Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives tentatively agreed Thursday to prohibit Customs agents from seizing prescription drugs Americans buy in Canada and take back into the United States.

The deal would let Americans carry up to a 90-day supply of medication back to the United States from Canada without being stopped by Customs agents, House and Senate Republicans said. But it would not let Americans purchase cheaper prescriptions over the Internet or by mail-order, officials said.

"This really breaks the dam and it shows that it's only a matter of time before we pass a full-blown reimportation bill," said Senator David Vitter, a Louisiana Republican, who led the fight in the Senate to prohibit the Homeland Security Department from seizing prescription drugs being carried over the border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection is an arm of the Homeland Security Department.

Vitter acknowledged sales of drugs though mail order or through the Internet are significant.

But he added: "I think support for that is going to continue and going to continue to grow, no matter what this bill says or doesn't say."

President George W. Bush has rejected repeated congressional efforts to lift the ban on prescription imports. Medications are generally cheaper in Canada because of government price controls.

While importing drugs into the United States is illegal, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration generally has not stopped small amounts of medicine purchased for personal use. But U.S. Customs officials began intercepting imported prescription drugs two years ago and has seized more than 34,000 packages of drugs over the last year.

The pre-election controversy over the new rule threatened to split House Republican leadership who oppose lifting the import ban and rank-and-file Republican legislators who want to help elderly voters buy cheaper drugs.

However, many Customs agents already allow prescription drugs into the U.S. from Canada because they don't rigorously search people and cars for them.

Opponents said importing drugs that do not have FDA approval could be unsafe for consumers. The FDA says it cannot guarantee the safety of imported drugs.

Representatives for the pharmaceutical industry claimed Canadian Internet pharmacies, for example, have been known to sell fake and potentially unsafe medicines to unknowing American consumers through other countries.

"Americans should look at much safer alternatives that already exist and are proving to be incredibly effective here at home," said Ken Johnson, senior vice-president for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, brand-name drugs cost, on average, 35 to 55 per cent less in other industrialized countries than they do in the United States. Supporters of importing drugs contend that the U.S. is subsidizing the cost of medicine for the rest of the world.

The prescription drug policy shift would be included in a US$33.7 billion bill to fund the Homeland Security Department next year. Legislators who control the department's spending levels will meet Monday to debate other last-minute changes to the legislation, which has also been stymied by proposals to give Homeland Security regulatory oversight of security measures at chemical plants.

Legislators were negotiating whether to let the department require some high-risk chemical facilities to use nontoxic materials that would be more expensive but safer to the public if there is a release. The chemical industry strongly opposes such a requirement, and environmentalists have been pushing for it just as vociferously.

Labels: No Prescription, Online Pharmacy, Prescription Drugs