FDA REGULATION
(Posted 2007-04-24 12:35:52 by ArchPaladin)

So this post is inspired by this document [
http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/98fr/06d-0480-gld0001.pdf ] [fda.gov, PDF]
released by the FDA a few months ago, which I happened to have stumbled
upon quite by accident.  If you search around for the internet zeitgeist,
most of what you'll find are reprints of this article [
http://www.newstarget.com/021789.html ] [newstarget.com], which is a
completely misguided summary of what the FDA document said.

The reprinted article would have you believe that the FDA is trying to pass
a new law that would set new regulation for just about any complimentary
alternative medical product on the market, including herbs, vitamins,
acupuncture needles, massage rocks, teas, ointment creams, and so on.  The
article would have you believe that this new regulation is going to be the
death-blow of alternative, unprescribed treatments and that the entire
complimentary health industry will collapse as a result.  Of course, what
you'll actually find if you read the original FDA guide (which I did, and
you could too if this is at all interesting) is that the FDA is merely
clarifying laws that are already on the books, and that while they
effectively already regulate the entire list of items I gave above, they
are not seeking (in this document) to pass or encourage new regulations at
all.  Whether or not new regulation or legislation will occur in the future
has not been stated.

So why am I bringing this all up?  Well, I suppose it is worth discussing
just what exactly should be regulated and what should be left alone.  I
would hate to get into medicine just to find out that all the things I
thought I could get at the stores for ten bucks ended up costing hundreds
and requiring a prescription.  This is particularly true for asinine things
to regulate, like tea.  In truth I think I'm writing because I first
stumbled upon the very-misleading article that was rehashed everywhere and
got all wound up and ready to say something only to find out that there
wasn't much that needed to be said because it was all overblown hype to
begin with.

All of this is good for me, I suppose, because if I'm really going to get
into this field at all I had better be prepared to fight these kinds of
battles.  Not just to keep tea from costing $100, but because this field
can get so convoluted and people can be so misinformed (or deceitful) that
you need reasonably sane voices to help keep peace.  Of course, this
presumes I have a reasonably sane voice.

And this is not to mention that I would hate for my future field to turn
into the medicine that I was trying to get away from in the first place.  I
see a lot of risk inherent in regulation, as it assumes that we know enough
of what we're talking about to make intelligent far-reaching decisions, and
if you put lawmakers, scientists, and drug-makers together all hope of that
being true has just vanished.  I was very happy with going to a field where
I could focus more on helping the needs of others rather than dealing with
legal and insurance matters, and where I could avoid being in the situation
of telling a man that he could either treat his illness or send his kids to
college.  Of course that doesn't mean that hassles won't exist - just that
treatments and options will be a lot more affordable and less complicated
for my clients than the alternative.

I suppose that what I find most upsetting is that the existence of this
kind of discussion means that somewhere, someone is making a living off of
making helping people complicated, or that the industry or the money is now
the most important thing we have to discuss when it comes to medicine at
all.  Even worse, this complication has likely been brought about by a
desire to do good in the first place, but only serves to lessen the total
good done by raising the barrier of entry or hampering public
accessibility.  I suppose this is a component of capitalism or democracy or
whatever it is we have now.  Whatever the system is, it is soulless even if
the people in it aren't.  That reason alone makes me not like that system,
regardless of how much good it might have done in the past, and that was
really the sentiment that I wanted to express in making this post.

So there, I said it.

--------

There are no comments on this post.