Senate Bill 722, introduced by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (D) and co-sponsored by Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York (D), Diane Feinstein of California (D) and Hillary Clinton of New York (D), is misleadingly named the "Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2003". In reality, this bill has the potential to harm the lives and health of millions of Americans as it delivers a significant blow to our personal freedom.
SB 722 would essentially re-classify dietary and nutritional supplements into the same category the government puts prescription drugs in. Currently, nutritional supplements, like vitamins, weight loss pills and protein shakes, are treated the way most foods are treated for regulatory purposes. This bill would add all the same expenses of overcoming oppressive regulatory burdens that pharmaceutical companies face now. In all likelihood, it would drive several nutrition manufacturers (which are all far smaller than most drug companies) out of business, it would make nutritional supplements more expensive and put many products out of reach of lower-income Americans.
I could use this article to argue in favor of the many health benefits of nutritional supplements like creatine, vitamins and even Ephedra when used according to the directions. These benefits are documented many times over in scientific research.
I could use this article to point out the Senators' stunning hypocrisy in attempting to regulate and put out of reach the very products that provide millions with the ability to prevent health problems. Considering the government's own estimates that up to 15% of the United States Gross Domestic Product is now spent on health care, denying access to nutritional supplements that help prevent health problems and expenses is nothing short of financial oppression.
I could use this article to argue that the nutritional supplement industry is a prime example of the free market working the way libertarians claim it does. Supplement consumers have more access to scientific data on the largely unregulated products they buy than even prescritption drug consumers have because supplement manufacturers must provide that information up front and openly in order to succeed in a highly competitive market. Manufacturers are forced to prove both the safety and effectiveness to consumers, who have access to up to date research in publications like Men's Health, Men's Fitness, Muscle and Fitness and Muscle and Fitness for Her. Consumers of this industry are not reliant on trusting someone else to approve a product, they get to research and approve it for themselves with great success.
I could use this article to argue all those points, but I will not. This debate is about personal freedom and the role of the government when it comes to our health care decisions. Senators Durbin, Schumer, Feinstein and Clinton, along with anyone who decides to support SB 722, obviously feel that we need the government to protect us from ourselves. This debate is, or should be, about individual liberty: the ability for us to control our own decisions about our lives. I can say with all confidence that I am more capable of making competent decisions for my own heath than Dick Durbin, Chuck Schumer, Diane Feinstein and Hillary Clinton. The frightening aspect of SB 722 is the fact that I may not have that right at some point.
Clearly, there is no Constitutional authority of the government to regulate our individual health decisions. Despite the claims of those who support SB 722, this effort is not about making nutritional products safer, it is not about the supplement manufacturers, it is about limiting the choices and freedoms of Americans. It is about the government manipulating a legal and beneficial industry and forcing its products to be placed out of reach of many Americans.
There is also no moral authority for the government to tell me what I may or may not consume to benefit my own health. When they restrict and regulate products, especially those like health supplements, they are directly reducing my choices and denying me the right to assume responsibility for my life. I simply do not need the government to protect me from my own decisions. My health decisions are none of the government's business.
Ironically, Durbin himself acknowledges the benefits of nutritional supplements. In his press release that announced the introduction of SB 722, Durbin states "Millions of Americans take dietary supplements every day without any ill effects; in fact, some dietary supplements provide consumers with significant health benefits. However, ...(a) small number of products - primarily stimulants and steroids masquerading as herbal compounds - have proven lethal to consumers."
In order to protect the few who may suffer adverse effects from the misuse of nutritional products, SB 722 would restrict access to these products for everyone. Pharmaceutical companies currently spend up to $500,000 and up to a decade just to get government permission to offer drugs that their scientific research has already shown effective to treat health problems. How many people die or suffer each year while those products are under the scrutiny of government bureaucrats and how much more expensive are those products due to the added cost of regulation? We may never know.
Nutritional supplements offer what the Food and Drug Administration claims to want for Americans: preventative health care. Recently, Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson publicly made the case for Americans to take better care of ourselves now in order to avoid health problems and costs in the future. Both our ability and our right to do just that will be severely compromised, if not outright eliminated, if SB 722 becomes law.
Here is what Republicans and Democrats seemingly fail to understand: controlling my own health care decisions is not a privilege to be granted and approved by government, it is my individual right in a free society. SB 722 is yet another attempt to take away more of our personal freedom. This impacts everyone, even those who choose not to consume nutritional supplements, because of the basic concept behind this effort. That concept is that government knows what is best for us, we are not capable of making our own personal decisions and that government has the right to take that freedom away at any time. What is next? Government control of our ability to eat foods that are deemed too unhealthy?
Supplements, food and safety are not the issues. Personal freedom is the issue. The main question in this debate should be who has control over your personal health, you or the government? If the government succeeds in taking away your freedom to choose what to eat and which vitamins and other nutritional products you can use, what part of your life won't the government control "for your own good"?
President Bush has shown time and again his undying faith in big, intrusive government and his hostility towards the Constitution and individual liberty. It is reasonable to think that he will sign SB 722 if it reaches his desk.
Help protect your personal freedom by contacting your Senators today and demand that they oppose SB 722. Your freedom depends on it.