Senate OKs Bill Closing Drug Import Loophole

An exemption in U.S. drug policy that traffickers use to bring controlled substances into the United States from Mexico would be eliminated under a bill the Senate passed Tuesday and sent to the White House.

The measure cleared the House without dissent in August.

The bill would require travelers declaring drugs at the U.S.-Mexican border to have an American prescription or be able to prove that they were recommended by a U.S. doctor.

Travelers without such documentation would be limited to 50 dosage units of a substance the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has banned or regulates because of its danger, addictiveness or potential for abuse.

Heart disease, cancer, AIDS and other disease sufferers would not be affected because their treatments are not controlled, said Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), the sponsor.

Chabot said law enforcement officers have raised concerns about the amount of drugs, including Valium and the “date-rape” drug Rohypnol, coming from Mexico, where they are easily obtained without proof of medical need and resold in the United States.

Rohypnol recently was banned from being imported into the country, but other equally dangerous drugs remain available in Mexico, Chabot added.

The exemption, he said, was designed to allow U.S. citizens who suffer illness or injury while traveling abroad to bring needed medicines home with them.

“Passage of this legislation will finally shut down this Mexican pill pipeline,” he said.

A 1996 study estimated that more than 60,000 drug products were brought into the United States in one year at the Laredo, Texas, border crossing, Chabot said.

Nearly all of the drugs were dangerous controlled substances, he said.