On the morning of May 6, agents of the Food and Drug Administration burst into the Tahoma Clinic in Kent, Wash. King County police officers, guns drawn, led the way. They carried a search warrant authorizing them to seize everything in sight, especially vitamins.
A reporter for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer covered the story. Julie Gallegos, a medical assistant at the clinic, said the officers "came in with their guns pointed at us and told us to freeze." Receptionist Marge Murphy said the FDA agents were wearing flak vests. "They broke through the main door yelling, and one of them pointed a gun in my face."Dr. Jonathan Wright, owner of the clinic, arrived a few minutes after 9 o'clock. FDA agents permitted him to make one telephone call to his attorney. Then, pursuant to a search warrant obtained by FDA agent Spencer Morrison, they began their search and seizure.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorially termed the raid a "Gestapo-like tactic" and questioned the FDA's motivation. It was a good question. In August 1991, Dr. Wright brought suit against the FDA for seizure of his supply of an injectable B-vitamin complex. On Sept. 23, 1991, FDA agents began searching the clinic's trash for evidence of vitamin products imported from Germany.
The search warrant authorized the agents to seize all drugs labeled in a foreign language and to confiscate all literature describing or promoting the subject compounds.
The FDA was further to seize all documents, "including patient records," related to dispensing the vitamin products.
The FDA's position is that it is protecting the public from itself by seizing vitamins and other food supplements that are provided by doctors practicing holistic medicine, a field in which reliance is placed upon compounds drawn from natural materials. In the agency's view, such substances are probably ineffective and may be unsafe.
I hold that in a free country, the government has no business drawing guns on people who want to take or prescribe "unauthorized" vitamins. Our bodies are our own. They do not belong to Dr. David Kessler, commissioner of the FDA. His powers ought to be limited to protecting us from fraud, contaminated foods and truly dangerous drugs.
Dr. Kessler's view is that he needs still more sweeping powers of enforcement. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., has sponsored legislation to that effect. The senator would protect us from "worthless" products. Some of us might prefer to be protected from worthless commissioners.