Reply #47: herbal "medicine": a plague the FDA helped to create... [View All]

[NorthernSpy]

... with their onerous rules that keep safe and effective "prescription-only" drugs and devices out of the hands of the uninsured.

Ephedra is one of the herbs that uninsured asthmatics have commonly used for self-treatment. It's hardly ideal, but aside from a handful of weak, over-the-counter bronchodilators, herbal potions are the only "treatments" available to someone who cannot regularly afford to pay a doctor for that all-important permission slip -- the one that entitles you, presumably a responsible adult, to purchase real medicine.

Ephedra is not innocuous, but neither is the sort of regulation that puts the business interests of doctors ahead of the right of the individual to buy and use safe, proven medications.