Kansas Woman Convicted of Tax Evasion Also Faces Counterfeit Drug Charges

Example of counterfeit Botox courtesy USFDA. The former owner of a Leawood, Kansas business, Midwest Medical Aesthetics, has been charged with importation of misbranded drugs. Kathleen Stegman has been charged with illegally importing $194,000 worth of non-FDA approved “Botox,” Dysport,” “Restylane,” “Perlane,” and “Sculptra,” according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Stegman is currently…

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Former Attorneys General of Georgia and Florida Speak Out Against Drug Importation

The bills before Congress would remove many of the license and oversight requirements on the drugs imported into the United States by lifting those barriers, inviting an influx of bogus pharmaceutical products from the same crime rings that are selling these drugs in other countries around the world that would love better access to the U.S. market.

Law enforcement would inevitably be tasked with policing the problem, at a time when most prosecutors and law enforcement officials have their hands full with the growing opioid crisis. One of the biggest killers is fentanyl, a potent, synthetic opioid pain medication that is being laced into counterfeit pills.

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Maine pharmacist: U.S. lawmakers should say no to drug import legislation

A few years ago, Maine introduced similar legislation that allowed patients to buy drugs from foreign pharmacies. We, too, wanted to provide patients with lower-cost medicines.

It proved to be a big mistake. Instead of getting drugs from Canada, we got dangerous and ineffective counterfeit pills from other countries. Maine’s disastrous experience with counterfeit Canadian drug imports should serve as a lesson to our lawmakers to say no to drug importation legislation.

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Importation Endangers Law Enforcers Warns Sheriff Keith Cain

During my law enforcement career, spanning four decades, I have spent a great deal of time investigating crimes related to illegal drug use and trafficking. The growing scourge of methamphetamine and opioid use is unlike other crimes I have prosecuted in the past. It has literally changed the way we protect our citizens and officers. In addition to the traditional equipment carried by an officer, they must now equip themselves with Naloxone to counteract the effects of an opioid overdose, thusly, amending our existing policies has become necessary.

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President of the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition Warns That Importation Will Open the Door to Drug Counterfeiters

In the midst of a nationwide epidemic of opioid addiction fueled by illicit smuggling of drugs from overseas, and coming on the heels of a year in which U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized over $73 million worth of counterfeit medicines at our nation’s ports, some members of Congress have suggested a novel approach to these growing threats: “opening the floodgates.”

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Former Head of FDA-OCI: “Proposed drug importation law will worsen U.S. opioid epidemic”

The Philadelphia Inquirer published this editorial by George M. Karavetsos, a partner with the global law form DLA Piper, and former director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations.

Proposed Drug Importation Law Will Worsen U.S. Opioid Epidemic
More than 60,000 Americans died from drug overdoses last year. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 100 times more powerful than morphine, caused one-fifth of those fatalities. Local law enforcement and health professionals are working at a feverish pace to prevent fatal overdoses. Even librarians in drug-plagued neighborhoods . . .

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Counterfeit Cosmetic Treatments are Injuring and Killing U.S. Women

A series of recent cases across the country illustrate how dangerous unlicensed and counterfeit cosmetic treatments can be. Having filler injected should be considered a medical procedure, not a cosmetic treatment. The FDA has NOT approved liquid silicone or silicone gel for injection to fill wrinkles or augment tissues anywhere in the body.

In the last two months, three cases illustrated just how dangerous it is to seek beauty treatment injections from anyone other than a licensed medical professional . . .

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