Posted by CamW on January 14, 2006, at 15:14:48
In reply to Question for Cam or other pharmacists--especially, posted by Abby on January 4, 2006, at 9:04:46
Abby - Buying drugs from Canada requires a Canadian doctor to sign the prescription, as prescriptions filled in any Province requires the signature of a doctor who is licenced to practise in that province. Mail-order pharmacies often have a doctor on staff who will co-sign a prescription from a U.S. doctor, circumventing the law. While this makes the prescription legal, the practise in not considered ethical.
Both physician and pharmacy associations in Canada discourage this practise and the is legislation in the works to try to stop it. The associations are trying to pass some sort of legislation that would require a doctor to actually "see" the patient for whom they are prescribing medication (go figure), but then this brings up the issue of prescribing to patients in remote areas of Canada via tele-medicine (prescribing via closed circuit TV or via the internet).
So, as of now it is technically legal to order meds from Canadian Internet Pharmacies, but the practise is considered unethical.
I hope that this is of some help. I am not really up on all the intricacies and details, though. - Cam
poster:CamW
thread:595110
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/2000/20050828/msgs/599069.html