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As mentioned
previously by the National Health Federation, Senator Richard
Durbin (D-IL) recently introduced his so-called Dietary
Supplement Safety Act (S.722) to address the hysteria created
by the government and media over the false problem of
dietary-supplement safety-particularly in the wake of the
ephedra scare. Superficially reasonable, the bill calls for
the industry to report "adverse events" to the FDA. Adverse
events are any deaths or injuries associated with dietary
supplements. Never mind that there are few adverse events to
report or that millions of taxpayers' dollars would be spent
to implement this needless law. Just remember that adverse
events reported for a product could result in the more
sinister purpose of that particular product being declared a
health hazard and subjected to drug-like regulation. What a
marvelous plan-get a few feeble-minded government sycophants
and prescription-drug addicts to file adverse reports when
"injured" by vitamins or minerals (or even just make them up)
and then the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human
Services can declare them dangerous drugs that must be
regulated virtually as drugs.
Not content with this major intrusion, Durbin's bill would
also reassign steroid precursors, which are not even properly
defined, to the same schedule of illegal drugs as heroin and
cocaine. Estrogen would be exempted, testosterone would not.
And "stimulant supplements "that speed up the body's
metabolism, increase heart rate or cause the release of
adrenaline would have to obtain drug-like pre-market approval
from the FDA. So, Durbin's bill is not only a first step
towards regulating dietary supplements as drugs, but it would
do this in a discriminatory, sexist way.
But after the ignominy of seeing DSHEA passed, the FDA and its
allies (or controllers) have become more clever in their
strategy. Instead of betting all of their money on one bill,
in this case Durbin's bill, they have seen to it that an
"alternative" to the threat of the Durbin bill is available.
This second bill, Senate 1538, has been introduced by Senators
Harkin (D-IA) and Hatch (R-UT) with the claim that it will
"fully implement" (remember that phrase from the FDA plan?)
DSHEA by funding the FDA to the tune of more than 100 million
dollars over a multi-year period. By claiming that S.1538 will
"fully implement" DSHEA and tactically prevent S.722 from
being passed, its proponents have unfortunately collected many
supporters among the whole-foods industry. But the utter
naivety in thinking that giving the FDA $100-plus million to
implement its plan for DSHEA will somehow help the industry is
astounding. Since when did giving government bureaucrats at
FDA more money ever advance health freedom? You might as well
provide more bullets to bank robbers to "fully implement" bank
withdrawals.
The FDA is already well funded. We do not need S.1538 to argue
that the FDA is adequately funded to enforce its view of DSHEA.
All that needs to be done is to point to the existing overfed
monstrosity and realize that the proper regimen for the FDA is
dieting not further engorgement.
The beauty of the FDA's approach here is that, either way, it
wins and we lose. Whether Durbin's bill passes or Hatch's bill
passes, we lose. The real insult, though, is that the industry
is actually being tricked into supporting the funding of its
own hangman's noose! And the ultimate verification of what is
written here is that none other than the gadfly Quackbusters
organization led by Stephen Barrett does not oppose S. 1538
either! Supporters of the Hatch/Harkin bill should do some
quick soul searching about whom they are getting into bed with
before their "dream" becomes a "nightmare".
Please click on the appropriate additional links below:
S. 1538 Background
Information
S. 1538 DSHEA Full
Implementation & Enforcement Act
(the actual bill, S.
1538, in its entirety)
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