Comments

1
President Sanders continues to be the soul of America and shows us the way forward.
2
"re"-importation of drugs is a dumb way of making drugs cheaper. If you want to make drugs in the US competitive with drugs elsewhere then we need to learn from them on how they made them cheaper and do that here. Are Canadian drugs cheaper due to price controls? Negotiation? Smaller pills with fewer fillers? Whatever it is, do it here. Fix our problem, don't just let allow savvy shoppers to bypass our shitty system while leaving others fucked.

Telling people they can buy a cheaper version of the same thing from a "Canadian" website is risky. It's easy to make a site look like it's Canadian or French or British when it's actually made by some Russian mobster. Do you really want the safety of someone's drugs based on their ability to trace an IP address?
3
It's likely Murray receives a ton of money period because of her leadership roles within the Democratic caucus.
4
When some of the Republicans in charge started assuring Americans that the ACA would be repealed but not before putting something better in its place, my first reaction was, "Yeah, that's likely." I've now come to believe that they will probably repeal and replace. They are going to replace healthcare for millions of Americans with $250 co-pays and $10,000 deductibles. Just watch. Any they will call it "freedom of choice."
5
Canada's regulatory system is just fine. I trust them
6
This just shows that corporate money matters a hell of a lot more than actually doing their jobs.

These senators were out of step with the Dems. who put them in office - their vigorous support of losing Shillary totally in contrast with the candidate who actually had a platform to offer and won the state primary by a large margin.

They need to be replaced. Patty is the bigger disappointment here, Maria is constantly invisible except for some annual Save the Gay Whales press event.
8
Just because something is a good idea in the abstract does not mean that every possible way of doing it is a good idea in the real world. To cite an example from close to home, one might support tearing down the Viaduct but vote against a bill that does so in connection with building a deep-bore tunnel.

We as a nation have spent a ton of resources over the past few years to better track where pharmaceuticals come from and how they move around, under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act. That makes it easier to find and punish counterfeiters, to conduct recalls, to keep our drug supply as safe as possible, and to hold wrongdoers accountable. Maybe that was all a mistake, and what we really need is deregulation. Let Americans go online and order pills as cheaply as possible--caveat emptor. It's usual for socialists and The Stranger to take such a libertarian position on a question of public safety, but it does seem like we as a nation have been tending more toward a notion that it is part of our American freedoms to put what we want into our own bodies.

Deregulation does drive prices down, so there's no doubt this plan would be effective if that were our only goal. But lack of regulation of the drug supply chain is also how we ended up with widespread counterfeiting, and cut-rate compounding pharmacies giving people meningitis. It's a complex issue.

Unless we have an indication that Canada's regulatory system does as good a job as ours (and I think we have to begin from the assumption that it does not, considering that we have far greater resources), there will necessarily be a trade-off here between affordability and safety. Personally I think a knee-jerk reflex toward safety at any cost is misguided; and the aggregate benefits of better affordable access to drugs would far outweigh the harm to a relatively small number of people being duped or poisoned. But it's a reasonable position taken by reasonable people for honorable reasons. There's no need to malign our Senators by implying that they are in some drug company's pocket just because they voted against a (symbolic) measure that put affordability before safety.
9
Root dear, FTW, as the kids say. Canadian Pharmaceuticals are a panacea at best, and the most vulnerable people should not have to vet a website's "Canadianness"

American taxpayers pay for a huge chunk of the R&D that leads to pharmaceuticals, mostly through the university system and the military. Our government should not be let off the hook by "allowing" citizens to buy cheaper drugs from Canada.
10
@8--it should of course be "It's UNusual for socialists and The Stranger to take such a libertarian position"
11
Please do your research. The bill they voted against would NOT have made it legal to import drugs from Canada. It was a vote to allow the Republican leader of the Senate budget committee to create a slush fund under the NAME of importing such drugs. But the ONE SENTENCE bill provided zero oversight on his ability to do so and gave no direction on how that money could be used. Here's the entire bill:

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/download/k…
12
It's quite a tapestry of bullshit being weaved around here to justify our money beholden Senators nay votes. My favorite one is questioning the standards of our neighbors to the north. By the way, the Canadians also have a single payer system - Which is of course is not as good as the best health care system in the world. You know, the one we have here. (Except for those 20 or so million unfortunate people who don't have coverage.)
13
Democrats not in solidarity and crossing the aisle when some bucks are stuffed in their pockets is one of the main reasons Republicans win elections.
14
Why does ANYONE needing affordable health care and sufficient housing, a good education, public assistance of any kind, seeking life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness---vote Republican? Severe ADD? It can't be the lame promise of "jobs".
15
The reason the ACA is such a train wreck and vulnerable in the first place is Democrats that suck up to industry like this. Democrats like this prevented Single Payer from ever being a part of the conversation, and further kept a public option out of the final ACA. Here they are again showing their true colors: more loyal to their corporate sponsors than their constituents. This is why Trump will be the next President.
16
Their claim that this is about "safety" is a lie. All twelve voted to lower drug safety standards when they supported the 21st Century Cures Act.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rj-eskow/-…
17
These are your endorsements, Stranger folks. I'm sure this won't be brought up when they are being re-elected by Seattle.
18
Instead of importing drugs from Canada, we should be eliminating all direct-to-consumer advertising. The US is one of the only countries that allows this (Wikipedia says New Zealand and Brazil are the only others), and because of the explosion in ads in the 80s, the marketing budgets for pharmaceutical companies exceed their R&D budgets. Cut out the marketing and costs should drop. (Hah, I kid. They'd charge the same and profits would just go up.) Of course the TV industry would be the big losers; man, what would every old person network do without that ad money?
19
I don't understand Patty Murray voting against it. She is usually so good at doing what Schumer tells her to do. How did he vote?
20
A few things to point out -

