The total lack of regulation for "supplements" is kind of bizarre. Seems to me people shouldn't be able to sell any compound they like as a pseudo-medicine.
Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah essentially neutered the ability of the federal government to take most any useful action against supplements unless they are proven to cause harm. The rationale is pretty simple. Utah is the center of the MLM universe, and they are big supporters of the Senator.
Supplements attract scammers like the flies to light. Herbalife is the best known of these products, but there are dozens of these schemes selling everything from powered bone material to herbal viagra.
It’s a common pattern that effective in selling bad ideas.
Would you rather that the federal government can shut down any company they want without having to prove harm?
Safe needs to be defined as well. As we learned during the pandemic, there’s a spectrum of risk tolerance that individuals have.
Are these marketed as a cure? The pictures in the article doesn't seem to indicate that they're claiming to cure something, just a vague label of "dietary supplement".
Now, they say “developed by a teacher” and use social media influencers to make or imply health claims.
These companies make millions ripping you off. People don’t take blood pressure meds they need, but drop $75 on CoQ10 and cod liver oil.
No, not "any". Is that really what you meant to ask?
Supplements, though? Whether extracts or synthetic chemicals that don't have evidence of being safe in that form? Yeah probably.
In practice, the FDA doesn't even begin to enforce this rule. Even if the company is careful in its language, they're not going to monitor stores to ensure that the staff isn't pushing the product, or contradict social media posts.
Smaller companies will just plain defy the rules. If it comes to the FDA's attention, they'll send a letter -- at which point the company will go bankrupt, and a new company will appear selling exactly the same product.
The FDA does take a fair bit of action, especially after somebody has gotten hurt, but they don't have anywhere near the budget required to monitor the $40 billion supplement market.
Notwithstanding, The FDA could simply put Tianeptine on the controlled substances list.
1: https://www.fda.gov/food/dietary-supplement-products-ingredi...
I look at it as a solution.
.../s