To the Editor:

In the Tribune's 16 September 2003 article "Illinois Considers Buying Drugs in Canada" you quote William K. Hubbard, associate commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, as opposing drug imports because of the risks involved. Maybe the task of inspecting drug imports needs to be shifted to the US Department of Agriculture where the Food Safety and Inspection Service has a fine record of protecting American consumers from what must be a far more complicated task, inspecting a wide variety of food imports from many countries, not just one. Hubbard's response doesn't sound like the "can do" attitude that we're told characterizes the Bush Administration. Our governor's idea sounds like a winner to me.