Letter to the Editor

Editor -- The Chronicle reports ("Bold agenda for state," Jan. 6) that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in his State of the State address, called for more prescription-drug imports. Americans are already free to buy imported drugs from European and other foreign drugmakers, who compete in the United States on the same terms as American drugmakers.

The governor is actually calling for international drug piracy, whereby unauthorized middlemen divert medicines from their intended customers and sometimes adulterate and counterfeit them.

If I bought a few thousand videos of ''The Terminator'' on the sidewalks of Bangkok, and attempted to import them into the United States without paying a royalty, the governor would not approve. By calling the international piracy of prescription drugs "free trade," the governor has confused his principles.

JOHN R. GRAHAM
Director, Health Care Studies
Pacific Research Institute