Letter: Canadian drugs should be OK

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Monday, Oct. 11, 2004 | 9:05 a.m.

President Bush is going to have a tough time persuading seniors that American-made drugs bought cheaply in Canada are unsafe.

People living near the border have been using drugs purchased in Canada for years with no apparent ill effects. It is ridiculous to assume that Canada has less rigorous health standards. And the argument that direct government price negotiation would cost taxpayers more than paying private-sector benefit managers to do it piecemeal, without the club of the massed buying power of all those Medicare beneficiaries, just flies in the face of common sense.

Maybe I shouldn't be surprised, given this administration's problem with facts. It's those realities -- and the spotty, meager nature of the new Bush benefit to begin in 2006 -- that made an albatross of his drug plan that should have been a big plus with elderly voters.

RICHARD MILLER