WASHINGTON (AP) – With encouragement from Illinois’ governor, an elderly suburban Chicago couple filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the U.S. government to try to force it to allow states and individuals to import prescription drugs from Canada.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, contends that the 2003 Medicare legislation has provisions that are unconstitutional and that prevent Ray and Gaylee Andrews from purchasing drugs at lower prices in Canada.

Attorneys said the lawsuit represents the first legal challenge of the legislation. It seeks class-action status.

The Andrews, both 74, said they spend about $800 a month on medicine. Gaylee Andrews broke down as she described how both hold part-time jobs to make ends meet but are still forced to sell their Elk Grove home of 34 years because they can no longer afford it.

According to the governor’s office, the couple could save an average of 43 percent on seven brand-name drugs prescribed by their doctors if they had access to the less expensive Canadian drugs.

“I’m not going to do anything illegal,” Ray Andrews said, explaining why they chose to fight in court. He and his wife encouraged others to join them in the lawsuit.

“They are asking for one thing and one thing only: to make their own rational medical decisions and the right to buy the safe, affordable prescription drugs they need without the interference of the government,” Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich said at a news conference with the couple.

Brand-name drugs often cost less in Canada because of government price controls there, but importing the drugs for resale in the United States is illegal. The Food and Drug Administration has said it opposes dropping the ban because it can’t guarantee the safety of imported drugs. The agency has gone after companies that offer imported drugs for sale in the United States, but it has yet to target consumers.

FDA Associate Commissioner Peter Pitts had no comment on details of the Andrews’ lawsuit, saying he had not reviewed it.

But he cautioned that allowing consumers to do such things as purchase drugs from Canada over the Internet would be a “buyer beware situation.”

“People really just don’t know where the drugs are coming from,” Pitts said.

For states like Illinois, however, the cost of providing U.S. prescription drugs for hundreds of thousands of state employees and retirees has become an increasing burden, and several governors are looking to Canada to save money.

Illinois alone spent $340 million on the drugs last fiscal year, a 15 percent increase from the year before. A report commissioned last year by Blagojevich found Illinois could save as much as $91 million if it imported those drugs from Canada.

Blagojevich in December asked the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, for permission to set up a pilot program that would allow Illinois’ 230,000 state employees and retirees to import medications from Canada. He proposed safeguards, including requiring prescriptions first be filled by an Illinois pharmacist, but the request was never approved.

Blagojevich said then that the state might sue if it wasn’t allowed to proceed.

While the Andrews’ lawsuit does not directly involve the state, the couple acknowledged Thursday that they were encouraged by the governor to file it. Blagojevich put them in touch with Robert A. Clifford, a well-known Chicago trial lawyer.

Blagojevich, in Washington this week for a National Governor’s Association conference, also joined the governors of Wisconsin and Minnesota on Tuesday in a show of support for importing low-cost prescription drugs.

Changing the rules to allow importing drugs from Canada has broad popular support. An AP-Ipsos poll released this week found nearly two-thirds of 1,000 Americans surveyed said the government should make it easier to buy cheaper drugs from Canada or other countries, and almost a third said paying for prescription drugs is a problem.

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On the Net:

FDA: http://www.fda.gov

Health Canada: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/index.html

AP-ES-02-26-04 1546EST