Sunday, Jan. 8, 2006 | 7:36 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Former Attorney General Brian Sandoval said he hadn't reached an opinion on whether the Legislature's plan to allow Nevadans to buy cheaper prescription drugs from Canada was legal.
Sandoval, who was confirmed as a federal judge last year, said his office had a three-page draft of a legal opinion when he left the attorney general's post, but "I had never reached a conclusion."
His successor, George Chanos, issued an opinion Dec. 27 saying the state plan to set up a Web site and allow Nevadans to buy prescription drugs from Canadian pharmacies was "unworkable."
Sandoval said he was reviewing material that Assembly Majority Leader Barbara Buckley, D-Las Vegas, sent him -- a legal opinion from the Legislative Counsel Bureau saying the plan agreed with the law.
An official in the attorney general's office with knowledge of the decision-making process said the opinion on Sandoval's desk reached the same conclusion as the one Chanos did.
Sandoval said the legal conclusion may have been the same, but the analysis was "completely different." He said he could not comment specifically because the draft opinion was covered by "attorney-client privilege."
Sandoval said he never discussed the opinion or consulted with Chanos about it.
The question of whether the plan is in line with the law will come before the state Pharmacy Board this week.
The 2005 Legislature passed a bill creating a program that would offer prescription drugs from Canada, expecting savings of up to 40 percent per prescription. The law said the drugs had to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
Chanos has held that the program couldn't meet the letter of the law because the drugs wouldn't be packaged in a way approved by the FDA or in facilities approved by the FDA.
Supporters of the plan called that a narrow definition, saying the legislation meant to include drug compounds that were approved, not packaging. They point to the Legislative Counsel Bureau's opinion.
Chanos said he is working on the prescription drug issue and said he flew to New York City at his own expense on Nov. 29 to meet with New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer "to discuss what if anything could be done to address what I consider to be the national disgrace of Americans having to go to Canada to get affordable drugs."
He said he has not met with any other attorneys general but plans to do so to discuss what actions could be taken.
A spokesman for Spitzer said he didn't know of the meeting, but he said Spitzer was very concerned about the high prices of drugs across the nation. New York does not have a law that permits prescription drug purchases from Canada, but Spitzer's office set up a Web site last year that allows consumers to compare pharmacy prices.
Chanos said Spitzer "supported my concerns and supported the concept of ways the matter could be addressed effectively." But he declined to be specific, saying, "I have some ideas I'm looking into, but I don't care to comment on them because the pharmaceutical companies read the newspapers too."
Buckley, who shepherded the prescription drug bill through the Legislature, has been a vigorous opponent of Chanos' opinion of the drug program. She said she "was glad he (Chanos) is concerned about prescription drug prices but he can work with lawyers at the Legislative Counsel Bureau to make the (Canadian) program work. He can interview lawmakers" to determine their intent in passing the law, she said.
Buckley said she and others will appear at the Pharmacy Board meeting, which will be Wednesday and Thursday in Las Vegas, to try to convince the board that the program should go forward.
Chanos said the board was independent and was "free to do what (it wants)." But he was "obligated to follow the law" in his opinion and the Pharmacy Board is obligated to follow the law.
"They can make their own decision whether they will follow the law."
Cy Ryan can be reached at (775) 687 5032 or at [email protected].
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