Saving money on prescription drugs from Canada

Hi All;  
Wanted to share this information with anyone having to pay for their prescription drugs.  
I assume some lucky folks have super insurance and pay hardly a penny for their medicine, that is wonderful for them.
We are not in the lucky crowd. My job is sporadic, most months my insurance stays eligible some months it does not.  When my insurance is good my wife's asthma inhalers cost us $145 a month out of pocket...
When my insurance is inactive cost for that inhaler (just one) is $490 + OMG !  She has to have this inhaler there is no going without it...  I looked for other choices.
A fellow I worked with 20 years ago needed epilepsy medicine, I do not remember the numbers anymore but he got his shipped down from Canada much cheaper than it could be gotten at home. At that time 20 years ago I had no need of that tidbit of info.  I do now... I looked into it.
Canada, our wonderful polite neighbor to the north has done it again. Prescription drugs can be legally ordered from Canada. You must have a doctors prescription, they will call your doctors office to confirm it is real. You can not use a credit/debit card to pay , you must mail them a check, this all takes time so be prepared this is not (at first) instant gratification. Your prescription's are not mailed to you from Canada .. they are shipped from Europe. I believe this is how it remains legal. Please Please let it remain so.
At the beginning I looked on line , found a company in B.C. offering the generic version of my wife's inhaler for apx $60 each wow ,I paid them a little extra and got free shipping for 1 year this is GREAT !  But we needed to try the generic version (not available in US) and confirm it worked well. In about a month the first inhaler arrived . It works every bit as well as the Advair. Needless to say we were ecstatic! We ordered another right away and that one only took 3 weeks to arrive.
One day I was going to order again and I got the name wrong... a different Canada pharmacy popped up , same town even    ... hmm better check prices while I'm here. Turns out they offer the very same generic inhaler that the other place did only instead of it costing us $60 for one month for $61 we could get THREE inhalers !!! OMG everybody who needs prescription medicine needs to investigate if they can save money as well!  Turns out the original pharmacy that had my prescription and I had paid for 1 year free shipping offered PRICE MATCH !!! OH MY sure enough I called went thru the hoops (very easy) and we now get 3 months of inhalers at our door for $61.00 !!! 4x a year $244.00 A YEAR instead of $490 a month !!! Holy COW BATMAN are we in the twilight zone !

I'm so glad I have good insurance.  My insulin and supplies (pumps, CGMs, etc.) would cost me over $1500 a month without insurance (I only pay about $150).

Just in case you didn't know, what you are doing is illegal (although it's not often enforced).  Still you might want to avoid bragging about it online.

Also, according to officials in Canada, the majority of so called "Canadian" pharmacies are operating illegally, and many are not even in Canada and often sell counterfeit drugs.

https://www.verywellhealth.com/how-americans-can-buy-drugs-from-canadian-pharmacies-2615458

There is a conceptual gap between “not legal” (various administrative rules against it, no enforcement mechanism, no crime, worst thing that happens is that customs might seize a shipment) and “illegal” (crime, men with handcuffs, prison) large enough to park a thriving grey market international trade in. Which is what has happened here.

Also, consider the source when you read aricles like the one at that link. Who is quoted? Whose interests are being promoted? All that stuff about bad non-Canadian drugs coming in through Canada? That’s a story being told by the USA trade group that represents USA pharmacies — the ones who are price gouging and have every incentive to make stuff up and make “the competition” sound bad. Consider the source. Consider the source. Consider the source.

I’m not saying what is or isn’t true; I don’t have a dog in this fight and I don’t know. But I can smell a toxic link when I land on it. Consider the source!

Me and my wife were thinking about using one of our properties in a new business venture that would take her away from the bank, and good health insurance. We were talking about this on the way to the pharmacy, but there the woman said one of the prescriptions did not clear insurance so they were resubmitting it. We said we would just pay for it. That was when she said, "I am pretty sure you would not want to do that on this one." I asked her how much, it was $1267.00. That is just (1) 30 day prescription, having cancer I am on 9 different medications, and see doctor's weekly. We drove away, and I slowly broached the topic with my wife. Due to insurance alone, she will stay at the bank for the foreseeable future.

But as sad as it is, it is against the law to buy medications in Canada. Being from Maine, and surrounded by Canada, they used to have chartered Senior Citizen bus trips into New Brunswick, but the Border Patrol put a stop to them.