More herbal-remedy oversight urged

The Times-Picayune ^ | 09/11/01 | Bill Walsh

[chemicalman]

WASHINGTON -- Americans increasingly are turning to dietary supplements to stave off the effects of aging, but a federal watchdog agency reported Monday that the government's oversight of the $27 billion industry contains loopholes that could put consumers in jeopardy.

[capt. norm]

There are two sides to this. One side is the major drug manufacturers who lose money when a naturally-grown remedy can be used instead of their money-makers. But the false claims made by some in the herbal remedy area are equally at fault.

[peteram]

Breaux said that last year he received at his home a copy of the Journal of Longevity that advertised dietary supplements promising a better sex life, more energy and a healthier heart. Many of the products, Breaux said he later learned, were sold by companies owned by A. Glenn Braswell, who also owns the Journal of Longevity. Braswell, who has served time in prison for fraud and is the subject of a tax evasion investigation, was subpoenaed to testify before the committee Monday but refused to answer questions, citing his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Leave it to one person to ruin it for the whole.

For his earlier crimes, Braswell received an 11th-hour pardon from President Clinton.
Hmmm.....Figures.

When looking into dietary supplements, people need to ask the question "Who owns the farm?" In other words - how are they made and what's inside of them?
It seems like this is yet another case of government stepping in for those who refuse (for whatever reason) to do their own research into what they are taking.

[Stirner]

In my opinion, the issue is freedom. In 1994, congress passed a law allowing us to make our own decisions about what we take into our bodies, so long as the substances could be portrayed as "nutritional supplements". I take DHEA. Before that law passed, I had to order it, at fairly great expense, from Europe. After the legal change, I could buy it much more conveniently and cheaply at Wal-Mart. There is a drum-beat to change our access to these substances (some of which are useless, some of which may well be harmful, but many of which (such as glucosamine which many believe helps their arthritis)are probably useful. I suspect the drum-beat comes from a combination of drug companies(who could make more by selling patented remedies if these unpatented mostly vegetable derived products were driven off the market), doctors (whom we would have to visit, and pay, to get permission to take the drug companies' products), and just general freedom-grabbers, paternalists who don't want us to have control over what goes on in our own bodies. If too many of us are too stupid to check things out and take care of ourselves, then I guess we may need mama and papa state to save us from ourselves, but then goodbye freedom.