Every American who watches television, reads the newspaper, or listens to the radio knows they can obtain less expensive drugs from sources outside the US. Historically, because of the federal government’s openly permissive stance on importation, people in US border states simply crossed over with their prescription orders and came home with their medications - and even some of their money.

With the advent of web-based pharmacies; spurred on by wildly escalating US drug prices; and aware of the federal government’s "humanitarian" position of not enforcing the US’s antiquated, protectionist drug importation laws, beleaguered and financially-strapped Americans have flocked to their mail boxes to realize huge savings on their medications.

Recognizing the potential for medical complications caused by omission of imported drugs from patients’ drug profiles, some visionary - even courageous - retail pharmacies stepped up to fill the void. Despite the threat of lost revenues, they offered to inform their "importing" customers of a safer mechanism; to advise them on which of their medications would cost them less through importation; and to answer their questions about the medications that they chose to import. Upon being assured of such a net revenue loss, one North Carolina pharmacist replied, "I don’t care. I’m tired of taking 50 to 75% of an elderly customer’s social security check and passing it on to a drug company based in China, Japan, England, Germany, Switzerland, etc. that charges Americans more for their products than anyone else in the world!"

Enter the states – flexing their regulatory "muscles": Despite the federal government’s historic and highly-publicized lenient position on medications’ importation, some states’ elected officials and regulatory agencies have vowed to "come down" hard on these intervening pharmacies.

One has to ask: Whose side are these guys on, anyway?

…Certainly not US consumers – As many Americans are struggling to pay exorbitant US prices for their medications, their predicament is compounded by a shrinking economy; depleted retirement accounts with depreciated stocks caused by a marketplace devastated by fraud and misrepresentation; and almost no income from their interest-bearing savings. And now, some states’ "public servants" are intervening "in the public interest" to deprive their own citizens of mechanisms to safely acquire less costly medications.

…Certainly not the American and local economies – Recession-impacted US businesses could certainly use the extra sales generated from consumers’ savings from imported drugs. US citizens saving money on their medications would undoubtedly spend it on groceries, new clothes, home repairs and maybe even a few luxuries like eating out, going to a movie or taking a pleasure ride.

…Certainly not the local retail pharmacy – Amid these state entities’ intimidating threats of "investigation" and/or "prosecution" some potential retailer participants choose to sit on the sidelines in wonderment. Bewildered, they are asking themselves, "Why are these agencies threatening us like this, and in doing so depriving customers who choose to import their medications access to the very safeguards that these same regulators otherwise demand we provide to our patients?"

…This leaves only the multinational drug manufacturers – Threatened state actions profit only the mega-corporations that have virtually eliminated cost competition through mergers and acquisitions. These giants, including British-based Glaxo-SKB behave like cartels to maintain high US drug prices – exactly as OPEC did when they embargoed oil shipments to the US. However, long gas lines and empty pumps do not quite equate to sick people who cannot afford to pay higher US prices for their drugs. These foreign-based companies are using US citizens’ money to try to buy the government – spending 50 million dollars on sympathetic candidates in the last general election and keeping 600 lobbyists in Washington, D.C.

These states are out of step – both with import-supportive states and a sympathetic federal groundswell. Evidence? Fearing federal legislation enabling unencumbered individual importation of medications, these international conglomerates that once fought a funded Medicare benefit for fear of government price controls have reversed their position. They are now all for one – especially since it would make US taxpayers subsidize their high prices, allowing them to continue price-gouging Americans at will.