Anna Nicole-Smith Drug Importation Access Act...

  • by: |
  • 03/27/2007
Re-reading the Dorgan-Snowe drug importation legislation in the wake of the laundry list of drugs found in Anna Nicole's blood at time of death leads me to this interesting clause in the bill which takes the definition of the doctor-patient relationship with respect to internet prescribing to Hollywood levels:

(3) QUALIFYING MEDICAL RELATIONSHIP-

`(A) IN GENERAL- With respect to issuing a prescription for a drug for a patient, a practitioner has a qualifying medical relationship with the patient for purposes of this section if--

`(i) at least one in-person medical evaluation of the patient has been conducted by the practitioner; or

`(ii) the practitioner conducts a medical evaluation of the patient as a covering practitioner.

`(B) IN-PERSON MEDICAL EVALUATION- A medical evaluation by a practitioner is an in-person medical evaluation for purposes of this section if the practitioner is in the physical presence of the patient as part of conducting the evaluation, without regard to whether portions of the evaluation are conducted by other health professionals.

`(C) COVERING PRACTITIONER- With respect to a patient, a practitioner is a covering practitioner for purposes of this section if the practitioner conducts a medical evaluation of the patient at the request of a practitioner who has conducted at least one in-person medical evaluation of the patient and is temporarily unavailable to conduct the evaluation of the patient. A practitioner is a covering practitioner without regard to whether the practitioner has conducted any in-person medical evaluation of the patient involved.

And the loophole that will make it easy for any criminal, kiddie-porn site operator or terrorist to set up shop in Canada and source drugs from anywhere:

"An agreement by the exporter to comply with applicable provisions of Canadian law, or the law of the permitted country designated under subsection (a)(4)(D)(i)(II) in which the exporter is located, that protect the privacy of personal information with respect to each individual importing a prescription drug from the exporter under subsection (a)(2)(B)."

Please note that Canada does not vouch for what happens in the scores of export houses up north that import commercial quantities of drugs from Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, etc under a personal use exemption. So all you have to do to comply with the Anna Nicole import bill is be a Rx chop shop in Canada.
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