FDA to Review Over-the-Counter Drug Safety After 40 Years, Aims to Regulate Herbs and Supplements

Just in case you still look to the FDA as a reliable source of medical information, and to determine the safety of both over-the-counter and prescribed drugs, you should know that the government agency is about to launch a review of the way it determines if drugs are ‘safe’ for public consumption.

Though the FDA has approved numerous drugs that later were found to be dangerous, as well as things like rBGH (bovine growth hormone – the Monsanto toxin given to cows which caused their utters to swell and infected puss to pollute much of the US milk supply – the agency wants your trust back.

But why would we want to give the organization, which is failing to do its job, more power? The FDA, in collusion with Big Pharma, is on to the fact that nutrition can treat many diseases and even the common cold or ‘flu,’ which many people turn to over-the-counter meds for. It’s amazing what the immune system can do without toxic crap slowing it down.

So – to get your untarnished support, the organization is launching a review of over-the-counter drugs which millions of Americans already take – sometimes daily. The FDA announced this following an investigation by ProPublica that pointed to acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, causing 150 deaths annually, and tens of thousands of hospitalizations.

This is just one of the many drugs that will be in the review. It hasn’t been able to finalize rules for acetaminophen in over 40 years, partly due to Big Pharma’s bureaucratic hand in our government institutions.

The FDA admits that its system is stuck in a 1970s monographic process, but the more poignant issue is bribery, price fixing, fraud, and internal FDA scientists looking away from findings in scientific reports, or merely requiring very little true testing of drugs before they reach mass consumption.

In a recent response to questions posed by the public, the FDA said:

 “When we look at how rapidly science now evolves and the impact this has had on the emergence of drug safety issues and on drug development, it is clear to that  a more agile and responsive process” is needed for over-the –counter drugs.

In contrast to over-the-counter meds, the prescription drug system allows the agency to make relatively quick changes to warning labels or dosage instructions. For instance, the FDA recently announced that prescription medications containing acetaminophen could contain no more than 325 milligrams of the drug, citing the potential health risk.

Too bad they don’t seem to be able to slap labels on foods that pose the same risk. Nevertheless, it wants to regulate supplements, juices, and herbs as ‘drugs.’