?  And by giving up what I am referring to — and I would like you to elaborate on a little — is the simple fact that when we import drugs, and even though the final stamp or postmark may say “Canada,” those drugs may not necessarily even be manufactured in Canada or for that matter any other industrialized nation.  In fact, we may ultimately end up getting a drug that we are not even sure what we are getting.  Carry that one step further and we have the concern of not even knowing who we are going to hold accountable or liable in the event that we ultimately get something that we should not have gotten.  Have I hit some of the right issues on this?

CORS:  Absolutely the right issues, and it goes even one step further than that because in most cases now — in some instances where the states are involved or if you try to import drugs over the Internet — in most cases you give up any legal recourse.  You sign off on that when you take your chance.  As you noted, studies have indicated that many of the drugs that people think they are getting from Canada actually come from Bulgaria and Pakistan and Iran and places that, certainly, if I had a choice I would not want drugs from.  So it is important to note that even from Canada — where most people think they are getting safe drugs — if you are buying drugs over the phone or over the Internet, certainly there is a good chance that you will get drugs from somewhere else in the world and certainly someplace where you would rather not have them from.

GIACHINO:  What is the current status on the legality of buying prescription drugs over the Internet or over the phone from overseas?  Is it legal or illegal?

CORS:  It is totally illegal.

GIACHINO:  So it is totally illegal, but people are doing it every day.

CORS:  And it is ever so dangerous.  People say, “Well, we have not seen this massive flood of people who have passed away because of ordering drugs over the Internet.”  But the problem is that in many cases you are not going to know that that is the cause.  For example, I take Lipitor to lower my cholesterol, and I am a young guy of 58 and the problem would be that if I got fake Lipitor — and there was a big scare a year ago with mass quantities of Lipitor in the system — if I got fake Lipitor, I am not having that good action that I should be having that lowers my cholesterol.  I could have a heart attack and they would just say, “Oh, poor Al had a heart attack.”  But the problem would be that I had fake drugs.  Most people don’t know it.  There was a big article in The Washington Post this month that talked about the World Health Organization’s estimation that counterfeit drugs are now a $32 billion business and that 8 to 10 percent of all of the drugs in the world are counterfeit.

GIACHINO:  And we are not talking about illegal drugs such as heroin or cocaine or something like that.  I want to make it very clear that we are talking about prescription drugs that a physician has prescribed for a patient to take, and they have found that they can get it cheaper by importing it over the Internet from out of this country — trying to skirt the law on all of this.

Did I recently read or hear something about people’s attitudes about drug importation?  I think a lot of people feel that if they are getting it from Canada they don’t have to worry — Canada is our neighbor and they think that they are going to be protected.  But, I think their feelings change if they learn that they are simply getting drugs with a postmark from Canada.  Am I right?  Wasn’t there a recent study that was done on that issue?

CORS:  Yes, there was.  It was conducted by the Public Opinion Company which is in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C.  And they are a very reputable polling firm, and they found that when you started talking about some of the legislation in Congress and especially one of the bills that will have a Senate hearing soon, it would allow drugs from 20 some countries, and among those countries are Slovakia, Greece and Portugal.  These countries are not Canada.  And when they asked in the survey how the seniors felt about that — people who are 60 years and older — 71 percent opposed it.  I think seniors understand that walking into a drug store in Canada is one thing, but getting drugs from Slovakia and Estonia might be something else altogether.  So fortunately we are trying to get the word around that that is what this bill would do so that people can understand it and make a decision about whether to contact their Representatives and Senators and tell them that this is ridiculous.

Seventy-nine percent opposed legislation that would allow imported drugs to be given to them without their knowledge.  These bills would allow drugs into the country that would be mixed with the domestic drugs.  You will not know and your doctor will not know where it is from.  There is no country of labeling requirement.  Seventy-two percent of the seniors would oppose that.  I think there are some major problems with importation.

I was just reading another article from the Arizona Republic that talked about getting drugs from Mexico and people have died.  They traced two deaths in California and one in New Mexico to drugs that came in from Mexico.  So when you get outside of the FDA approved prescription drug system, which no doubt is the finest in the world, you can get anything and you really are taking a chance.

GIACHINO:  We have spoken quite a bit on this program about our lax immigration laws here in the United States, and I know that people out there think that I sound like Chicken Little because I am always bringing up how some of these different laws or the lack thereof leaves us vulnerable to future terrorist attacks, but I think that Rudy Giuliani is dead on with this.  Just yesterday, the former New York Mayor warned that drug imports from Canada or anywhere else could become a tool for terrorists.  What do you think about that Al?

