<story><title>Mailed asthma, cancer, erectile drugs are seized the most, despite opioid claims</title><url>https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/07/health/fda-drug-shipments-khn-partner/index.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>gtop3</author><text>Our prescription drug system needs an overhaul.  This isn&amp;#x27;t a matter of all drugs are illegal to import because of quality control issues.  You can import aspirin, if you are so inclined.  This is asthma and cancer medication being seized because of an overly tight control of prescription drugs.  I understand that some drugs sold overseas are not suitable for human consumption. I understand that some drugs require close supervision.  I argue that many medications are quite safe to take without supervision and using doctors as gatekeepers functions primarily to increase the billings generated by sick people.  I think the bar for what medications are prescription and which medications are OTC needs to be reevaluated. Perhaps the way in which we market drugs and disclose there risks should be reevaluated simultaneously.&lt;p&gt;Imagine taking away someone&amp;#x27;s asthma medication and thinking you are making America a safer, better place.</text></comment>
<story><title>Mailed asthma, cancer, erectile drugs are seized the most, despite opioid claims</title><url>https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/07/health/fda-drug-shipments-khn-partner/index.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>runnerup</author><text>This is detailing a report from the FDA about packages they inspected. However, I wonder if there&amp;#x27;s no overlap with packages inspected by the DEA and&amp;#x2F;or CBP.&lt;p&gt;The FDA might not see many opiate packages if most of the &amp;quot;hot leads&amp;quot; for which packages likely contain opiates are routed to the DEA for inspection and the FDA never sees them. Similarly for any other Schedule 2&amp;#x2F;3 drugs.&lt;p&gt;That could be why the FDA mostly sees &amp;quot;asthma&amp;quot; drugs. Though...I do believe that international orders would mirror domestic prevalence and lots of people need asthma medication. I myself have ordered asthma medications from India to save hundreds of dollars per month.&lt;p&gt;Anyways, the article states &amp;quot;The FDA said it found 33 packages of opioids and no fentanyl sent by mail in 2022&amp;quot;. This was out of 53,000 packages inspected. However, the CBP reports finding 239 mail parcels with fentanyl at just JFK airport alone in 2018[0]. It&amp;#x27;s unclear how many packages the DEA has seized but it also sounds like a lot more than 33.&lt;p&gt;0: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cbp.gov&amp;#x2F;frontline&amp;#x2F;crisis-control&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cbp.gov&amp;#x2F;frontline&amp;#x2F;crisis-control&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>