From: sbharris@ix.netcom.com (Steve Harris sbharris@ROMAN9.netcom.com) Newsgroups: soc.retirement,sci.med,sci.med.pharmacy Subject: Re: LATimes: Quest for Cheaper Drugs Can End in a Mexican Jail Date: 6 Sep 2004 13:35:51 -0700 Message-ID: <79cf0a8.0409061235.3f029088@posting.google.com> sufaud@hotmail.com (Sufaud) wrote in message news:<766fc3.0409051633.6d2f656@posting.google.com>... > Quest for Cheaper Drugs Can End in a Mexican Jail > > > Police crack down on Americans who buy medications without local > prescriptions. > By Chris Kraul > Times Staff Writer > > September 5, 2004 > > TIJUANA ? Californians shopping for cheaper prescription drugs may > have gotten a break when the Legislature voted to ease access to > low-cost medicines from Canada, but south of the border, > bargain-hunters can pay an unexpected, traumatic cost ? time in a > Mexican slammer. COMMENT: The idiot journalist who wrote this article either didn't know or didn't care about the difference between prescription *controlled* drugs and prescription *non-controlled* drugs. He gets close to the truth with the following (way down inside the article where it won't be noticed), but still misses essential facts: >>Although police are likely to look the other way a case such as Gonzalez's eyedrops, they can come down hard on those who buy controlled substances, such as those known by their U.S. brand names Valium, Ritalin, Percodan and Darvon.<< Wrong! The truth is that nobody is "looking the other way" at Gonzalez's eyedrops. They are perfectly legal to buy in Mexico, and perfectly legal to carry across the border and possess in the US. All without prescription. The same goes for antibiotics, Retin A wrinkle creme, many antidepressants, and all kinds of stuff people shop for regularly in Tijuana.. The difference between a prescription controlled substance (like Valium) and a prescription non-controlled substance (like penicillin) in the US is that the first is illegal to buy, sell, transfer, or even POSSESS without a prescription. But the second class of non prescription drugs is perfectly legal to POSSESS without prescription. It's simply illegal to buy, sell or transfer it without one. If you buy it in Mexico over the counter without presciption (legal) and carry it over the border to the US for your own personal possession and use, still without prescription, you're within the law, all the way. Generally 3 months supply for one person is the amount understood to represent "personal use". And yes, it is usually Valium-class drugs (Controlled Schedule V-- basically mostly sleeping pills and tranquillizers) which get tourists into trouble. The reason is that these are tightly controlled substance in the US, but not in Mexico. That means you can often buy them from a Mexican Pharmacy without prescription (I don't know if it is technically legal even in Mexico, but it is done), but it's illegal to possess them without such a prescription in the US. So the moment you cross the border with them, you break the law. Tourists rarely get into trouble with Schedule II and III drugs (Ritilin, Percodan, Vicodin, etc) SIMPLY because you can't even BUY these in Mexico at a pharmacy without a Mexican doctor's prescription, and they do monitor this. No pharmacy is going to risk its licence to do that. And if the tourist has seen a Mexican doctor and has a Mexican doctor's prescription, he/she can carry small amounts of these drugs over the border, legally, anyway. If a foreign doctor's prescrition didn't cover possession of small amounts of controlled medications for personal use, every traveler into the US from anywhere in the world would be relieved of all controlled substances, medicinal or not. Obviously that doesn't happen. Here's a good example of the way journalism screws people every day. This Chris Kraul guy wrote this article, but he never got it vetted by somebody (anybody) who knew anything about what he was writing about. So he got it all wrong. Shame on you, LA Times. SBH |