Given the extraordinary cost of prescription drugs in the US relative to other countries, the number of ordinary citizens seeking lower-cost medicines in Canada and elsewhere has skyrocketed. After years of bills being introduced in Congress to ease restrictions on importation of pharmaceuticals from foreign countries, the FY 2007 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill, which includes a provision to lift the personal importation ban on small quantities of prescription drugs from Canada, became public law in October 2006. The new law creates a regulatory and national security loophole that could imperil the health and safety of Americans.