People need to be careful about their own legislative environment. Importing too much may involve intent to supply which could be a relatively serious criminal offence.
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I beg for mercy your Honor, I did bring in 1000 pills of this statin, but I swear I had no intent to distribute, especially as seeing no bands of statin withdrawal junkies clawing at a chance to get a single pill to quench their unsatiable cravings! 10 years in federal max security prison for the serious crime of intent to distribute statins and blood pressure pills, at my age I’ll die in prison, no chance to correct my evil ways of interfering with my holy body… I should have been a good law abiding citizen and let my cholesterol and blood pressure run wild like a real American! And the DA is claiming - falsely - that I wanted to distribute these poisons to innocent addicted (to health) victims!
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Man jailed for illegally selling £2m of prescription-only medicines
A West Midlands man has been sentenced to five years in prison for the illegal possession and intent to supply prescription-only medication (POM) valued at over £2 million.
In a press release the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said that it was made aware of a website that was illegally selling POMs in 2015.
An investigation found the website to be associated with Kieron Banks, now 34.
The MHRA’s Criminal Enforcement Unit arrested Banks at his home in 2016, supported by West Midlands Police.
They found more than 23,000 sleeping pills, including zopiclone, zolpidem and zolpidem tartrate.
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This is in the USA and includes a statin
https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdfl/pr/bradenton-man-pleads-guilty-selling-counterfeit-unapproved-and-misbranded-drugs
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A little hard to argue that its for “personal use” 
So the new mrna cancer vaccines have worked well. I think its reasonable to assume it would also work well for a variety of other cancers.
I asked chatgptb what it would cost to purchase the lab equipment that if you knew (or hired people who knew) how to create an individualized cancer vaccine, it estimated $300k. If you were a billionaire looking down the throat of death, would you wait for trials (that may or may not take place) for your cancer and approval or would you hire the talent, buy the equipment and give it a go (maybe on your private island or whereever)
Same with gene therapy (though it seems much riskier)
My guess is we might be at an inflection point. Eventually the old models and processes don’t work.
There is a difficulty in that the law varies in different countries. One of the biohackers I have been coaching in the UK is in his day job a crimlnal judge. Hence he has to be very careful that he is working in accordance with the law so we checked things out and personal use (of Rapamyin imported from India) in the UK is entirely lawful.
In the USA the situation is different and the crimlnal law may apply at a much lower level. In the UK 3 months supply is considered “personal use”. This can include immediate family.
In the USA you have two particular problems legally
a) That trying to avoid paying tariffs may be criminal smuggling in some way.
b) That trying to buy drugs without a prescription may also be a problem although that is more likely to be a problem for the seller (if they were to be in the USA although the USA does go extra jurisdictional on things).
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I placed an order with Dipesh at Welcome Healthcare a couple of days ago. He said orders placed before Oct. 15th should go through ok, but there might be issues after that.
Ray1! Have You ordered from Welcome Healthcare before? Has it been reliable? I recently ordered from Maulik and was thinking of getting more JIC. I am still waiting for that package. Do y’all think it would be ok to order more from Maulik or should I try another supplier? I just want more rapa…
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A vendor’s observation:
"Indeed the India post is backlogged a lot due to sudden increase in orders to industry the number of packages increased 6x and they have limited flight to send the load , but on positive side the rule they are in enforcing on 22 October was already started from 22 September and as per recent tracking updates the clearance rate is 97-98% still there according to packages cleared by customs today and yesterday
As per my research things won’t change much maybe a little percent increase in seizure most likely but that’s my thinking rest will be cleared once we have statistics available between 22 October to 26 October"
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The problem is that based on what I’ve heard, the enforcement date is October 22nd. Right now things aren’t being enforced. I hope you’re correct and things stay the same as they are now. However there is the risk it won’t. I made two last minute purchases. I’ve already received one.
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I ordered from Dipesh a couple of years ago and it worked ok. He took PayPal at that time, and the order was processed as a purchase of T shirts. He no longer takes PayPal and I used Zelle. If the order does not arrive the money is just gone. I expect him to come through since he did before, but there is always risk.
That’s not my claim, it’s just one vendor’s read on the situation. The vendors who have never followed the rules and who keep US warehouses don’t seem to be as worried, but maybe they should be.
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I wonder what the penalty for Indian vendors is for mislabeling a package.
