Greetings, Granny! I don't think we've run into one another before.
the fact is that a great many fools have held onto their money, thanks to legislation that forces Big Pharma to prove the efficacy of its wares.
You say that as if it's a good thing. I say it's not.
So Big Pharma hasn't cheated them out of their money. That also means that they haven't had a chance to learn from a foolish mistake. As a result, they simply lost their money to some other scam. No improvement, as far as I can see. In fact, I'd say that the fact that we have this Big Brother agency making everyone think that medicine is safe just makes it easier for those on the fringes to take the fools' money. Effective by association, as it were.
What makes you think that regulation of herbals would play out differently?
I never said that I thought it would. I said I thought that would be bad.
Let people buy and use whatever nonsense they want to. What's it to you? Morons are going to waste their money somewhere or other. Why should the government protect them from some frauds but not others?
So we start to regulate herbals. What's next? Magnet therapy? Aroma therapy? Copper bracelets? Gimmick diets? Cosmetics claims of younger-looking skin? There is virtually no end to quack remedies out there, and if the government is going to try to regulate it all in the same way that they do with drugs, the FDA would quickly become the biggest bureaucracy in the history of human civilization, probably eating up half the federal budget or more.
Much better to spend that money to teach people how to evaluate claims of effectiveness and how to critically examine evidence, if you think it's the government's job to protect idiots from their idiocy.
Those who would sacrifice an essential liberty for a temporary security will lose both, and deserve neither. -- Benjamin Franklin
We see monsters where science shows us windmills. -- Phat