Board keeps them down on the pharm.

• Author: Maley, Frank
• Position: Tar Heel Tattler

The way Jan Crimin sees it, the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy has no regulatory authority over her business because it isn't a pharmacy. The way the Pharmacy Board sees it, her business needs to be shut down for much the same reason: It isn't a licensed pharmacy--but it acts too much like one.

Canada Connection helps bargain hunters place orders with Canadian pharmacies from a shopping center in Pineville. Customers can cut their drug bills by as much as 70%, while the business gets a commission from the Canadian pharmacies for orders that bear its code.

It's one of 10 companies the board has ordered to close. Six did after the board sent cease-and-desist orders last May. In February, it ordered Canada Connection and three others to close. "These are all that we know of," Executive Director David Work says. "They may still keep popping up, and if they do, we'll keep sending letters."

Crimin and her husband, Derek, knew they might hear from the board when they started Canada Connection in September. After the board shut down Concord-based Canada Drug Outlet last summer, the Crimins talked with the owner of that business and thought they had found a loophole. Instead of placing the orders, as...