Bill Bennett: “I did not plan to talk about drug reimportation, but coming on the heels of this conversation, I simply want to make…”

“I did not plan to talk about drug reimportation, but coming on the heels of this conversation, I simply want to make this one observation: The key statement made by the Senator from Louisiana was safe drug reimportation. And the key problem here is certifying that the drugs coming across the border--after they have been sent and then are reimported are, in fact, the same drugs, they are, in fact, safe. The Congress has said the drugs can be reimported back into the United States as soon as the Secretary can certify that they are, in fact, safe. I have seen the sample runs, if you will, that have been made on this issue. They have found again and again that a certain percentage of the drugs coming back are, in fact, not drugs manufactured in the United States. They have been manufactured elsewhere, packaged in Canada or Mexico or wherever, and then sent back to the United States fraudulently, as if they were, in fact, the original drugs. Now, they have not yet killed anybody that I know of. They are not so unsafe that they have, in fact, poisoned anybody. Overwhelmingly, the history has been that the dosage in the drugs is simply not the same as advertised in the drugs manufactured in the United States. They have traces of whatever the drug might be in the fraudulent packages, but the dose control is not the same, and it is dangerous to the individual taking the drug if he or she assumes they are getting a certain dosage and, in fact, they are getting less.”