Senate blocks bid to allow drug imports
shadowcast
Posts: 2,231
This is the biggest bullshit!!!! The damn drug companies are runnning this fucking country and I am tired of it. Does anyone know a website that I can find who voted nay on this? I want to see if my senator did.
"Well, once again the big drug companies have proved that they are the most powerful and best financed lobby in Washington," said Sen. David Vitter.
Mr. Vitter couldn't have put it any better.
"Well, once again the big drug companies have proved that they are the most powerful and best financed lobby in Washington," said Sen. David Vitter.
Mr. Vitter couldn't have put it any better.
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I think that the amendment that you are speaking about above might effectively void the following bill which, I believe, was passed last Thursday.
Senate approves allowing Canadian drugs
Measure will have a tough time clearing full Congress, White House
WASHINGTON - The Senate opened the way Tuesday to let Americans import prescription drugs into the United States from Canada, seeking to ease a regulatory ban on cheaper medicine crossing the border.
The proposal, which was approved 68-32, would create a Canadian loophole on a Food and Drug Administration ban on importing prescription medicine into the United States. It was offered as part of a $31.7 billion Homeland Security Department spending blueprint for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
The department's Customs and Border Protection bureau began aggressively seizing Tamiflu, Viagra and other incoming prescription medications at borders in November. Prescription drugs - even those manufactured in the United States - are generally sold at cheaper prices in Canada.
"We should demand that (Customs and Border Protection) focus on the true priority that we face on the war on terror," said Sen. David Vitter, R-La., of efforts to secure U.S. borders. "Stripping small amounts of prescription drugs from the hands of seniors .... that should not be a priority."
Vitter's plan, which was embraced by Democrats, specifically would prohibit Customs and Border Protection from stopping people with doctors' prescriptions for FDA-approved drugs from bringing the medicine into this country from Canada.
Safety concerns
But Republican leaders vociferously opposed the plan for fear, they said, the drugs could be unsafe for consumers - or even present a terror risk.
Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said the proposal was an attempt to push the FDA into reversing itself while "creating a massive hole on our capacity to secure our borders and protect ourselves."
"If I were a creative terrorist, I would say to myself, 'Hey, listen, all I've got to do is produce a can here that says 'Lipitor' on it, make it look like the original Lipitor bottle, which isn't too hard to do, fill it with anthrax," Gregg said.
Lipitor is a cholesterol-lowering drug.
Aides warned that the drug import plan was likely to be stripped out of the legislation - as it has been in past years - whenever it got to a conference of House and Senate lawmakers who will negotiate the final version. The administration also has opposed efforts to loosen the restrictions.
House measures pending
Two House spending bills this year - to fund the Homeland Security and Agriculture departments in 2007 - include the drug importation plan, said Kirstin Brost, spokeswoman for Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.
The House has approved efforts to import drugs in six spending bills over the last seven years, Brost said, but the idea has survived a conference committee only once. That year, 2000, the plan was eventually dropped because it was written in a way that couldn't be carried out, Brost said.
While importing drugs into the United States is illegal, the FDA generally has not stopped small amounts purchased for personal use. Still, the FDA says it cannot guarantee the safety of imported drugs.
Enhanced enforcement
Customs and Border Protection began seizing controlled substances in September 2004, and expanded that operation last November to include non-controlled substances. The Bush administration has opposed efforts to loosen the restrictions.
As of March, Customs officials had seized nearly 13,000 packages of drugs coming into the country, although the medications' origins were not known, according to data provided by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
"This is going to ensure that Americans, especially the frail, elderly, or those with debilitating conditions, are going to be able to at least have a chance of affording the medications that they need," Nelson said.
"Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead,
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed..."-- Elvis Costello
Here's the article about your post.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18530709/
I don't know who voted what way, but I do know the bill to import drugs was killed by Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss. because he added an amendment that required any imported drugs to be certified by U.S. officials and the food and drug administration, which they have said many times they could not do. (which Cochran knew, of course.)
President Bush has repeatedly said that if a bill passed in the senate allowing imports of prescription drugs he would veto it anyway. He doesn't feel it's "safe" and could possibly be a terror threat. OY!
"Some of my friends sit around every evening and they worry about the times ahead,
But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed..."-- Elvis Costello
If people started eating real food and exercising...we'd all be rich. The fast food companies are comitting mass murder by selling cancer. Same as cigarette companies. These are the real drug dealers.
Get yourself in shape and eat a raw whole food diet and you won't get sick or need med's in the first place.
They have a fucking pill for everything these days and 90% of the population are too stupid and lazy to know any better... There's 41 grams of sugar in a single can of coke and pepsi. That's practically a small bowl of sugar... This should be illegal. One can of pop shuts down your immune system for hours... same with alcohol.
