The impact of the political and economic crisis in Venezuela is being felt as far away as Florida in the U.S. 

A critical shortage of medicines in the South American country has prompted many people to seek life-saving drugs from pharmacies abroad.

At a pharmacy counter in Florida, Yesenia Pedroza buys medicine for her family in Venezuela. She, like hundreds of others in the U.S., has relatives in the country unable to get hold of what are often life-saving drugs. For them, American pharmacies offer their best hope.

“My mother has Parkinson's Disease and it has been three months since she's had her medication and her illness is just becoming worse,” said Yesenia Pedroza, a Venezuelan living in Florida.

Healthcare workers in Venezuela say they no longer have access to upwards of 80 percent of medications needed to treat conditions such as cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure.

Florida law allows pharmacists to honor foreign prescriptions. But U.S. drug stores only accept dollars, which most Venezuelans cannot access because strict currency controls. It all means only around 10 percent of prescription requests from Venezuela end up being filled in the United States.

Maurice Ruah runs the U.S.-arm of Venezuelan pharmacy chain Locatel. He says the cost of U.S. medications is often prohibitive for the thousands of Venezuelans who call his stores.

“A lot of these phone calls in the end don’t translate into sales because the pricing of the medication is much higher than the price they’re used to paying in Venezuela since a lot of the medications are subsidized,” said Maurice Ruah, CEO of Locatel Health & Wellness.

Pharm-Aid, another Florida dispensary, receives up to 100 requests from Venezuelans per day and often waives delivery fees.

“We’re trying to give them a good price and to help them because it’s a desperate situation. People is sick, dying in Venezuela, kids is sick, dying in Venezuela because they cannot get a pill,” said Freddy Abreu, owner of Pharm-Aid.

Angela Pineda regularly sends medication to her relatives in Venezuela. Now, she says, with shortages of many goods in the country, her shopping list is getting longer.

“Besides medicines, my family are asking me to send them basic health products such as toilet paper, shampoo and deodorant,” said Angela Pineda, Venezuelan living in Florida.

Florida pharmacies say they expect to remain on the frontlines of the crisis in Venezuela for some time, with the economic and security emergency showing no signs of abating.