U.S. Customs is clamping down on prescription drugs being shipped to American customers from Canadian pharmacies by seizing more shipments than ever before.

Although shipping drugs to the United States from Canada is illegal, millions of Americans buy prescription drugs online through Canadian-based pharmacies, where prices for many drugs are lower. Customs officials have intermittently seized shipments of Canadian drugs, but the number of seizures has more than quadrupled since the start of the year, says Andy Troszok, president of the Canadian International Pharmacy Association. Troszok says American customers have been receiving letters from customs officials instead of their medication. "The letters that some of our customers have been getting have been more aggressive, telling the patient that the medication will be destroyed, or that the patient will not get it," said Troszok, noting that in the past, customs officials often simply returned the drugs to the Canadian pharmacy instead of destroying the shipment.

Seniors' groups, pharmacists hope crackdown is short-lived

Fargo resident Joe Rickner had some tense moments last month, when, after five years of ordering from Canada, his shipment of medication for blood pressure and thyroid problems didn't arrive in the mail. Finally, Rickner got a phone call from his Canadian pharmacist. "They said that they shipped them. They got a tracer on them. It went as far as the border, and then customs had got them," he said. Rickner was forced to buy his medication at a drugstore south of the border and absorb the cost of the loss of the Canadian shipment. He blames the U.S. government and particularly U.S. President George Bush for the recent clampdown. "I am thoroughly disgusted with this outfit. We're supposed to have a free trade agreement, and we've gotten along good with Canada. Why's he got to shut it down?" he said. Rickner hopes a lobby by seniors' groups in the U.S. will force customs to ease their strict enforcement of the law. Troszok says his member pharmacists in Canada also hope the crackdown is short-lived. It's estimated that between 10 and 20 per cent of Manitoba's 1,500 pharmacists work for an online pharmacy.

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