Customs confiscate 155lbs of unauthorized medicines

Airport customs confiscated 155 pounds of unauthorized pharmaceutical products from people planing into the CNMI last month.

Captain Greg M. Sablan Jr., airport branch manager, also noted that 90 percent of the seized items were from people that came from the People’s Republic of China. While the remaining 10 percent of confiscated goods originated from Korea and the Philippines.

Under Public Law 11-40, pharmaceuticals with no English labels are prohibited from entering the CNMI. A waver, however, is given if the pharmaceutical product was brought in for personal use.

The person who brought in the medicine just needs to present a prescription and the volume of the medication should not exceed 90-days, Mr. Sablan explained.

The February haul of only 155 pounds of illegal medicine is 101 pounds less than what the airport customs confiscated last month.

In January, customs officers under Captain Sablan confiscated a total of 354 unauthorized pharmaceuticals. Again, Chinese arrivals were tagged as the biggest violators, followed by Korean and Filipino nationals.

“Most of those who brought in the illegal medicines were simply ignorant of the law, they did not know that US labels are the only permissible prescription drugs that can enter the CNMI,” Captain Sablan reiterated.

The airport manager said there were occasion when they caught arrivals with as much as half a trash bag of pharmaceuticals crammed in their luggage. It was also common for them to stash their illegal medication inside shoes, clothes and even food items, the customs official said.

Captain Sablan disclosed that most of the unauthorized medication were your typical headache, stomach and cold pharmaceuticals, but he said there we also times they confiscated abortion pills.

The airport customs seized an estimated 2,200 pounds of illegal medication in the whole of 2000. However, the statute prevents them from arresting or filing charges against the carriers and are only allowed to confiscate the contraband.

Earlier this year, the CNMI Division of Customs noted an increasing awareness among Chinese garment workers on existing laws which prohibits the entry of medicines from China, particularly those not labeled in English.

But Customs Director Joe Mafnas said this is not helping the division in any way mainly because they continue to intercept and confiscate an average of 500 grams of non-English labeled medicines from Saipan-bound Chinese workers.

And whoever said increased awareness is always an advantage is probably mistaken. It does not work the same way for the Division of Customs.

He admitted the practice by some Chinese workers in as far as trying to bring in foreign-labeled medicine into the Northern Marianas has been a perennial problem for the customs division, especially now when awareness among them is higher.

“It has been a continuing trouble for us. We have asked garment manufacturing companies to inform their recruits from China that they can’t bring in medicines from there to the CNMI and we know that the message has been relayed very well,” he added.

How did the customs know?

Workers from China bound for Saipan are now keeping most of the confiscated medicines that are not labeled in English in their pockets, shoes, and in some cases, under their arms, according to Mr. Mafnas.

But he said there is no letting up on the customs division’s efforts against the entry of prohibited medicines into the Northern Marianas, as he stressed that inspections is now a little tighter to ensure that nothing illegal has been sneaked in.

He also mentioned that there has been no incident when the medicines confiscated from Chinese workers was being brought in for commercial purposes, considering the volume of stocks they were supposed to bring in from China.