Without an immune system you''re essentially dead meat just waiting to happen.
Got a headache? drink water...you're dehydrated.
Depressed? low sex drive? can't get it up?...go for a run and clean out your pipes. Honestly how fucking hopeless are some people that they can't even run, and would trust some corporate asshole to make a toxic cocktail with a host of side effects?
It's a sick, lazy pill popping nation...
my apologies as this is harsh...but I don't like having to drink the prozac etc...etc... from your (*edit* peoples) piss in my tap water because you (they) can't make the effort...
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
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I have no problem with science and chemistry correcting imbalances, relieving pain, etc... I do have a problem with the FDA, the cost of drugs, and the restrictions this country puts on drug availability. More evidence of an overbearing nanny state.
It looks like a bipartisan effort opposing you. Here are the votes on the Cochran Amendment:
Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs ---49
Alexander (R-TN)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Bennett (R-UT)
Bond (R-MO)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Carper (D-DE)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Coleman (R-MN)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
Dole (R-NC)
Domenici (R-NM)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hagel (R-NE)
Hatch (R-UT)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Isakson (R-GA)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (D-AR)
Lugar (R-IN)
Martinez (R-FL)
McConnell (R-KY)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-NE)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Specter (R-PA)
Stevens (R-AK)
Sununu (R-NH)
Thomas (R-WY)
Voinovich (R-OH)
Warner (R-VA)
NAYs ---40
Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Cardin (D-MD)
Casey (D-PA)
Clinton (D-NY)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Craig (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Dorgan (D-ND)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Grassley (R-IA)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lott (R-MS)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Nelson (D-FL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Thune (R-SD)
Vitter (R-LA)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
Not Voting - 11
Allard (R-CO)
Biden (D-DE)
Brownback (R-KS)
Dodd (D-CT)
Ensign (R-NV)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Johnson (D-SD)
McCain (R-AZ)
Obama (D-IL)
Reed (D-RI)
Tester (D-MT)
It looks like more Democrats than you would have liked to let others believe. Not everything is the fault of Republicans alone.
Thanks for that list. It is always laughable when people make some of these institutional issues partisan. This has been a problem for decades, through Republican and Democrat administrations and Republican and Democrat congresses. Neither party is particularly concerned with liberty.
I take it you're a quick fix type person and don't exercise. There's only one direction that will take you.
Purely raw food diets have some controversy but it is not proven. However it's nothing near the big corp diet of sugar, pills, and fat. This brings with it a host of mental health complications as well.
Getting as close as possible to organic raw whole food is one of the best things you can do for yourself.
Eating smart and exercising is pretty much the key. If you need drugs to feel good or normal then your body is damaged and needs to heal properly.
Essentially your body is telling you you're screwing it up.
not rocket science..
.
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
I am on no medication, and don't use drugs other than alcohol and caffeine. I am carrying a few extra pounds, but do exercise.
Your thinking would have us succumbing to smallpox, malaria, tuberculosis, etc... We have made many inroads in the eradication of disease through chemistry. I think that is a great thing. Your caveman ways are a couple of millenia in the past.
I have no desire to eat the 20 pounds of raw fruit and veggies daily that it would take to get sufficient caloric intake. I am also a big fan of fine dining, and gourmet cooking, so my joy in life is directly at odds with a raw diet. Even if it were proven to be the most healthy thing one could possibly do (and that is far from being proven), I would never give up butter, cream, meat and other pleasures.
Don't you a smoke weed? How is puffing any different than dropping prozac to feel better?
I agree that eating smartly and exercising is the best thing one can do. I disagree that restricting diet to exclusively raw food is the only way to get there, and have no interest in doing so anyway.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070506/ap_on_he_me/panama_tainted_medicine;_ylt=AoQP5CXwD.CfNCHtZCImZlDVJRIF
A Chinese factory was the source of a counterfeit chemical that killed dozens of people in Panama after it was used in human medications, a newspaper reported.
The New York Times reported in its Sunday editions that records and interviews revealed the poison was first sold by Chinese companies that exported it as 99.5 percent pure glycerin. The source of the chemical was then obscured as middlemen in Spain and Panama removed the names of their suppliers from shipping documents — a practice used by distributors to ensure continued business.
Panama's government health agency used the substance to produce medicines, not realizing that it was diethylene glycol, a chemical cousin of antifreeze that can cause kidney and neurological damage if ingested.
The Times said investigators in four countries identified Taixing Glycerine Factory as the maker of the poison. That company's certificate of analysis said the shipment was 99.5 percent pure, the Times reported.
