What restrictions do Canadian mail-order pharmacies place on the kinds of drugs that it ships to U.S. patients?
Licensed Canadian pharmacies will not ship any Schedule 1-5 controlled substances like narcotics or habit forming medications like benzodiazepines. Even medications with complicated dosing schedules, severe side effects or complex lab follow-ups, are avoided. Acute care medications like antibiotics are not sold due to the need to acquire these medications within hours of diagnosis to positively affect therapeutic outcomes. Therefore, the vast majority of products are chronic maintenance medications like anti-hypertensives, lipid-lowering, acid reflux, anti-inflammatory, hormone and other products that are taken on a long term chronic basis. Some over-the-counter products are sold as well like Claritin and Reactine. Where possible, the patient is offered the choice between brand name or generic equivalents.
