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N.H. Report Calls Canadian Drugs Safe, Cheap
Governor Asks Federal Officials For Permission To Import Drugs

UPDATED: 11:19 a.m. EST March 25, 2004

CONCORD, N.H. -- An independent review by the state of New Hampshire of Canadian and U.S. prescription drugs found no differences in the quality of the drugs.

Armed with the report, which indicates that buying prescription drugs from Canada would be cheap and safe, New Hampshire Gov. Craig Benson traveled to Washington, D.C., Wednesday to meet with federal officials.

The governor will meet with Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson to urge him and other officials to allow the state to buy drugs from Canada.

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N.H. Hopes To Import Canadian Drugs




"Banding together with states like Michigan, we can leverage our purchasing power, and I'm asking the secretary to look at that and let us join pool efforts," Benson said.

New Hampshire Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen said the state studied the quality, cost and safety of medicine bought over the border.

"Preliminarily, a lot of Canadian online pharmacies that send into this country met the stringent tests for safety," Stephen said.

The review focused on Canadian pharmacies, as well as the shipping process. To test the research, state officials ordered a number of different prescriptions online from Canada. They filled the same prescriptions from New Hampshire pharmacies.

Both batches were taken to the state crime lab to look for any differences in the medicine, but Stephen said none were found. The report indicates that savings could be millions of dollars.

Stephen said he believes the report will open a lot of eyes around the country and change the way Americans buy medicine.

"I think you'll see when all is said and done, the debate shouldn't have happened in the first place," he said.

The governor hopes to release the full report to the public next week.

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