MEXICO — BUYING MEDICATION

Every year,thousands of year-round and winter residents of the Yuma area travel to Los Algodones, Baja Calif., and San Luis Rio Colorado, Son., to seek out medical or dental care or to purchase medicine.

If you shop for medication in Mexico, you will be subject to regulations of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is charged with enforcing those rules at the ports of entry at Andrade, Calif., across from Los Algodones,and at San Luis,Ariz., across from San Luis Rio Colorado.

Some rules to keep in mind when going to Mexico to buy medicine:

• Only medications that are legally prescribed in the United States can be imported from Mexico for personal use.

• Travelers are required to have a valid prescription from a U.S.doctor to purchase in Mexico any medicine the appear on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s drug Schedules II through V.For more information visit https://www. dea.gov/druginfo/ds.shtml

• Medication purchased in Mexico must be brought to the United States in the original container.

For more information about purchasing medicine in Mexico, visit the FDA website at http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/default.htm