The state Board of Pharmacy will target low-cost prescription drugs from Canada as being risky.
By Associated Press
Published June 25, 2003
TALLAHASSEE - A $750,000 advertising campaign will warn Floridians about what the state says are dangers posed by low-cost prescription drugs from Canada.
The state Board of Pharmacy campaign will begin in the fall, targeting Canadian connection storefronts that are popping up throughout the state. The ads also will caution against purchasing medications off the Internet.
This month the board declared such businesses to be pharmacies practicing without a license, though neither the board nor its parent, the Department of Health, has authority to shut them down.
"People need to be aware they are taking a lot of risks if they are going to unlicensed and unregulated pharmacies," said Health Department spokesman Bill Parizek.
Discount Drugs of Canada founder Earle Turow called the planned ads "a smear campaign." He and other business owners say the state is trying to protect U.S. drug firms' profits.
Turow's company has 43 affiliates in 13 states, including Florida, with plans to open another 50 stores by the end of the year.
He says his stores neither stock nor mail medications. Prescriptions and paperwork are faxed to a Canadian pharmacy, where orders are filled and sent directly to customers, often seniors on fixed incomes.
Canadian pharmacies can sell some of the drugs most commonly used by Americans at 30 percent to 50 percent less, as a national health care plan covers its 33-million citizens and the government negotiates bulk medication prices.
On Friday, the U.S. Senate voted to let drugs be imported from Canada and resold at lower prices, as long as the practice poses no health risks. The Food and Drug Administration says it can't vouch for the safety of Canadian drugs.
The money for the state's campaign will come from a $5 fee pharmacists pay annually when renewing their licenses.
