I find it ironic. In this country people can drug themselves with over-the-counter uppers, downers, painkillers and sleeping pills, abort unborn children, drink themselves into an early grave, destroy their health with tobacco, tea and coffee; read, write, draw, sing and speak pornography.
Yet coming this January, unless Sen. Hatch's Bill 784 passes, millions will lose the right to choose their own health care if it's vitamins, minerals, amino acids and herbs they want.When the Nutritional Labeling and Education Act of 1990 goes into effect, there is no provision for judicial review. The 2,000 pages of regulations the FDA has written as its interpretation of the law would also make the agency judge, jury and executioner.
All ingredients of supplements would have to be proved safe by the manufacturers. Products that are currently being sold and are and have been perfectly safe for the past 20-plus years could be pulled at the whim of the FDA.
According to Hatch, "It could break the industry . . . if the FDA gets its way, you're talking about $200 million and 10 years to get a simple supplement claim approved. . . . Costs could become prohibitive. . . . Many people would no longer have the right to benefit from them."
The FDA will have the right to seize and censor written material as well. It has already demonstrated its ability to ram down doors with FDA agents in flack jackets and aim high-powered guns at a terrified staff as they did in the case of Jonathan Wright, M.D., in 1992. Growing, possessing and using herbs could become as illegal as marijuana.
Even if people are not personally interested in herbs and vitamins, they should be interested in the rights we are losing in this country. The more we stand idly by and let the government have its way, the more we are going to lose.
Lynda Shumway
Blanding