Buying medication from Canada?

[The Unknown Gomer]

Anyone here (from the US, specifically - in this particular situation, you Canadians don't count, since I'm sure you ALWAYS do this ;) ) buying medications/prescriptions from pharmacies in Canada?

I just placed my first online Canadian order for some OTC allergy medication and I'm hoping nothing goes haywire on it.

I've got year round allergies, so I'd been taking Claritin-D 24 hour regularly. At least until the crack-heads and meth labs screwed that up for me, and the government changed the rules to keep them from getting their hands on enough pseudofed to make their drugs. The way things changed a few years back, I can still buy them OTC, but I have to stand in the regular pharmacy line, which can be 10 deep by the time I get off of work. And then once I get up there, I can only buy a box of 10 at a time. Yes, I can get 30 of them per month, but I have to make three separate trips, and stand in three separate lines, to do it. :mad:

So I changed gears - got a prescription from my doctor for Allegra-D, where I could buy THOSE 30 at a time. The stuff works great. But it's not cheap. Unfortunately, the pseudophedrine in those puts it into the Blue Cross drug tier where I have to cough up a $200 deductible first, and then it's $50 per month after that. :mad: Stupid drug dealers are costing me a fortune. Still trying to figure out if there's a way to file a class action suit against them for this.

I put up with it up until the end of last year, when I went to refill the prescription one last time at the end of the year to beat the deductible that was going to kick in January, and even though they'd been more than happy to refill a 3 month prescription at one time EARLIER in the year, when I tried to do it in December, they came back and said I could only get one month this time, and if I wanted the three months supply, I'd have to do it after the first of the year. Right! Conveniently right after the $200 deductable kicked back in again. :mad:

I got down to my last few Allegra Ds this past week, so called in a one month prescription refill on it, but the more I thought about it, the more irked I got. So I started hunting up info on the Canadian pharmacies. It's costing me a little more than what I was paying for Claritins locally, but apparently there's no 10 pill at a time limit up there, so I can actually buy a THREE month supply at one time from them. And the little extra I'm paying to avoid having to stand in a pharmacy line three times a month is SO worth it. And still several hundred dollars cheaper than getting my prescription filled with my Blue Cross plan. Looks like I'll not be picking up that Allegra-D prescription I called in last week after all.

So here's hoping it all works out. I double checked my milligrams to make sure I was getting the same stuff, comparison shopped with two other highly rated online pharmacies, and placed the order tonight.

Anyone else having to play the "get my medications in Canada" game? Either due to the US meds being so much more expensive, or due to the overly restrictive selling laws down here?

[lori56]

While I, myself, do not do this, I know several people, my brother in particular, who buy medication from Canadian sources. My brother has diabetes, and takes two different types of insulin. He also takes several other medications as well. When his employer discontinued carrying group health insurance, he was denied coverage by the individual plan the company brought in. So, he is on his own. One type of his insulin costs, are you ready for this?, $353.00 per month. The other isn't as expensive, but it is $84.00 per month. Over four hundred dollars for just two of the 6 prescriptions he uses every month, to buy here in the US. The other four would cost him another $324.00 per month. But by buying from a Canadian supplier, both of his insulins cost only $185.00 per month, including shipping. And they ship it overnight. The other four cost $211, including shipping. Cost is the major reason many Americans have begun purchasing from Canadian suppliers. It is the same identical medication, only less expensive.

[R. Smith]

saying that I live in Canada, I do get medication from here. If I was gonna go to the States to get anything, it would be for Cherry Coke, or Cherry 7UP.

[The Unknown Gomer]

Bwahahahaha! I just love it when a plan comes together! :cool:

My Claritins from Canada came in today. I saw this box sitting there from BC, but I didn't recognize the company on the return address, and the box contents was labeled something else entirely (I guess the two together make getting the stuff through customs a little easier. This is all perfectly legal, but I've heard that the US border folks try to delay or stall the drug orders to try and discourage the US people from ordering from Canada), and when they called here the day after I placed the order to confirm the order, they said it would be 12-15 days shipping time on them. So since it had been less than a week since I'd ordered, I had no idea what was in the box at this point.

So I open the box and VOILA!

94449

:eek: It's like Christmas in February! Oodles and oodles of Claritin-Ds! 94450

After being allotted 10 pills per purchase since that stupid law went into effect, having a three month supply in one place all at one time is just mind boggling!

Woot! No more $200 Blue Cross prescription deductibles or $50/month prescriptions! No having to deal with the alternative, which is standing in mile long lines three times a month to get the OTC meds that work just fine.

I am paying a little more for these, since they're the name brand vs the Wal-Mart version that I'd normally get, plus I'm paying for shipping, but I'm willing to pay a buck and a half more for the convenience. And considering how much LESS they cost than the Allegra-Ds, I'm saving a small fortune anyway.

And I double checked, it IS the exact same stuff I buy here, the only difference is they don't call it Claritin-D, it's Extra Strength Allergy and Sinus up there I guess, and half the box is in French.

