Canadians are spending less on prescription drugs at pharmacy counters for the first time since the Second World War. The latest edition of Canadian RX Atlas shows Canadians spent almost 23-billion dollars on prescription drugs in 2012-13, down one per cent from five years earlier. But health economists who compiled the data predict that level will be short-lived due to shifts in drug costs. The atlas analyzes retail spending for more than 10-thousand medications within 33 categories.