Topeka ? Selling drugs imported from Canada would become a crime in Kansas under a bill endorsed Tuesday by a House committee.

The measure also would make it illegal to encourage consumers to buy their prescriptions from anyone other than a pharmacy licensed in the United States. The Health and Human Services Committee’s voice vote sent the measure to the entire House for debate.

In November, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who opposes the bill, brought Kansas into a program, started by Illinois, linking consumers through a Canadian clearinghouse to pharmacies and drug wholesalers in Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Sebelius said the program would give Kansans access to common prescription drugs at significantly lower prices.

But the bill’s supporters argue that imports aren’t as safe and cause pharmaceutical companies to lose revenue that supports research. Also, last fall, Canada’s health minister said his nation’s regulators should discourage drug imports to the United States.

Committee Chairman Jim Morrison, R-Colby, said eventually consumers who import drugs will receive unsafe substitute or “sugar pills.”

“That then becomes a safety issue,” he said.

But Rep. Geraldine Flaharty, D-Wichita, who voted against the bill, said potential risks for consumers are minimal. She said they’re more at risk if they can’t get drugs because they can’t afford them.

On Monday, Christopher Ward, a health care consultant from Hamilton, Ontario, told lawmakers the Canadian mail-order drug industry operates outside of the regulatory system in Canada.

Ward, brought in by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said the federal agency responsible for providing health care to Canadians has advised the public for years to be wary of drug imports that evade the review process for individual products.

But Karen Braman, a licensed pharmacist and deputy director of the Governor’s Office on Health Planning and Finance, said Canada’s chain of custody of pharmaceuticals is more tightly controlled than in the United States.