regulations concerning shipping of food/medicine from canada to the states.

wow i just had a fun day. my father just returned to the states and forgot to take my mother's prescription medicine with him. no problem he called and asked me to ship it to them. sure it would cost alot but my mother NEEDS this medicine to live.

wow to my shock the purolater guy sees the medicine and hands me a sheet of paper. acording to a neww law passed in december nothing covered by the fda may be shipped. this includes anything injested by humans or animals (it even pointed out spacificaly gum). a company can apparently get permits to ship food stuffs, but ordinary people can not except for a few things .

there is a way to ship drugs taken directly from the sheet i was handed:
prescription drugs to the us
for all prescription drugs to a canadian or american at an adress in the united states, the sender must provide all the following documentation:
-a photocopy of the doctors prescription
-a photocopy of a document proveing the adressee's citizenship;e.g. birth certificate with photo id or passport.
-in the receiver's name and adress section of the bill of ladeing, the teliphone number where the adressee can be contacted.
- a letter from a doctor if the drug is not fda approved or if it is for a us citizen. (this documents should be included in the plastic pouch with the bill of lading.)

nice considerind that since this is not an expected thing i don't have these things on hand and considering my mother is in the states i can not get her id to ship it to her. i can understand how they might want this for a us citzen. but how can most people foresee this type of documentation needed in an unforseen circumstance. notonly that how exactly does one outside the states know what is fda aproved or not?