My Backyard

By Merrill Matthews

The past few years have been tough, shaking both Americans’ finances and consumer confidence.

One reason for the negative impact on consumer confidence came as a result of multiple revelations that there are dangerous products out there — products whose safety many of us had taken for granted. Products that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), as well as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), were supposed to be closely monitoring.

China dominated the most recent scandals. First we found out about the toxin melamine in pet food; then millions of toys were recalled because of lead-based paint; then we learned about the tainted milk; and, of course, the FDA discovered that some Chinese companies were putting diethylene glycol, or DEG, which is used in solvents and antifreeze, in our toothpaste.

Fortunately, it appears Congress has gotten the message and may beef up funding so government agencies can better do their jobs.

But the fact is that many other countries, and companies operating within those countries’ boarders, do not monitor products the way we do in the United States. Lack of oversight, rampant corruption, profiteering and cronyism all seem to play a role.

So it will be interesting to see if the Democratically-led Congress and the Obama administration move forward with their promise to open up our borders to imported prescription drugs.

Over the past eight years or so, prescription drug importation has become a mantra among Democrats. And President Barack Obama included it in his health care reform principles.

For years the Democrats, but also a fair number of Republicans, claimed that imported drugs were identical to what Americans bought at their local pharmacy — at a fraction of the cost. Some states, including Illinois with a Democratic governor and Minnesota with a Republican one, initiated state-based programs to help seniors and others get imported prescription drugs. Those programs were complete flops with only a handful of people ever enrolling.

Even so, the politicians defended importation as safe. “Show me the bodies,” became the cry of supporting congressmen, implying that imported drugs were safe because no one reportedly died from them. Sadly, those members of Congress were simply demonstrating they didn’t read the foreign press.

It’s true that Americans weren’t dying — at least not that we know of — but that’s primarily because, unlike the food and cosmetics scandals discussed above, the FDA has done such a good job of insulating the United States from foreign-made drugs (that is, from drugs manufactured in foreign, non-FDA-approved factories).

The World Health Organization, a United Nations body, estimates that 32 percent of the drugs coming out of Asia (primarily China and India) are substandard. That means they could be fakes, reduced dosages, contaminated or compromised.

In Nigeria, 30 children recently died after taking a medication that contained DEG.

Ah, but some proponents respond that that’s Nigeria. If we can just get the imported drugs from, say, Europe or Canada they’ll be safe, right?  Well, European Union customs agents recently announced that after a two-month effort they have seized more than 34 million illegal pills. And Canada gets many of its drugs from the EU.

Some Americans already try to bypass FDA controls and restrictions by buying prescription drugs online, usually without a prescription. That practice is very dangerous. Some experts warn that perhaps 90 percent of drugs bought online are counterfeit.

Of course, it should be said that consumers buying online from reputable U.S. drug store chains can be certain they are getting the same product as if they bought it at the pharmacy. Buying online isn’t the problem, it’s whom you buy the drugs from. A little Canadian flag waving at the top of an online pharmacy’s website is no guarantee it’s a licensed Canadian pharmacy.

The fact is that buying drugs from foreign sources, especially over the Internet, is extremely dangerous. Especially since drugs outside the U.S. move from vendor to vendor in ways impossible to track. The FDA doesn’t have the time, resources or authority to police every foreign entity trying to sell prescription drugs or the millions of packages they send out.

While all of us would like less-expensive drugs, we all want — and need — safe drugs. And the solution to the problem is legislation that will expand access to affordable health insurance coverage so that the uninsured have access to drugs — just as the Medicare Part D prescription drug program has helped millions of seniors get needed drugs.

Expanding insurance coverage, not importing drugs, is the only safe solution for a very unsafe world.
 
Merrill Matthews is a resident scholar at the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas, Texas.