Any way to automate checking a package's MD5sum?

[Lance Simmons <lance@lsimmons.net>]

The Debian website lists MD5sums for each package. Is there any way to
automate the checking of a package's MD5sum after you download it, or
does it have to be done by hand?

Debsums is useful for checking the MD5sums of the _files_ of a package,
but how do I check the MD5sum of the package itself (short of running
md5sum by hand and comparing it to the MD5sum posted on the Debian
website)?

Or is this already done somehow?

-- 

Lance Simmons
lance@lsimmons.net