Like it or not, there is a constitutional case to be made for the existence of the FDA. The constitutional mandate of the government is to protect citizens, and the FDA is one form of protection.
One of the cornerstones of free market capitalism is “Buyer Beware”
It is my job to take care of me. Not the Gov’t. I think a little bit of your ‘dem’ slip is showing. But you’re heading in the right direction. And we love you regardless of your hair.
If the products weren't sold across state lines, the states would step in to regulate. And that includes the red states, like Texas.
The issue is not whether you have the right to take care of yourself, nor is it free-market capitalism. The issue is that there are criminals who will tell you anything to separate you from your money. These criminals are counting on the fact that you do not have a PhD in a life science (PhD educated people make up less than 1% of the population, and the life scientists are only a fraction of that). So they can literally tell you anything, making it sound scientific, and you have no basis on which to judge their claim.
Medical science can cure people or manage conditions that were death sentences not so long ago, but it is limited. The scam artists take advantage of this and people's emotional distress when dealing with serious medical issues. For example, a family might be told that little 2 year old Johnny has cancer, and the chance of being able to send it into permanent remission is only about 40%. The scam artist tells the family that he can sell them a miracle cure for little Johnny, with a romantic background story about how some rogue scientist developed it in his basement (insert scientific sounding gibberish here) and tested it on his friends and neighbors, with a 100% cure rate. I can tell from this thread alone that there are plenty of people who would jump at that sure-fire chance of curing little Johnny. Unfortunately, while that scammer is taking his money and disappearing, the well-meaning family is depriving Johnny of his 40% chance of remission.
In your scenario of caveat emptor, that family has no protection and no recourse against snake-oil salesmen.
I hate to point it out, but there really is not free-market capitalism. The government has always put regulations into place to try to protect people against criminals who would scam them. I'm not a libertarian; I'm a conservative who believes that people should be free to live their lives as they choose, and that there should NOT be freedom for those who would take advantage of others through dishonest methods.