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Article: Friend or enemy?(Food and Drug Administration criticized for reportdly ignoring alternative medicine)(Cover Story)
- Article from:
- Insight on the News
- Article date:
- August 17, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 News World Communications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Is the FDA serving the public with its zealous regulation? An eclectic alliance wants to force it to loosen controls on new drugs that may be miracle cures.
The Food and Drug Administration, or FDA, was created as part of the Pure Food and Drug Act in 1906, and it grew at the intersections of two trends. One was the proliferation of "patent medicines" puffed by extravagant claims but often ineffective and sometimes harmful. The other trend was the growing conviction among political elites that America's original constitutional structure, which had no federal administrative agencies and relied on people to look after themselves through private action and local ...