I have been following the plight of Melissa Verleg, her battle with cystic fibrosis, and the latest event of MLA Eric Foster into the works.
Eric is right on this one, both the politics and policies behind legal drugs and their pricing has to change, not only in this province but in the whole country of Canada. Drug companies are performing nothing less than legal theft and should be considered nothing less than criminal for doing so.
I would encourage Eric, and the readership of this paper to go online and go to the CBC Fifth Estate web page. Look up one of their past programs dealing with the national drug plan in New Zealand. There, the federal government buys drugs in a lot for the whole country, and so they get much cheaper prices. The most you pay for most drugs there s $10. If this plan is subsidized in any way, it was not mentioned in the program.
We can be sure that Melissa is far from the only one facing a similar crisis in this country. Is it not time for the provinces to give up a little to the feds and let a similar national drug policy be established? Then again, do we have current federal leadership with guts enough to do so?
Cam Clayton