Since it's the weekend, I'm going to start using one box (even though I've got 3 unopened boxes here already, plus one I just opened this morning), JUST to make sure they work the same on me as their US counterpart. They're supposed to, but I'd just as soon be home when I take something new for my allergies, just in case....

Happy happy joy joy! Man, after having to deal with the US laws and Blue Cross prices, to be able to order online and have 90 days worth shipped to me in less than a week, these guys are like the Netflix of pharmacies! :D Doesn't get much easier than this.

[R. Smith]

Doesn't the US government watch over e-mails and whatnot??? Is it safe for you to post that your getting medication from Canada???

[lori56]

It isn't illegal to purchase from Canada for your own use. The restrictions are on purchasing medication for more than one person, and/or act as a defacto pharmacy. Some independent pharmacies here in the US were purchasing from Canada because it was cheaper than buying the drugs from the drug companies. That is illegal. No, they just want to discourage us from buying internationally. In the border states (Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California), many people go to Mexico to purchase meds. They are much cheaper than here in the US.

[truefan]

Good luck with the medication. I know someone who purchases meds from Canada because of the price issue and they are very happy with their service. I too find it a pain in the butt to stand in line for something I used to pick off the shelf. I like to use Sudafed for my colds. It's a shame that in order to stop the bad guys they have to punish the good guys! I have done some price research when I wanted to buy a prescription medication not covered by my insurance.

Glad it worked out for you.

[The Unknown Gomer]

Nouveaux Claritins travaillent grands! Juste essayé ce matin. Ils m'aident même à parler dans le FRANÇAIS! LOL (Ils sont faits à Québec, j'ai remarqué, dorénavant pourquoi la moitié de la boîte est dans le français.)

[Translation: The new Claritins are working great! Just tried one this morning. They're even helping me to talk in FRENCH! LOL (They're made in Quebec, I noticed, hence why half the box is in French.)]

(I told my mom that if I started spouting off words and phrases in French today, it was because of the Claritins being made in Quebec. :D I gulped one down this morning, and immediately started going "C'est MOI! Viva la France! Je ne saise quoi! Simon LeBon!" 94453 )

Another good thing about these Claritins, their packaging is different. The wal-mart brand that I've been getting just changed their packaging, and instead of just being able to push the caplet through the foil covering on the back of the package, you have to peel off the paper cover FIRST (which sometimes comes off in shreds), THEN push the thing through the foil. The Canadian version is just foil covered, and a very THIN foil, so the caplet just pushes right out. MUCH easier when you're taking one first thing in the morning before having had any coffee, and your eye/hand coordination hasn't quite woken up yet. C'est bon! C'est bon! :D

[Pouye]

There are better sources than Canada (meaning cheaper). It is just hard to know if what you are getting is the real thing, and not counterfeit. Don't buy in volume until you've tested the product.

I have allergy induced asthma. Therefor I carry a "rescue" inhaler all of the time. In the past, every time I needed to get another inhaler I have to go see a doctor (at usually 100 bucks a pop) and ol' Doc would write me a prescription for one (or maybe two) -- around $30 a pop. The new inhalers (albuterol) are the CFC friendly kind (they changed the propellant), and they don't work (not to mention taste) as good as the old ones because the delivery system is inferior.

I started buying the old-style inhalers through online sources. I'm tired of doctor visits that cost me a fortune for the same prescription I've needed since I was 10 years old. By the way, the inhalers I purchased work great.

www.unitedpharmacies.com


Rock

[rossid]

Blue Cross?????

hmmmm

[The Unknown Gomer]

There are better sources than Canada (meaning cheaper). It is just hard to know if what you are getting is the real thing, and not counterfeit. Don't buy in volume until you've tested the product.

www.unitedpharmacies.com


Rock

I did do some homework first and did check out a few other places other than Canada, but since Canada had what I needed, and is the closest country, and didn't cost TOO much more, they were my best bet. :)

And looking at that website, United Pharmacies didn't seem to carry Claritin D. They had their version of just plain Claritin, but that's not what I was after...

Blue Cross?????

hmmmm

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina. Ick ick ick. :mad: Lousy med plan, a high co-pay for specialists, but it was quick and easy to get when I found myself without insurance when I was job hunting. Then kind of got stuck with it when my new employer didn't have a health plan. Occasionally looking into other health plan options, but one thing at a time. At least I'm out from under their drug plan. :) The pharmacist I was going to said they used to be the best for health insurance, but now they're one of the worst...

[Genna14]

Well ever since I was a tiny thing, I've been prone to bacterial infections, meaning I've always needed copious amounts of antibiotics. Since mom was a single mom *and I had no child support*, she always went to Mexico and bought penicillin. It works great, comes in bottles of 100, and lasts for months for us. She also purchases Mexican muscle relaxers as we both have issues with muscle pain.

Those muscle relaxers are amazing, they work so well for me when Diazepam and Valium won't.