Cross Border Shopping

[bcholmes]

The other day, I was reading an article from the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Chronicle in Iowa. It warned its readers of the grave dangers of buying drugs from discount Canadian Internet Pharmacies.

I have no opinion about using the Internet to buy drugs (except that it's one of the ways that trans folk without many options can get access to hormones). But the article was full of such fear/uncertainty/doubt tactics, it was annoying. Consider this caution:

Second, who said anything about purity or quality-control standards? [...] Most important, there is no United States Food and Drug Administration regulation of Canadian pharmacies, so you can never be assured that the drugs you get from Canada have been FDA-approved. [...] Were these drugs produced in high-quality Canadian labs or where they made in somebody's garage? How would you know?

That's right. Here in Canada, we let just anyone make drugs.

The thing that's interesting is that this is so familiar. Growing up in a border town, the debates about cross-border shopping were endless. For several years, Sarnians didn't buy their gas in Sarnia 'cause the price difference made it a lot cheaper in Port Huron (even with the exchange rate). Gas station managers would be interviewed about the dramatic loss of business and they'd say, "Well, sure, if people don't care what that gas is doing to their cars..." (There was some fact buried in this fiction. I don't know if this is still true, but at the time, the US allowed a number of additives to be added to the gasoline that Canada banned. American cars seemed to tolerate the additives. I suspect there's a pollution difference, though).

But it's interesting that the F/U/D tactics are on that side of the border. I don't think I've seen that before.

I was talking with someone a while ago about how growing up in a border town affected my attitudes about borders and customs and what-have-you. I said, "We'd cross the border once a week. As a result, I've never seen customs as remotely intimidating."

And my friend said, "Why did you cross the border every week?" As if to ask, "why did you need to cross the border?"

But that's the difference. We didn't need to cross the border; we'd cross the border for dinner. We'd go for that Chicken-in-the-rough restaurant, or the fancy-schmancy seafood place. I'd buy my comics from the big comic store on the main stretch in Port Huron. It was like the border didn't really exist, except as this place where you had to stop and state your citizenship.

Comments

[the_axel]

I'm sure if you look at any measure introduced by a Congressman to restrict imports because he thinks he could get some votes if his constituents had less competition then you'd find FUD in use.

And Canaddian politicians doing the same in reverse.

It's probably the most effective sales techniques going.

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

Drugs, and gasoline, are made in giant vats. It's cheaper and easier in the long run to make the base product exactly the same, since at that point, there's little (if anything) in the way of need to make it different. Maybe when it gets down to asking the tank truck driver if he's going to Port Huron, they'll turn the "additive" spigot on and it'll mix in the hose leading into the truck. For the drugs, the only difference is the pricing sheet Glaxo-Welcom or Pfizer uses to bill from depending on address. It's too little savings and too much risk from the very same FDA to do otherwise. What if the madethe drugs differently? And someone shipped a box to the wrong place? How many millions would the FDA fine them and how many lawsuits would they be exposed to? No, it's better to be able to provably meet the highest standard for anyplace they're licensed to sell to, and document to that level.

[the_axel]

Not to mention that the pharmaceutical company would need to reformulate the drug, and what would be the point of doing that? They would have to run separate clinical trials for that formulation because the Canadian government, like every other Western nation, has a vested interest in ensuring the drugs work as advertised - if they don't, the victims end up using the tax-payer funded health care system to recover, thus increasing costs and pissing off voters.

[kightp.livejournal.com]

I went to college in Sault Ste. Marie, Mich., one of the few US-Canada border crossings where the Canadian city is much larger than it's US counterpart. As you note, people on both sides of the border treated it as invisible - we on the US side crossed to take advantage of the shopping and dining opportunities; those on the other side came over to go to school, or to go dancing on Sunday nights when the bars in Ontario were closed. If you stuck your hand in your pocket and came up with a fistful of change, odds were it would be pretty evenly split between US and Canadian coins. The college paper of which I was editor for a year was printed across the river, and every Wednesday night we drove the galley proofs across. One winter I was cast in a play by the little theater group on the Canadian side and hitch-hiked across the border five nights a week for rehearsals.

We all got to know the customs people at each end of the bridge, by sight and sometimes by name. Oddly, the only hassles I ever had - and they were few - were on the US side, trying to get back into my own country.

[firecat]

Having grown up in Detroit, I recall border-crossing with ease (which served me later when I was living in Montreal but receiving mail across the border). I wasn't particularly aware of debates about it, though. I don't know if they were only Canadian debates, or if I was just clueless.

[epi-lj.livejournal.com]

Growing up in Windsor, I went to Detroit two or three times a week many weeks. I saw many movies there, ate dinner there often, bought many, many CDs there, etc. My Dad, Brother-in-Law and Sister all live in Windsor still and work in Detroit.

[medhba.livejournal.com]

Recently, Tulsa, OK-based Rx Depot came under fire for importing Canadian pharmaceuticals (http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/09/11/rx.depot/). Eventually, they were shut down.
Interestingly enough, the federal government uses Canadian pharmaceuticals for veterans.

They want to have their pie and eat it too....

[catskillmarina.livejournal.com]

The US gove has been working tirelesly to get
these free trade agreements going, GATTS, FTAA
and the like, but when it hurts a powerfull
and profitable industry like the drug industry
they yelp. Quite the bit of hipocrisy....