Nelson seeks probe of feds for package seizures

June 30, 2004

ORLANDO - A local couple whose Canadian prescriptions were confiscated months ago at the U.S. border have finally received their medications. But Sen. Bill Nelson, who helped recover their seized package, still isn't happy with the federal agencies responsible for such seizures.

He's now demanding an investigation of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to determine whether or not it has broken federal law requiring the agency to give notice to consumers - like Lee and Jean Edes of Mt. Dora - when detaining their personal property.

In a letter sent today to the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services requesting the probe, Nelson chided the FDA for possibly denying the couple and others due process by not notifying them their packages were being searched. Nelson said the agency has been unresponsive with efforts to locate the couple's medicine.

"I find it unacceptable that people who are trying to save money by buying their prescription medications from Canada are being treated with such a heavy hand," Nelson said, following a meeting with the couple Wednesday in his Orlando regional office. "The FDA and Customs are required to be up-front with consumers about drug confiscations at the Canadian border."

Nelson first heard of the couple's plight in April when the 72-year-old Florida woman wrote him complaining that she'd been stuck with a $276 charge on her MasterCard - for her and her husband's medications that vanished at the U.S. border after passing through Canadian officials' hands. In addition to his promise to help the couple find their medications, he also called on the heads of the FDA and Customs & Border Patrol to release details about the extent to which the government is pushing private companies to monitor consumer purchases. The FDA has pledged to relax efforts at the U.S. border to crackdown on consumers Canadian drug purchases - a pledge Nelson said he now doubts.

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