On twitter, Bernie's wife tweeted that Open Secrets is a fake news outlet. Apparently, they published fake news about Bernie taking contributions that he didn't take.

The Seattle Times, however, reports that Murray and Cantwell did, indeed, receive Big Pharma monies - and their source is The Center For Responsive Politics which provides a total sum (over their respective time in the Senate, I guess) at much higher amounts -

Murray: $515,089
Cantwell: $74,750

Also, I've read a few different posters *say* that these drugs are manufactured in the United States, whether you get them in the U.S. or in Canada. Which adds further to the absurdity of this claim that there are safety issues with Canadian drugs.

Also - the Canadian regulatory agencies - like those in Europe are reputed to be far superior to our own because they are not corrupted by all the profiteering in our system. So you can only do better, not worse, if it's gone through the Canadian checks and balances.

If it was coming from China, you might have reason to be concerned. But not Canadian or any of the other European universal heath care systems.

In short,yes, all bull. Got to get these Senators to stop taking money from Big Pharma. I wouldn't take any chances on Republicans, though. They are better than any of those losers.
21
I can't find Jane Sander's original tweet - she may have removed it. I did find someone's comment to her about it - i.e. insisting that Open Secrets is legit - and she comments back. But the point, I think, was that they published totally fabricated information (for whatever reason) about Bernie receiving substantial Big Pharma contributions. He has received ZERO. Bernie has NO pharma contributions. So - that certainly WAS fake news. And apparently, their figures on Murray and Cantwell are significantly less than those obtained by the Seattle Times by this other source.
22
Check here:

Seattle Times
Jan 14 2017
Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell criticized for vote to block prescription drugs from Canada
23
@12
Real Canadians Talking Real Healthcare
https://youtu.be/VQFX32Ed7ZQ

We weep for our nation!
24
"Senator Cantwell supports prescription drug importation, but has deep concerns around patient safety and counterfeit drugs that do not meet FDA standards being imported into the country and putting patient lives in danger,"

So we should keep it illegal and remove any possible regulation or oversight? Is that seriously her argument?
25
"Sanders and Lobuchar introduced …"

" … pharmaceutical companies and pro-phrama organizations such as PSM."

What the hell, Rich?
26
Cheaper drugs are being sold at higher prices... There is a radar identity chain that puts 2 drugs thru as 1. This has been to court..
Size of pills +square 3 or -theta 3 are a clue. It is not that regulated compare to Batch studies that are more inaccurate.. +square 3. This is how you end up with horse pills... and that is at least 2 other issues about biosimilar medication.
27
@15, You're living in a fantasy world if you think there was any chance in hell they could have pushed through single payer when ACA was being debated. They couldn't even get a public option.

@20 and others. I don't think anybody is concerned with the safety of drugs in Canada. Nobody sensible anyway. The concern is that you'll go on a website that says it's selling Canadian drugs only to learn too late that they're just Tylenol with the logo sanded off shipped from Siberia. Shit, I work in network security and I couldn't reliably tell you where most sites are based and even if it's hosted in Canada doesn't mean it's not run by the Russian mob.
28
Algorithm NDC chain unlocks, price, size, & identity as fair with trade, or not. Size of pills reveals even murky computer code.. even after going to court identity chain triangulation a are still misapplied. We pay too much in the US because they expect us to subsidize Europe thru Canada.
29
If Murray and Cantwell can't even bring themselves to say yes to a non-binding, largely symbolic vote, then the excuse being put forth for their votes, that they're trying to protect people from unregulated drugs, is nonsense. Not to mention, they're the same drugs we already have here, just cheaper. You want to know why HRC lost, look no further than how "liberals" like Murray, Cantwell, and Cory Booker continue to show their disdain for working-class Americans.
30
This is what happens when The Stranger tells you who to vote for instead of doing the research yourselves. How often do you see your elected representatives talk to real people outside of a political commercial? I didnt realize that Capitol Hill, Ballard, Fremont, Wallingford, South Lake Union, etc. were located at the JBLM, Boeing, Microsoft or Amazon campuses or Medina. Hmmmmmm- curious - but funny enough come re-election time, thats were they are and where they go. I have to agree with Karlheinz on Maria Cantwell, when was the last time we saw the face of this mysterious "V" in the state of Washingtion?
31
Murray and Cantwell are worried about the safety of drugs imported from Canada? BS, show me the dead Canadians!
32
What Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell did was SELL their vote.To think I voted for Murray,NO MORE

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