Debate on prescription drug imports is how, not if

WASHINGTON -- The debate over importation of cheap prescription drugs from other countries has shifted here from arguments about whether the practice should be done to how it should be done. The House already has passed a bill to further legalize and regulate importation and several bills are working through the Senate. Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., has promised a floor vote on the issue this year. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has said government approval of importation is "inevitable" and even industry opponents concede defeat.

"We started sensing (a shift) beginning early this year," said Robert Falb, congressional affairs director for the Healthcare Distribution Management Association, the industry group for wholesale distributors of prescription drugs.

The first crack in the wall stopping imports was the switch in positions of Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass. The crack widened when Mississippi Sen. Trent Lott announced his support, Falb said.

"I can no longer explain to my 90-year-old mother why her medications cost more than the same drugs from other countries," Lott, a Republican, wrote in an explanation of his position switch in late March. "I'm telling pharmaceutical companies to address the overall rising cost of their products or the federal government will, and it won't be pretty," he added.

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are outrageously high in the U.S. and people need relief from that.

How is it that the country that produced a drug has to buy it from another country sells it back at a cheaper price? The Repugs love to talk about free market and competition, but when it's your turn to purchase drugs from Canada, it's wrong.

the drug companies are leaning on Canadian clinics and pharmacies to stop selling to Americans, threatening to cut them off if they don't . . .