Many of my orders over the last 5 years have been mislabeled, mainly, I think, to sidestep WISE money transfer policies. So if a vendor mislabels a package, i.e., a “health product” rather than the prescription drug name, then we will just be entering a lottery. It will then be just a package that may or may not be selected for inspection by Indian or US customs. That will be just a few percent of the packages.
I have lost one package to customs in the last five years. I can afford to have the occasional package seized and take the consequences. Will Indian vendors be willing to do the same?
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I agree with the logic but not with the implication that federal motives driving these regulations are as stated. The actual purposes may be quite different from the ostensible rationale, and in a way that would be indifferent to whether the drug had outsize market value.
There is a simpler but less polite way to state this.
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I have heard from two that they are not willing to risk it but this is public talk to a near stranger. There is reason to think the India merchants may work out a way after the full impact of the 22nd takes effect.
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John is making a valid point, and one must think about how the legal system works. There’s an older thread I was reading yesterday with a similar statement about pleading to a judge about the import of scheduled orexin antagonists. It’s worthwhile for folks on the forum to think this through more carefully.
Both discussions share the assumptions that the offenses are too small for the authorities to bother with or for judges to take seriously. Those are not accurate assumptions. Our view of the risk is distorted because small cases rarely make the news and most of us don’t have direct experience with drug offenses.
What one has to consider is that these are slam-dunk cases that can get local law enforcement and DAs easy wins that boost their metrics. I chatted with one guy who went into detail about an interaction he had with two DHS agents who showed up at his doorstep over two vials of a steroid imported via international mail. Two vials! Many who order such things are prepared for that possibility and know how to handle the interaction to avoid immediate arrest and a house search, but I have not seen that kind of sophistication on this forum.
In some US states, you can be charged with a felony for possessing non-prescribed drugs without a prescription. Importing more than a 90 day supply of a statin on your person probably gets you a scolding and confiscation, but it’s at the officer’s discretion (or not depending on the number - because at some point, you force them to charge you with intent to distribute). Do you want to roll the dice with this CBP and find out what the number is? I wouldn’t. I entered the USA twice in the past two weeks, different ports, and they are not messing around.
As for controlled substances, the DEA may consider a few hundred dosage units to be too small for them to bother with, but they put you on a watch list and start watching. They’re too busy, but they cooperate with the local Postal Inspector who happens to be very friendly with your local law enforcement. The Postal Inspectors live for these opportunities - it’s why they exist and is the best part of their job! Maybe they decide to do a controlled delivery or just insert a thin, silent alarm that goes off when you open the package inside your house. They don’t even have to hand the package to you directly anymore. Seconds later, they are emptying your drawers and you are in handcuffs watching them destroy your home.
Why would they bother with an individual consumer? Again, an easy felony drug arrest that boosts their metrics! They don’t have to get lucky on a traffic stop or do any work because you’ve just handed yourself to them on a silver platter.
As your house gets turned inside out, your electronics are seized along with any and all drugs from India. They run forensics on the electronics to find proof of intent, including forum posts mocking the legal system. The prosecutor submits these to the judge who just lost any and all inclination to be lenient. How can he be when you posted your explicit intent to commit the crime and your strategy to avoid sentencing?
The best case outcome: thousands in legal fees, heavy fines, probation, and enrollment in a drug diversion program. You never import meds from anywhere ever again because every package is now monitored. You spend several months in close proximity to your home - no vacations - because you are randomly commanded to come in to pee in a cup within a few hours. Your employer wants to know why you keep missing work, and you need to watch what you eat so you don’t get a false positive. If you do, they are not going to retest - you think you’re getting the benefit of the doubt? No, a missed or positive test gets you a visit with your probation officer, and maybe a seat in front of the judge once more. Maybe he’s understanding, or maybe he’s in a bad mood and gives you jail time. If the latter, congratulations, you were already found guilty, but now it goes on your record. You are now a felon, so say goodbye to voting, owning firearms, and earning a decent income.
The odds of trouble are low, but everybody who goes through it was as surprised as you would be. The stress alone will take years off your life. Please, friends, do not make the mistake of thinking that just because a law is unreasonable that it will not be enforced.
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Different topic, but this reminded me….
Decades ago, in the middle of the night, a TEAM of officers went to my sister’s house over ONE illegal cable box. If I recall, it was the FBI.
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India postal services notification that my package left BOM International early Saturday. USPS says they don’t have it yet. This will be a test of how long customs is taking.
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how can one self import? what happens if customs checks your bags and finds the “drugs”?