Say what you will about the noise and inconvenience created by the East Coast cicadas. At least they disappear for 17 years. Here in California we have "consumer" leftists, who sadly do not depart even for 17 nanoseconds. Their noisemaking is constant and eternal.

The latest manifestation of this is the rising chorus in the state legislature favoring the importation of price-controlled pharmaceuticals from Canada, as manifested in a series of bills designed to facilitate that outcome. The rationale is the failure of Congress (yet) to pass legislation to that effect.

Accordingly, it is said that California must be a "leader" so that consumers can have cheaper drugs.

Think Of The Children

Canadian and other overseas drugs are not "cheap." They are subject to price controls imposed by foreign governments, which threaten to confiscate patents if the drug producers do not play ball.

The cost of bringing a new drug to market is about $800 million. There is no honest analysis of the relevant economics and data that can avoid the central truth that the importation of foreign price controls today might bestow benefits upon drug consumers now at the expense of research, development, and innovative new therapies in the future.

So much for caring about "the children."

That is no idle worry. Think about the recent medical miracles yielded by pharmaceutical research and development. AIDS has become a substantially manageable disease. New cancer therapies have introduced cures, years of life, and hope, where not long ago the word "cancer" was synonymous with "death sentence."

Buying Votes

Arthritis has become less debilitating, and drug therapies have yielded substantial savings in the form of reduced hospitalization stays, surgical procedures and the like.

What our political "leaders" actually are favoring -- let us be blunt -- is their short-term political needs in terms of the next election over the future needs for more and better medical therapies for an aging population. And so as the "consumerists" attempt to buy votes, whom do the politicians accuse of "profiteering?" The pharmaceutical producers.

Then there is the safety issue. The advocates of importation claim that a paper trail can avoid the inevitable problems of counterfeiting and adulteration. But that is a mirage.

The price differences for many name-brand (not generic) drugs are sufficiently large that the incentives to sell phony drugs at U.S. prices will be powerful. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will not be able to police the shipments, cross shipments, reverse shipments, false documentation, and other machinations that inevitably will be used to exploit a relaxed system of drug importation.

Drugs ostensibly from Canada will be produced in eastern Europe, Asia or Africa and then shipped to western Europe or Canada, all with documentation "proving" origins and safety. Inspectors will be vigilant. Will, say, a tracking system of 90% accuracy be sufficient? How about 98%?

Remember the Tylenol adulteration episode some years ago? A handful of adulterated pill containers and "only" a few deaths were sufficient to call the entire system into question for an over-the-counter headache remedy.

What will happen in the far larger case of life-saving medicines needed on a daily basis for millions of Americans? Will we recall every batch of imported drugs for testing while patients suffer and die all across the country? Will we need a Patriot Act for drugs?

Don't Take The Plunge

That is the inevitable destination toward which the "consumer" groups are leading us. Reduced drug research and innovation. Reduced safety and increased risks to life and health.

This is hardly the first time that California lawmakers have "led" Californians over a cliff while attempting to blame the private sector for the problems created by their nostrums. Let us not follow them.