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[Tvoivozhd <tvoivozd AT infionline.net>]

An "honest" politician is one who when bought, stays bought.  
Schwarzenegger stayed bought---the dishonest pain, sometimes death he 
inflicted on Californians will drive him from office unless Congress 
bails him out by legislation legitimizing purchase of drugs from Canada, 
England, et. al.


The New York Times
------------------------------------------------------------------------


         October 1, 2004


   Schwarzenegger Vetoes Bills Seeking Drugs From Canada

*By JOHN M. BRODER*

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 30 - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed several bills 
on Thursday that would have made the state the middleman in large-scale 
consumer purchases of prescription drugs from Canada.

Mr. Schwarzenegger said the bills were illegal under federal law and did 
not have adequate provisions to ensure the safety of imported medicine. 
He said he was addressing the high cost of medications by negotiating 
directly with pharmaceutical companies to win discounts for the 
estimated four million low-income Californians who do not have 
prescription drug coverage.

In his veto message on the main bill, which would have set up a 
state-run Web site to help consumers find discount drugs in Canada, the 
Republican governor told the Democratic-controlled Legislature that such 
measures "oversimplify the complex safety, trade, supply and pricing 
issues involved in the marketplace." He said he shared the sponsors' 
concerns about high drug prices and pledged to introduce legislation 
next year that would enshrine in law his approach to lowering costs for 
the state's poorest residents.

Mr. Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill on the last possible day for acting 
on hundreds of measures sent to him at the end of this year's 
legislative session. He vetoed 71 bills on Thursday alone and 273 of 844 
sent to him at the end of the session, the highest rate of vetoes by a 
California governor in at least a decade.

The sponsors of the drug import bills had hoped to make California a 
leader in the nationwide movement to drive down the cost of prescription 
drugs by allowing consumers to buy them directly from Canada, where 
their prices are 30 percent to 60 percent lower than in the United States.

Legislatures across the country are pressing the issue, with 24 states 
considering bills to explore importing drugs from Canada or elsewhere. 
West Virginia, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Vermont and Rhode 
Island have already enacted laws that take the first steps toward 
engaging in broad imports of prescription medicines from Canada, 
although the federal government is challenging the legality of some of 
the programs.

At the federal level, the House voted in July 2003 to allow Americans to 
buy prescription drugs from both Canada and Europe, but the measure has 
stalled in the Senate. Senator John Kerry has raised the issue in the 
presidential campaign, saying the Bush administration's opposition to 
such imports keeps prices high and favors drug companies over consumers.

One of the bills Mr. Schwarzenegger vetoed would have required the 
California Department of Health Services to set up a Web site to help 
consumers compare prices among Canadian pharmacies and buy medicines 
from them. Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and New Hampshire already 
provide similar Web sites, and Illinois will begin operating one within 
the next few weeks, the office of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich says.

Another of the vetoed bills would have required California to monitor 
foreign suppliers of prescription drugs to make sure they met American 
standards for purity, handling and packaging.

Assemblyman Dario J. Frommer, a Democrat who sponsored the main measure, 
said the veto demonstrated the power of the pharmaceutical lobby and its 
campaign contributions. Mr. Schwarzenegger has received more than 
$300,000 in contributions from drug companies since announcing his 
candidacy for the governor's office last year, according to state 
campaign finance records.

Mr. Frommer also said the governor's plan to negotiate discounts was 
inadequate because it would cover only a small fraction of California's 
36 million people and because, he said, drug prices would be markedly 
higher even after the governor's negotiating than those available 
through Canada.

The Legislature passed the Frommer bill by sizable margins but not by 
enough to override the governor's veto. The assemblyman said the 
Legislature would be back next year, however, with a stronger version of 
the rejected measure.

"This will continue to be an issue here and around the country," Mr. 
Frommer said. "States will continue to take matters into their own hands."

Pharmaceutical companies bitterly oppose the reimporting of their 
products from overseas, saying it would pose unacceptable risks to 
consumers, who, the industry says, would not know what they were buying 
or from whom. Industry officials warn of counterfeit or improperly 
stored medicines' entering the United States.

They also complain that Canada and other countries that are potential 
suppliers to American consumers keep prices low by imposing cost 
controls, which, the companies say, rob them of the profits they need to 
pay for research to develop new medicines.

S. Kimberly Belshé, secretary of the California Health and Human 
Services Agency, echoed some of the drug industry's concerns, but agreed 
with the bill's sponsors that many consumers paid too much for medicine.

Ms. Belshé said the governor would work with a variety of interests "to 
come up with an approach that will not only rhetorically reduce the cost 
of prescription drugs, but practically will accomplish that.''

"And if the industry falls short,'' she said, "there is no doubt we will 
be considering other means."


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