The sale of the syrup was brokered by a unit of a state-owned business in Beijing, the article said. From there, it went to a distributor in Barcelona, Spain, and on to a dealer in Panama.
No one in China has been charged with causing the Panamanian deaths. An unidentified Chinese drug official told the Times that investigators tested the Taixing Glycerine Factory's product and found it contained no glycerine. But a spokeswoman for the drug agency said the company had not broken any laws.
Wan Qigang, the legal representative for the factory, told the Times last year that the company made only industrial-grade glycerin. But more recently it has been advertising 99.5 percent pure glycerine on the Internet, the Times said. Wan declined to answer further questions.
Concerns about the safety of imports from China rose in the U.S. after pet food containing a Chinese ingredient was found to be tainted with another industrial chemical, melamine. The poison has killed or sickened an unknown number of dogs and cats and led to the recall of more than 100 brands of pet food.
Freedom is Slavery
Ignorance is Strength
I cook with THC sometimes..however it's been a couple months. I don't smoke and rarely ever drink ...once a month if that.
What I know in regards is to health is hardly uneducated or naive. I would say the exact opposite. The diet practices sprung from 60's which everyone eats today is caveman mentality imo..
Cooking kills food. Eating food that is as alive and natural as possible is crucial.
Needing medication is somewhat of a backwards approach. A healthy populous won't allow disease to flourish or take hold...proliferate etc... in the first place. But it's gone way beyond that. There's now a pill for everything.
It's essentially idiotic and irresponsible in North America. Way beyond infectious disease prevention....
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and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
http://www.myspace.com/illuminatta
Rhinocerous Surprise '08!!!
i wonder why these ppl didn't vote??
he had a voice that was strong and loud and
i swallowed his facade cos i'm so
eager to identify with
someone above the crowd
someone who seemed to feel the same
someone prepared to lead the way
Great question. Half of them are probably spending too much time worrying about a future job at the expense of their current job. The others were probably on lobbiest-funded golf trips.
I'm more interested in quality rather than quantity. Living to 100 doesn't interest me in the least. I'm going to enjoy the relatively short time I'm here. If someone enjoys living life eating raw carrots, that's great! I'll toast them with my glass of Bordeaux and dig into my chateaubriand. I am a big sushi fan, though. So I get my share of raw food on a regular basis without being religious about it.
That's how I see it. The body can't process more than 400-500 calories at a time anyways, so anything over that amount goes straight to fat storage. 5 - 6 small meals throughout the day is the ideal (5 for women 6 for men).
My vice is the protein thing, so I supplement a fair amount of whey, lightly cooked fish or shrimp using slow temperatures. Soy milk tastes pretty good to me, and those 6 bean blends with some pasta sauce and a little garlic is quite nice also. Eliminating all cooking is fairly hard. I just remember to always to cook lightly never harsh with high heat. Steam instead of boil. I think it's about retraining the mind and body back to what is natural. And unplug that microwave. Cancer has been directly related to dietary habits so that's a biggie for me.
There's also a life force body/energy thing of consuming natural whole food which appeals to me.
Thought I would add...this is something I've come across just recently. I need to do some more reading about it though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okinawa_diet
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and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
I suppose it depends on what you consider quality.
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and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
My philosophy in a nutshell:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/3541/the_okinawa_diet_the_key_to_longevity.html
"mostly plant based diet that includes fish and soy foods with a variety of vegetables and a moderate amounts of good fats."
"Studies show that younger Okinawans are eating more “American-like” and are beginning to experience the same health problems as Americans."
“if Americans copied the islands diet, doctors say we might be able to shut down 80 percent of our coronary units.” Can you imagine that?? The bottom line is this: a diet rich in fruits, vegetables and maybe a little tofu, among other healthy foods, and a diet low in processed foods and fat can not only lead to a long life, but a long healthy life."
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and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
Um Roland, I'm sorry, but I disagree with some of what you are saying here. How on earth do you expect a raw whole foods diet to have any impact at all on neurological conditions or some auto immune diseases? There's genetic disorders, cancers, all kinds of serious illnesses that cannot be cured by diet and exercise alone. There's nothing wrong with doing all in your power to live a healthy life but the fact remains that many of the medications available to people are improving their quality of life and in some cases extending their lives. Not that everyone wants to live a long life anyway. I'm certainly no fan of pharmaceutical companies, but the fact remains that many people are living longer, better lives now because of medications.
*~You're IT Bert!~*
Hold on to the thread
The currents will shift
you're cart before the horse... these diseases develop from dietary circumstances and are passed down genetically. What your grandmother ate even determines what your reality is like heath wise.