CORS:  I think he is absolutely correct.  I actually saw that same report and they put a lot of really thoughtful effort and study into that report, and I think if anyone can speak to America about terrorism it is Rudy Giuliani.

GIACHINO:  That’s right.  I think it is interesting.  I know the report is quite long and I have not read it in its entirety, but I did read a synopsis of it and it says that it is not difficult to imagine a scenario in which a terrorist group could use this drug importation system either to finance its operations or, worse yet, as a vehicle of attack on our country.  As you said, there is no labeling of the nation of origin and you cannot be sure of where it is coming from, and hence I think you can never be entirely sure of what you are getting.  Am I right Al?

CORS:  That is exactly right.

GIACHINO:  I think that a lot of the thrust behind drug importation has little to do with common sense and more to do with pocketbooks.  Obviously everybody is looking for the best deal that they can get.  Unfortunately, that does not mean that it is always the safest.  Al, can you offer any analogies to help the listeners better understand this issue?

CORS:  The analogy I would draw is very simply as if someone came up to you on the street and said they had some cheap prescription drugs they would like to sell you and they can sell you a three month supply at a very cheap price.  You would laugh at them and tell them to get away.  Second thing you would do is look for a cop to call.  The fact of the matter is that that is exactly what is happening here.  You don’t know where these drugs are coming from, what country they were made in, and you don’t know what the ingredients are, whether they are the right ingredients or even if there are any active ingredients.  Again, a whole shipment of drugs from Mexico turned out to have no active ingredient.  It is like playing Russian roulette.  It is not only not as good of a deal as you think, it is a very bad deal.

GIACHINO:  I think what confuses this issue is that in some respects people see it as our federal government at odds with our state governments.  By that I mean that we have some governors, like Jim Doyle in Wisconsin and the Illinois Governor, they are out there telling people that our federal government is wrong and that it should not be illegal for us to import drugs from Canada.  I think it sends a confusing message to the people who are trying to following this debate and determine what is in their best interest and that of their family and their pocketbook. 

I want to let the listeners know about a recent case in which a district court judge in Illinois threw out a lawsuit late last month that was seeking to compel the Bush Administration to legalize the purchase of prescription drugs from Canada.  Al, are you familiar with this case?

CORS:  I am.  You know the judge said very simply that they had no right to break the law and import the drugs, and he threw the case out.

GIACHINO:  I think a very good argument is made by the United States in this situation.  The Administration opposes the importation of prescription drugs because the U.S. cannot insure their safety.  What frightens me from a legal liability standpoint is that we have a state governor or representative or anyone in a public body get up and say that no matter what federal law says we think that it is okay.  To me that opens the door of liability for that state.  Am I right?

CORS:  You are right about that.  I am in agreement that the governors who are doing that are totally irresponsible.  But you will note that in every one of their plans you have to sign off and waive any legal recourse.

GIACHINO:  Again, very troubling.

CORS:  They are very happy to break the federal law and urge you to do it, but you are not going to have any legal recourse.  You have to give that up.

GIACHINO:  If you had any to begin with.

CORS:  Two things that are important for your listeners to know.  If they need help with their prescription drugs, there is help out there in a lot of places.  One of the places for seniors 65 and over — there will be a new Medicare Part D that will take effect on January 1, 2006, that will in effect pay 75 percent of your first $2,250 of prescription drug costs.  This is a tremendous new benefit that has never been there before in Medicare.

And if you are not a senior, last year the pharmaceutical companies essentially gave away $4.18 billion in assistance.  That is 22 million prescriptions that they gave away.  They have a new program called “Partnership for Prescription Assistance.”  You can call 1-888-477-2669 or go to their website at www.pparx.org.  If you need help with your drug costs there is a lot of help out there.  All of the pharmaceutical companies and more than 50 national organizations are participating in that program.  There is tremendous help out there and I would urge your listeners not to take a chance on Internet drugs.  Please share with your friends the dangers of drug importation.

GIACHINO:  Al, thank you very much for being with us today.  If people want to learn more about your organization, how can they do that?

CORS:  Please visit our website at www.retiresafe.org and we would be happy to answer any questions.

GIACHINO:  Thank you again.  I would like to invite you back another time so that we can talk about the long-term effects of what will happen in our drug industry and to the drug companies’ ability to conduct research and development if they begin to struggle financially because of drug importation.  Thank you again, Al Cors, Director of Government Affairs for RetireSafe.

CORS:  Thank you, Renee.