WE, your Memorialists, the Members of the One Hundred and Twenty-ninth Legislature of the State of Maine now assembled in the First Regular Session, most respectfully present and petition the President of the United States and the United States Congress as follows:

WHEREAS,  Maine residents have a high median age and a low median income and are especially vulnerable to high prescription drug costs; and

WHEREAS,  in Canada, within walking distance of Maine's border, the same medications used by Maine residents, manufactured by the same companies in the same factories, are available for a fraction of the price charged in the United States; and

WHEREAS,  Maine has previously allowed the personal importation of safe prescription medications, which saved residents and businesses as much as half the cost of their medications, significantly decreasing their health care and insurance costs; and

WHEREAS,  Maine's ability to import such medications has since been blocked by federal law, thus inserting the Federal Government between Maine people and potentially lifesaving medications while also preventing free-market competition from working to benefit consumers; and

WHEREAS,  in 2014, Americans spent $1,112 per person on prescription drugs while Canadians spent $772 and Danes spent $325, and nearly one in three Americans have been unable to afford the medicine they were prescribed at some point in their lives; and

WHEREAS,  multiple members of Congress from both major political parties, including Maine's delegation, have introduced legislation to allow wholesalers, pharmacies and individuals to import qualifying prescription drugs from licensed sellers in Canada and other member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, using standards for the approval and sale of such medications comparable to those in the United States, that are purchased from an entity certified by the United States Food and Drug Administration and that have the same active ingredient, strength and route of administration as drugs approved in the United States; and

WHEREAS,  the President's health care proposal prior to his election read as follows: "Congress will need the courage to step away from the special interests and do what is right for Americans...Allowing consumers access to imported, safe and dependable drugs from overseas will bring more options to consumers"; now, therefore, be it