Misguided efforts by Congress and officials in the White House during the past two years could take away Americans’ ability to order medications online — even from trusted and reputable sources like our website. There are two real and imminent threats to continued access to safe, imported prescription drugs.
The first threat comes from pending legislation in the Senate introduced last May known as the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act of 2011 (PROTECT IP). You may already be aware of this Bill that attempts to categorize all non-U.S. based online pharmacies as a risk to public health and therefore certain target for shut down. If this bill gets passed, our website and all others that sell Canadian drugs and international medicines to Americans could cease to appear and be prohibited from defending themselves against those who shut them down.
The next threat comes from The House of Representatives in a bill introduced in October titled the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). While SOPA is designed to protect the interests of U.S. businesses and fight counterfeiting, it increases the threatening actions proposed in PROTECT IP and makes them worse. SOPA includes language that inappropriately lumps real licensed pharmacies like ours with rogues.
SOPA makes no effort to distinguish between the good guys like us – legitimate pharmacies that require a doctor’s prescription and sell brand-name medications; and the bad guys – that sell everything from diluted or counterfeit medicine to narcotics without a prescription. Because of this, the bill could shut down the websites of legitimate international pharmacies that offer safe, affordable medications.
The language of SOPA is so vague and broad, that our pharmacy could be shut-down “in the dark of night.” You see, SOPA grants legal immunity to a large list of US companies that have business reasons for wanting us dismantled. They can voluntarily deny service to our legitimate pharmacy businesses without a court order. It empowers hundreds of companies to police the web and shut-down sites based on nothing more than a suspicion of wrongdoing.
PROTECT IP and SOPA are driving legislation toward the White House. These bills play directly into the interests of the Administration, which in December 2010 announced its intention to completely shut down online pharmacy sites by “encouraging” Internet service providers, credit card companies, and search engines to cut off American’s access to them. Passage of these two bills would fulfill this mission.
Many people believe that big pharmaceutical companies are behind these threats. Major drug companies have long tried to persuade the American public that internationally sourced medicines are unsafe. While we agree that drug safety is critical and that rogue pharmacies should be stopped we know that legitimate online pharmacies such as ours should not be punished as a result of these sweeping actions.
There is action you can take to try to prevent this from happening— and we are asking for everyone’s assistance immediately. To voice your concern, join RxRights, a growing coalition of individuals and organizations that are dedicated to protecting and preserving all Americans’ access to safe, affordable medications. You can send an electronic letter directly to your congressional and senate representatives in Washington as well as President Obama through the coalition’s website at www.rxrights.org. Let your elected officials know today that you want and need continued access to affordable medications from safe, licensed online pharmacies like ours. For more information, please visit www.rxrights.org.
You’ve ralely helped me understand the issues. Thanks.