THE DEMOCRATS ARE KILLING THE QUACKERY INDUSTRY:

Mexico pharmacy hamlet may be selling fake meds (MARK STEVENSON, August 11, 2004, Chicago Sun-Times)

Mexican authorities are investigating the sale of fake or substandard medicine in a border town so popular among Americans seeking cheap medications that it has more pharmacies than streets.

U.S. officials said at least one pharmacy sold useless tablets labeled as Zocor, a cholesterol drug, to an American citizen in Algodones, a hamlet with 10 streets and about 20 drugstores across the border from Yuma, Ariz.

Algodones has one bar, one church and an estimated 250 doctors, dentists and opticians, almost all of whom cater to Americans, who make an estimated 15,000 crossings daily during winter's peak season for cheap drugs and health services.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an alert July 30 about the counterfeit Zocor -- which did not contain any active ingredient -- and a bogus version of Carisoprodol, used to treat muscle spasms, which had a very low level of its key ingredient.

Now here's a real outsourcing issue for you: Americans can make fake drugs just as cheaply as foreigners, so why do Democrats insist that the FDA monitor domestic pharmaceuticals but not cheap foreign imports?

Posted by Orrin Judd at August 18, 2004 3:12 PM