LEWISTON – If voters re-elect President George W. Bush, Maine’s plan to import U.S.-made prescription drugs from Canada could be harmed, Gov. John Baldacci says.

“It would certainly be more difficult,” said Baldacci, who was campaigning in Lewiston on Thursday morning for presidential candidate John Kerry.

The governor, who chairs Kerry’s Maine campaign, met with about 30 senior citizens at the Meadowview Park retirement complex.

Baldacci spoke about the need to strengthen Medicare and the state’s “re-importation” plan, announced last week.

According to the proposal, drugs would be imported to a Penobscot Nation warehouse on Indian Island, near Bangor. The tribe has been awarded a $400,000 community development block grant to help build the warehouse.

However, the proposal still needs a waiver from the federal government to begin operation.

Baldacci and Maine’s congressional delegation – Democrats and Republicans alike – are trying to get the needed permission.

The governor, a Democrat, sent a letter to U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson seeking the waiver.

Meanwhile, Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe, a Republican, is working for passage of the Pharmaceutical Market Access and Drug Safety Act, a measure that would allow importation of FDA-approved drugs from countries that have similar quality safeguards as the United States.

If it all works, seniors could see savings of 25 to 50 percent on the price of some prescription drugs, Baldacci said.

For instance, some heart patients are currently spending $2,500 each year on needed drugs. The new plan could cut the cost in half.

Kerry has come out in support of importation, as long as the drugs are safe. President Bush has yet to come out with a definitive statement about importation.

However, in a recent conversation with the Associated Press, Bush repeated his concern that bringing in drugs from other countries might be unsafe. He also pointed to passage last year of the Medicare Drug Benefit as proof of his concern for the issue of high-priced drugs.

The benefit is not enough, Baldacci said Thursday. He told seniors he worries that the money spent on prescription drugs will still rise, despite the Medicare change.

Baldacci was joined Thursday by several local lawmakers and John Carr, director of the Maine Council of Senior Citizens.

Carr handed out bumper stickers that read, “Grandparents for Kerry-Edwards” and, emblazoned with the Kerry-Edwards logo, free pillboxes.

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