Consumers Win From Pharmaceutical Free Trade Bill

"What will you tell your constituents? We
were charged by the Founding Fathers to
uphold our duties, and we'll be judged by God
Almighty if we don't do it!"

The above was hammered in a resounding voice
at 2 am EST this morning by Representative
Marion Berry, Democrat from Arkansas in
regards to passing HR 2427, the
Pharmaceutical Market Access Act of 2003.

This piece of legislature was key to the
American citizen because it opens the ability
for the consumer to legally go to other
countries to purchase prescription drugs.

It passed.

The House of Representatives found that
citizens currently pay up to 1000 times more
than citizens in most other countries pay for
the exact same drug. The Food and Drug
Administration inspects the plants overseas
that are exporting pharmaceuticals of
American companies, and in this piece of
legislation the FDA gets to select 26
countries to import from for reasons of
public safety.

Following this legislation, citizens,
particularly the elderly and minorities, can
purchase necessary medicines without
intervention at extremely reduced rates, in
many instances on tenth of the amount
generally spent.

Barbara Lee of CA stated a history,
especially in the African American community
of citizens remaining in illness due to
missed prescriptions they were unable to fill
due to the extravagant costs in the industry.

Yet this discussion late into the morning
inside the House of Representatives was not
without incident and hotly contested debate.

Proponents of the bill, which included
Barbara Lee (D) of California, Rosa DeLauro
(D) of Connecticutt, Jo Ann Emerson (R) of
Missouri, Christopher Shays (R) of
Connecticutt, and the venerable Bernard
Sanders (I) of Vermont gave a fiery show of
support for the bill, placing forth the
ability of the individual to import their own
drugs at reduced cost, from any vendor they
choose. Several upheld the point that the
citizen's right to choose should come before
the benefits of the American Pharmaceutical
Industry.

Lobbyist concerns still persuaded some who
stood against the bill, citing a reduction
in goverment spending related to drugs, and a
loss of federal control on the drugs
themselves. Michael Bilirakis (R) of Florida
considered it an "outrage". Edolphus Towns
(D) of New York felt the bill was not helpful
and unsafe to his constituents, even though
he had just been informed that the FDA
themselves had wrote part of the bill, and
all of the safety related regulation.

At 2:42am the bill passed, 243-186.