X-Message-Number: 492.7 From: Saul Kent Subject: Orange County Register commentary on FDA The Orange County Register Wed. Aug. 7, 1991 Health fascism During the 1970s the Food and Drug Administration moved to ban many types or quantities of vitamins. A coalition of deregulationists and health enthusiasts formed to defeat that new grab for power and won. You can still buy an array of vitamins. But government bureaucrats never rest in their quest for power. New FDA Commissioner David Kessler has begun a new round of empire building, including new controls on how food is labeled. He has already prevented attempts by private groups, such as the American Heart Association, to establish private food labeling systems. Now something even more dangerous than Dr. Kessler's power grab is on the agenda. Rep. Henry Waxman of Los Angeles, chairman of the health and environment subcommittee, is spearheading the push for HR 2597, the Food, Drug, Cosmetic, and Devices Enforcement Amendments of 1991. The bill would give Dr. Kessler's FDA even more oppressive powers. FDA agents would get the power to eavesdrop on companies or videotape activities without a warrant. This would violate the companies' Fourth Amendment right to protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. During an inspection, FDA agents could demand to see all records, trade secrets, and formulas. Again, no proof of a crime need be presented before the search. How many US companies would simply refuse to risk letting their competitors see their trade secrets and move to Mexico or some other foreign country? Without a hearing the FDA could ban a product for 30 days or order its recall. What business could survive a 30-day ban? The FDA could also slap on civil penalties up to $1 million for a company or $250,000 per person. That would be for every product. A food company that made five "unapproved" products could be fined $5 million. Such vast new powers amount to health fascism. Rep. Norman F. Lent of New York warned that "this legislation would put in force the sort of investigatory procedures that [Soviet President Mikhail] Gorbachev is now trying to phase out in the Soviet Union." He added some legislative history: "[D]uring the 89th Congress in 1965, the Senate held three days of hearings on the use of tape recorders and other electronic surveillance equipment by FDA inspectors. Shortly thereafter, the FDA adopted a policy against any use of tape recorders during inspections." Rep. William Dannemeyer of Fullerton charged that HR 2597 would give the FDA the "unilateral authority to be both the prosecutor and the issuer of a warrant for taking property from a private citizen in this country. That's not America. That's a police state." That just about sums it up. The FDA is an agency out of control. It needs to be reined in - better yet, abolished. It should never be given more power. HR 2597 should be defeated. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=492.7