The Little Brown Reader

Libertarians urge overturning ban on re-imported prescription drugs

====================================
NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org
====================================
For release: September 4, 2003
====================================
For additional information:
George Getz, Communications Director
Phone: (202) 333-0008
====================================

Libertarians urge overturning ban
on re-imported prescription drugs

WASHINGTON, DC -- The federal ban on re-imported prescription drugs has
turned ailing senior citizens into criminals and dramatically inflated
the cost of medicine, says the Libertarian Party, which is supporting
legislation that would overturn the policy.

"This is price-fixing by the federal government, plain and simple,"
said Joseph Seehusen, Libertarian Party executive director. "In an
attempt to further enrich the pharmaceutical industry, politicians are
gouging senior citizens and interfering with every American's right to
buy products from wherever they choose."

Spurred by growing anger over skyrocketing drug prices, the U.S. House
took a step toward overturning the ban in July, when it passed a bill
that would allow drugs to be re-imported from Canada and 25 other
nations. But the Senate refused to adopt that legislation, and this
week a House-Senate conference committee is set to decide whether to
include that language in its $400 billion prescription drug bill.

Currently many Americans are purchasing the U.S.-made drugs in Canada
and other nations that sell them less expensively, then "re-importing"
them illegally into the United States.

The pharmaceutical industry and the FDA have launched a campaign
against the bill, arguing that re-importation could bring unsafe
medicines into the United States.

But Libertarians say the safety argument is just a scare tactic.

"Pharmaceutical companies disingenuously claim to want to 'protect'
people from the drugs that they themselves produced," Seehusen said.
"The truth is that this industry is far more worried about protecting
its government-protected profits than it is about protecting public
health."

The free-market itself offers all the protection that consumers need,
Seehusen said.

"If companies produce a defective product, bad publicity results, sales
plummet, and eventually executives get fired," he said. "Severe cases
can result in ruinous lawsuits and even criminal charges against
negligent executives.

"The same free market that rewards successful companies imposes a harsh
penalty on those that make harmful products -- whether those companies
are located in Canada, Germany, or the United States."

The real issue is economics, not safety, said Seehusen, who pointed out
that senior citizens are paying up to six times more for drugs in the
United States. The breast cancer drug Tamoxifen costs $60 in Munich but
$360 in the United States, for example.

"By outlawing these drugs, the government is simply propping up prices
for its corporate clients and gouging senior citizens in the process,"
he said.

That's why Libertarians support overturning the ban on re-imported
drugs.

"The free-market is the best prescription for reducing health-care
costs," Seehusen said. "It's time to decriminalize prescription drugs,
and protect senior citizens from the government."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/
2600 Virginia Ave. NW, Suite 100 voice: 202-333-0008
Washington DC 20037 fax: 202-333-0072
-----------------------------------------------------------------------