CBP suspends all personal prescription importation Oct 22

(personalimportation.org)

70 points | by burnt-resistor 1 hour ago

10 comments

  • Someone1234 10 minutes ago
    I flagged this and wanted to explain my reasoning.

    At the time of writing, the article states something that its own link doesn't support (i.e. it is inaccurate). CBP hasn't "suspended all personal prescription importation." What they've done is removed De Minimis Exemption (i.e. duty free below $800), and that's it. Meaning you can still important personal medication before and after Oct 22nd, what has changed is that now it is subject to normal duty.

    Do I think this is bad for people importing personal medication? Absolutely I do, and I oppose it. However, I don't think misstating the argument is constructive nor warranted. You could make the argument using the facts on the ground, and then re-state that in the thread title.

    So the story is worthy of discussion, and interesting (even the personal medication POV). But this link and this title aren't "it." Hopefully we can get a higher quality source and title on this topic.

  • dawnerd 47 minutes ago
  • happyopossum 20 minutes ago
    There's nothing in the CBP rule that prohibits importing prescriptions, although there will no longer be a duty exemption for them. The rule is about suspending the 'de minimis' exemption for shipments valued under $800...
  • bayarearefugee 37 minutes ago
    goes into effect 12 days before a midterm election that is already starting to look like a blue tsunami.

    It's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see if it pays off for 'em.

    • cyanydeez 14 minutes ago
      you're assuming media gives a lick about doing more than soundbites. The actual affect will be at best, 2 weeks after this is implemented, but probably 2 months while they actually figure out what legal means they can to infer which packages they can safely claim are foreign, along with actual foreign pharmacies giving 2 shits about todays shipping.
  • downrightmike 35 minutes ago
    What does this actually mean?
    • motionlessveloc 23 minutes ago
      Means you can no longer legally buy far cheaper prescription medicines from Canada, Mexico, India, China etc and ship them to the US.

      Their own primer on the topic: https://www.personalimportation.org/understand-the-issue

    • trashface 9 minutes ago
      Various pharmacies in Canada will accept a US prescription and send you the medication via mail, usually at far cheaper than what you would pay for the same in the US.

      This prevents it.

    • actionfromafar 33 minutes ago
      The people in charge betting they only need to count the "red" ballots this time?
  • SSchick 47 minutes ago
    Did another pharma CEO forget a gold ingot at the white house again?
    • trumpdong 18 minutes ago
      On the contrary, this blocks you from bypassing big pharma.
  • mcmcmc 39 minutes ago
    It truly boggles the mind how Trump managed to sell tariffs as anything other than a tax on American consumers
    • tygon 26 minutes ago
      You underestimate the stupidity of his supporters.
      • RGS1811 25 minutes ago
        Many such cases!
    • toomuchtodo 18 minutes ago
      Your average American has a 6th to 8th grade reading level. Takes a 12th grade reading level to understand jury instructions. It should come as no surprise that these people literally believed anything he said.

      We need to move on from the idea that tens of millions of voters have the ability to critically think. The evidence shows they cannot. They believe whatever they feel is truth and vote their vibes accordingly.

      https://finance.yahoo.com/news/york-fed-economists-confirm-a...

      https://libertystreeteconomics.newyorkfed.org/2026/02/who-is...

      https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2026/optimal-t...

      https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2026/who-pays-...

      • hungryhobbit 14 minutes ago
        > Takes a 12th grade reading level to understand jury instructions.

        Source?

        • toomuchtodo 12 minutes ago
          Keyword search: “reading level jury instructions”

          Assessing the Readability of Capital Pattern Jury Instructions Assessing - https://docs.rwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1207&contex... (2013)

          "Plain English" Jury Instructions: Why They’re Still Needed And What The Appellate Community Can Do To Help - https://www.floridabar.org/the-florida-bar-journal/plain-eng... (2004)

          > The average reading level of American parents of young children is 7th or 8th grade.

          > About one in every four Americans (25 percent) is a high school dropout.

          > About half (45 percent) have gone to college for some period of time, but fewer than one in six (15 percent) have a college degree.

          > Nearly 50 percent of the Americans surveyed cannot read well enough to find a single piece of information in a short publication, nor can they make low-level inferences based on what they read.

    • porkshoe 20 minutes ago
      He gets away with it because a lot of right-wing elites _love_ the idea of taxing consumption rather than income (or, heaven forbid, wealth).

      Additionally, Trump, Hassett, etc are still blaming Biden for inflation caused by the tariffs... and a lot of their base would rather believe that than admit that they got suckered by an obvious scam.

      • technothrasher 15 minutes ago
        > Trump, Hassett, etc are still blaming Biden for inflation caused by the tariffs

        I'm starting to see this backfire with a lot of "personal responsibility" type old-school republicans to whom I talk. They're getting fed up with the administration just blanket blaming anything bad on Biden. Whether that will translate to actual political change, I do not know. But I found it interesting that I'm hearing the frustration more lately.

  • Arodex 40 minutes ago
    [flagged]
    • readthenotes1 14 minutes ago
      The evil orange trumpelskeltskin has done a few things.

      It is long past due to shake things up-- that someone in the US can go to Canada to get cheaper drugs is insane.

      https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/04/adju...

      https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2026/09/fact-sheet-pr...

      https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/LSB11319

    • gustavus 31 minutes ago
      What do you hope to accomplish by that statement?

      Do you think this will motivate people who may have voted for trump but been ok the fence by calling them stupid?

      Is it to help give a better alternative or actionable advice? Does it contribute anything to the discussion?

      It seems it primarily exist to give you a hit of self righteous dopamine while attempting to create further rifts between individuals.

      • anonymars 18 minutes ago
        Far more useful would be to wonder for a moment why people voted that way, especially since I would wager no small part of the reason is because people are living in different realities stemming from hyper-targeted curated clickbait slop
        • dgellow 17 minutes ago
          And racism
          • anonymars 14 minutes ago
            Oh, did racism in the US suddenly increase? More than the days of, say, Jim Crow or the Ku Klux Klan, or Operation Wetback, or..?
      • add-sub-mul-div 19 minutes ago
        At some point the emperor should be made aware that he's naked, even if it hurts his feelings to find out.
        • 0cf8612b2e1e 9 minutes ago
          He just kicked out those meanies from the press room for saying hurtful things.
      • SpicyLemonZest 18 minutes ago
        > Do you think this will motivate people who may have voted for trump but been ok the fence by calling them stupid?

        Yes. That's been a surprising and important lesson of the Trump movement's success; we've learned that insulting your political opponents can help convince fence-sitters, and doesn't automatically repel them. I wish it weren't so, but in the modern political climate, abandoning insults seems as strategically unwise as abandoning fundraising.

      • stonogo 22 minutes ago
        we need an irony hall of fame for this forum
  • techmunky 27 minutes ago
    Is this even in CBP's wheelhouse or is this another egregious overreach?
    • adbachman 19 minutes ago
      this is their thing, yeah.

      the C in CBP, "Customs", is specifically this kind of stuff.