Labeling illegal drugs

On Dec. 2, 2009, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) joined with the National Football League, Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, the U.S. Olympic Committee, and other national sports and health organizations to launch a drive called Supplement Safety Now. Their intention: to end the practice by a small number of rogue manufacturers of labeling illegal products as dietary supplements .
Both the Natural Products Association and the Council for Responsible Nutrition issued statements in support of this campaign, which targets what John Gay, executive director of the Natural Products Association, called “the bad actors who are endangering the public and tarnishing the industry.” Both organizations noted that lax enforcement of current laws has allowed this to occur.
It’s the FDA’s responsibility to protect consumers from unsafe products, be they prescription medications or illegal drugs sold as dietary supplements. But as the Council for Responsible Nutrition states: “It is important to reiterate that laws are only as good as the regulatory agency’s determination and ability to enforce them. Some of the recommendations made under ‘Supplement Safety Now’ —which are well intended—may not be very effective. For example, while CRN supports a registry of products with FDA, we do not believe that companies that are illegally contaminating products would bother to register. We believe that the best way to catch these offenders is to give the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and FDA more resources to enforce the laws already in place and to show these criminals that there are penalties to breaking the law.”