[wallinbl]

I'm really asking about this for my dog. She needs some arthritis medication that is $40 every two weeks. That's pretty expensive. I've found a generic version of the same drug that's available in Canada (not in US, though) that brings the cost down to $80 every 200 days. I can find all kinds of websites claiming to be Canadian pharmacies, but I can't find much on whether it is legal. I also can't find anything where customers rate the sites.

Is it legal? If so, can someone recommend websites that are legitimate?

I don't want to break the law (although I don't think there should be a law against it), and I don't want to buy sugar pills from a hoax site.

[olePigeon]

Bush & Co. made it illegal because you don't know where those nasty drugs come from. Surely some doped up guy in Canada is making illegal drugs for your dog.

Pets are an untapped market for drug dealers.

(Yes, it's currently illegal.)

[cjrivera]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
Bush & Co. made it illegal because you don't know where those nasty drugs come from. Surely some doped up guy in Canada is making illegal drugs for your dog.

Pets are an untapped market for drug dealers.

(Yes, it's currently illegal.)

I'm pretty sure this has been illigal long before the current administration, it has just been more publicized recently.

And the worry is the authenticity of the drugs from "abroad". Canada is likely to have the "real drug", but I'd hate to think about getting your prescriptions filled from Mexico.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
Bush & Co. made it illegal because you don't know where those nasty drugs come from. Surely some doped up guy in Canada is making illegal drugs for your dog.

Pets are an untapped market for drug dealers.

(Yes, it's currently illegal.)

What are you talking about?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/01/06....ap/index.html

"The issue has become touchy politically for President Bush, whose administration has argued that reimporting U.S.-made drugs from Canada would put consumers at risk because U.S. regulators could not guarantee their safety."

"Under current practice, a prescription from a U.S. doctor is faxed to a Canadian doctor who reviews the patient's health history. The Canadian doctor then signs and faxes the prescription to a so-called Internet pharmacy, which ships the drug."

So in other words the only reason they don't like it is because it means lost dollars for the US and they use a fear tactic (like everything else in the US) to make you think it is not safe.

[James L]

Canadian medications are quite safe, especially considering we usually wait for the FDA to make their mistakes and then approve (or not) medications for use in Canada after that. Classic case in point was the approval of Viagra in the US, and the plethora of deaths that followed before people realized they were nitrate loading patients who were also on nitro for angina and other conditions and causing profound hypotension. That is why viagra, cialis, and lavitra contraindicate the use of nitroglycerin to treat chest pain within certain time frames. Viagra also has other effects on the circulatory system besides compounding the hypotensive effects of nitrate based medications.

...and no, I don't use any of the above!

So the poster above is correct. Many of these drugs are made in the US. The fact that the Canadian medical system has them available means they have usually been tested quite stringently, often well after the FDA has already approved them.

The US government is just pissed about it from a financial point of view. Mind you, if they just made health care affordable for all US citizens there wouldn't be this internet based system of buying meds from other countries anyway.

[Severed Hand of Skywalker]

Yes pretty much EVERY drug in Canada comes much later that the US because they have a wait and see approach and do more testing than the FDA. If anything the drugs are safer.
They want to SCARE you to think it is some guy in his basement so the US don't lose so much money. If the imported drugs were bad don't you think there would be a report within 10 minutes in every paper?

Like they said above, don't get your drugs from Mexico.

[olePigeon]

I thought the "pet drug dealer" would tip off my sarcasm.

Originally posted by Severed Hand of Skywalker:
What are you talking about?

http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/01/06....ap/index.html

"The issue has become touchy politically for President Bush, whose administration has argued that reimporting U.S.-made drugs from Canada would put consumers at risk because U.S. regulators could not guarantee their safety."

"Under current practice, a prescription from a U.S. doctor is faxed to a Canadian doctor who reviews the patient's health history. The Canadian doctor then signs and faxes the prescription to a so-called Internet pharmacy, which ships the drug."

So in other words the only reason they don't like it is because it means lost dollars for the US and they use a fear tactic (like everything else in the US) to make you think it is not safe.

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

Originally posted by olePigeon:
I thought the "pet drug dealer" would tip off my sarcasm.

Hey, my answer was before the 3 Amigos came in here and said the same thing on a serious note.