It's all cause and effect stemming from energy in...
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
Ok but even supposing that is correct. I'm not saying it is or it isn't. There's not a whole lot you can do about it. I mean I have no control over what my granny ate and I also know that if dietary circumstances alone could cure all these diseases then no one in the western world would be diseased.
Do you really believe that people with serious diseases would jeopardize their future happiness by not following a whole foods diet if it was proven to cure them? People take the pharmaceutical option because the research and statistics show them what the mostly likely potential outcome will be for their disease progression. And that is because results are proven under scientific trial. If a whole foods diet could show the same kind of statistics and outcomes do you really believe that doctors would withold this information from their patients? Or that patients wouldn't be ditching their meds for dietary changes?
*~You're IT Bert!~*
Hold on to the thread
The currents will shift
You're not only eating for yourself. You are the keeper or "guardian" of your own genome so to speak.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2994
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and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
Well yeah after the fact you're kinda screwed somewhat.... If I had cancer I'd be taking chemo not tofu... but I wouldn;t be hitting McDonalds at that point either...
It's never too late to begin imo...
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
When my microwave stopped working a few years back, I decided to not buy another. I also like soy milk and the six bean blends. And my daughter pointed out that it was during my period of changing my diet completely, and eating salmon numerous times per week, that my bi-polar disorder seemed to vanish into thin air, which is interesting considering that specific disorder is known to be affected by salmon or more specifically the omega-3 fatty acids. I understand this stuff sounds ridiculous from someone eating the standard diet. And yet to change one's diet dramatically to say an Okinawan type diet, one experiences a bursting vitality that is quite shocking, really, compared to our Western norm. When I did so, everything looked so vibrant and lighted in my life. When we poison the very instrument through which we interface with life....well, we're skewing just about everything.
http://www.myspace.com/illuminatta
Rhinocerous Surprise '08!!!
well said. We, as a whole, have no interest in health prevention (i.e. diet, exercise etc...) Combining a good diet and exercise can help treat / prevent a lot of health problems, but as others have eluded to, it's much easier to pop a pill and take care of it that way. Good diet and daily exercise will by no means stop all disease or prevent everything but it certainly would help a majority of the people. But that would mean we in the west would have to change our lifestyle and i don't think too many people here (in the west) want to.
When we start getting healthy, our system starts to want to utilize the wonderful new energy freed up, and therefore, for example, psychological issues will start arising for us to look at. Or clarifying one's diet might cause us to notice how detrimental the caffeine addiction or drinking problem might actually be. Everything is naturally in synch. A change on one level triggers a change on another. It's not easy to trust the process and release what no longer works in the sake of revitalization and renewal. However, following the process and trusting the evolutionary forces, and our body wisdom, we can become renewed mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. The process is brilliant. On all levels.
What I personally found with clarifying my system was that my healthier inner sensitivity to that which was not good for me created the conditions to sense a higher level of self need and to seek out solutions intuitively before I require medical invasion. We have the potential to be sensitive enough to feel/sense/intuit from within our bodies, and to KNOW what is in our best interests and to gravitate towards it. I'm in my forties, and the act of lifting weights alone, and having a strong musculature to support my frame does wonders in how I carry myself. It contributes to a sense of potency and health. My practices fluctuate and are far from perfect, and yet altogether I can only imagine what the effect will be when I'm in my 60's or further down the line considering the awareness and sense of self-responsibility I have taken ownership of. Our bodies naturally move towards optimal health. It is US who actively work against our bodies with the scripts and practises we've accepted from birth. Then we buy into the prevalent model at this time in the west--of disease, and we stay detached from the natural brilliance of life that flows through our each cell, and that represents the awesomeness of who we are deep inside.
http://www.myspace.com/illuminatta
Rhinocerous Surprise '08!!!
i agree. The changes that the body undergoes as we get healthy are amazing. And the health benefits are varied. A quick google search of exercise and metabolic syndrome shows how much exercise can do for us, even in reversing some of the problems that were present. What we do now will definitely help improve quality of living further down the road. I firmly believe the human body was designed to be stressed and to is at it's best when the muscles, joints, bones etc... are being stressed and worked. It helps on so many levels. There are numerous studies that show the health benefits of exercise and diet from kids through nursing home patients and they all do better after intense exercise, it can help diabetes, high blood pressure, adhd in kids; the list goes on.
http://www.myspace.com/illuminatta
Rhinocerous Surprise '08!!!
http://www.myspace.com/illuminatta
Rhinocerous Surprise '08!!!
but the illusion of knowledge.
~Daniel Boorstin
Only a life lived for others is worth living.
~Albert Einstein