HOW HE SEES IT Kerry's plan to send work to Canada

By MERRILL MATTHEWS
SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE
If Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry were being honest about his agenda, he would be saying, "When I am elected president, I will work hard to ensure that good, high-paying U.S. jobs are exported to Canada."
That will be the result of Kerry's proposal to ensure that Americans can legally buy prescription drugs from Canada.
Kerry is all lathered up about U.S. outsourcing, in which U.S. companies ship jobs to other countries. He says he wants to reduce or eliminate outsourcing, so that those jobs stay in the states.
But the senator also wants to legalize the importation (also referred to as "reimportation") of prescription drugs from Canada to the United States. Note that I said "legalize," because buying prescription drugs from other countries that bypass the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval process is illegal.
Of course, for years a relatively small number of Americans have been crossing the border into Canada and Mexico to buy prescriptions. But while doing so is illegal, the FDA and U.S. Customs have allowed Americans to bring in small quantities of prescription drugs -- usually considered as a 90-day supply -- for personal use. Like those who drive five or 10 miles per hour over the speed limit, the authorities generally ignore the infraction.
However, during the past few years the importation of prescription drugs has exploded. Canadian companies are exporting about $1.1 billion worth of prescription drugs to the United States.
The effects here
Have any of the politicians so enamored with importing drugs stopped to think that if a Canadian pharmacist is filling your prescription, an American pharmacist isn't? Pharmacists are important members of the community. They are the ones who recognize you, answer your questions and take the time to look at your medications to ensure there are no potential adverse interactions. Their companies have to invest the money to keep a thousand prescriptions on hand so they have what you need when need it.
Pharmacists are highly trained and generally receive handsome compensation. They bring value to the community. Yet Kerry -- the candidate railing against outsourcing -- is pushing a plan that would begin putting your local pharmacist out of a job, sending those good, high-paying U.S. jobs north to Canada -- or other countries.
If U.S. politicians -- many of whom also support importation -- haven't figured this out, the Canadians sure have. A recent newspaper article says that Internet pharmacies operating in Manitoba, the Canadian province that has profited the most from the importation craze, have hired more than 3,000 people to fill U.S. prescriptions. Legalize importation and that great sucking sound you hear will be pharmacists' jobs fleeing north.
Ironically, while drug importation has not become a jobs issue in the United States, it has in Canada. Although the Canadian government is feeling a lot of pressure to stop the illegal importation of drugs from Canada to the United States from its own citizens who are concerned that they will see their costs rise and access diminished, the politicians can also see the explosion of new jobs and are understandably reluctant to put a stop to it.
Apparently, Canadian politicians are much more concerned about gaining those new jobs than U.S. politicians are about losing them.
The public should be concerned about that. The U.S. drug distribution system is the safest in the world. Outside the United States, and especially outside the industrialized nations, the world is filled with counterfeit prescription drugs. There have been only a few instances in which those drugs have found their way into U.S. pharmacies, but the threat is growing.
The fact is that your local pharmacist stands as a sentry between you and mishandled, watered-down and counterfeit drugs. They ensure that you are not taking medications that could interact negatively. They are there to protect you and your safety. Kerry and other supporters of importation would change all of that by sending those jobs north. Are you willing to trust those unseen and unknown Internet pharmacies to protect your safety and your health?
XMerrill Matthews, Ph.D., is a resident scholar with the Institute for Policy Innovation in Dallas.