Senate votes to keep Canadian prescription drugs out of US

The Senate on Thursday defeated an amendment that would have made it easier for individuals to get prescription drugs from Canada for personal use.

"This amendment would allow the importation of small personal-use quantities of safe FDA-approved prescription drugs from Canada alone," argued Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), the amendment's author. "It is a very modest amendment."

The measure would have prohibited the Food and Drug administration from blocking such imports.

But floor manager for the underlying appropriations legislation, Sen. Barbara Milkuski (D-Md.), said opening the borders to Canadian-made drugs could endanger American consumers.

"You don’t know that what you are taking has been made in Canada or approved from Canada or that that it comes from a real website or from a legitimate pharmacy," she argued Thursday. "We could be importing death. I am not trying to being dramatic."

The amendment, which went down 45-55, needed 60 votes to proceed.