I just returned from a trip to Nebraska, two flights out, two flights
back.

I rarely have occasion to fly, and this was my first occasion to do
so since 9/11.  One thing I noticed is that books and magazines seem
frequently to be left behind by passengers in the seat pockets.  On two of
the four flights, I found non-airline-provided items in the seat pockets.

One of these items was a men's magazine called "Stuff".  I'm not exactly
sure of its market niche.  It has pictorials of scantily-clad women which
would look tame next to the Playboy or Penthoue of thirty years ago.  It
has a lot of men's fashions and consumer electronics stuff, and the prose
style is so snarky and littered with cheap jokes that it gets tedious to
read after a few paragraphs. 

The thing is not even worth mentioning except for the fact that I found
SPAM in it -- a species of patently dishonest and illegal spam that
infests all of our non-Grex email inboxes, originated from shadowy sources
overseas.  Yup, there was a three page ad for "Herbal Science
Breakthrough," i.e., penis enlargement. 

Now, I don't normally peruse these kinds of publications, but it is my
impression that U.S.-based media are more or less obliged to avoid
accepting ads for things that are illegal or fraudulent, especially in the
medical field.  Ads for medicines or medical devices are regulated in some
fashion by the FDA.  For example, claims of efficacy have to be supported
by scientific evidence, and ads for certain kinds of pharmaceuticals are
apparently required to list the possible side effects.  The really dodgy
ads for completely fake medicines contain the word "placebo" in hopes, I
guess, that the intended audience will not understand what that means.

But here was have a large ad which claims that a pill will bring about
permanent change in a body part.  And it's published in a U.S.  magazine
with offices on the Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY.

However you may feel about regulation in general, I would think that
anyone who doesn't vote Libertarian would regard the Pure Food & Drug Act
as being at least a well-intentioned idea if not perfectly implemented.

Does the Bush Administration's idea of deregulation include an FDA that no
longer worries about medical frauds?

25 responses total.

        I never thought about it that way;  I usually just keep turning when
my bullshit detector goes off that strongly.

The FDA doesn't regulate herbal remedies.  As long as, somewhere in the fine
print, they say "this claim has not been verified by the Food and Drug
Administration," they can apparently claim pretty much whatever they want. 

It used to be the rule of thumb was they could only claim to support a
natural process ("encourages good digestion"), but the rules don't seem to be
enforced that strictly anymore.  I've been seeing a lot of ads on cable for
an herbal capsule called "chaser" that claims to prevent hangovers, for
example.

Also, they define "herbal remedy" pretty loosely.  As long as the substance
is naturally occurring rather than synthetic, and not blatantly poisonous,
you can call it an herbal remedy and the FDA backs off.  They can still take
it off the market if they find out it's harmed someone, but not if it fails
to live up to your claims.

I *do* vote Libertarian, and I find laws against fraud necessary.
 
(STUFF is, I believe, published by the same people as Maxim, discussed in the
last Agora, and has a similar niche.)

This response has been erased.

Amazing.  An otherwise intelligent and thought-provoking post about a topic
worthy of discussion and occasional ridicule that, in the space of one
sentence, becomes a cheap political flame.  C'mon, Larry, it's not ALL about
Bush.  

Re #0:  Shows how much you know about libertarians.

This is actually a reactionary cause.  There are some right-wing
folks in Congress who want "alternative medicine" to be accepted,
reimbursed, etc. the same as proven, conventional treatments.
The fact that any "alternative" treatments which actually work
(like foxglove for heart failure) get turned into far better
"conventional" treatments within a short (and shortening) time
seems to have escaped them.

I put this kind of thing right up there with the same kind of
magical thinking which supports creationism and Flood geology.
(They seem to be supported by the same people.)  Anyone who
believes it has a serious problem with their thought processes,
as in next to zero critical thinking skills.

And no, before you ask:  it shouldn't be lawful to fleece the
handicapped, especially if you're lying (even Dogbert's day-old
lottery ticket scheme was truthful).

There are scientific studies showing the effectiveness of acupuncture in
anesthetizing *animals*.  There's some value to at least researching
alternative treatments to find out which ones actually work, and why.

The UM hospitals have an alternative medicine research program, studying
what does something and what doesn't. 

If commercial medicine and pharmaceuticals were not so ridiculously expensive,
people would have less incentive to use the cheaper and non-prescription
cures, but in some countries (former Yugoslavia) pharmacies also stocked and
doctors also prescribed medicinal teas, which were much cheaper to gather and
process than it was to synthesize the equivalents.

well then its too bad bush no longer consults congress on anything, russ.

What do you call it when a pharmacy charges you the co-pay of $5 for 15 pills
a month when you can skip the whole insurance thing and buy 60 of the same
pills for $9.99?

probably the difference between a brand name and a generic.

What was the actual cost of the 15 pills a month.

My apologies for the slighting references to Libertarians and the Bush
administration.  I wrote #0 under the influence of my astonishment that
such an ad could appear in a U.S.-based magazine claiming over a million
circulation.

I'm not at all opposed to the sale and even the advertising of herbal
remedies as such.  I would be taken aback, though, by an ad with a
headline such as "CHAMOMILE FORMULA CURES CANCER IN 14 DAYS".

Certain kinds of fraud require the complicity of the victim, and are
always under-reported because victims are reluctant to reveal their own
greed and gullibility.  Hence the "pigeon drop", profitable and low-risk
for crooks, has been commonplace for over a hundred years, and is now even
done via email from Nigeria. 

Who's going to complain about being bilked and/or injured by "penis
enlargement" fraud -- and suffer the personal embarrassment such a
revelation would entail?  Somewhat like reporting to the police the theft
of one's burglar tools or heroin.

Spam is cheap, but a three-page ad in a national publication probably
costs a lot of money and implies a very well funded operation.  I would
just guess that some unscrupulous crook is making a lot of money off men's
gullibility and vanity.

        As for who's going to complain? Back in the late seventies, a
local pot grower had the audacity to complain to the Ingham county police
about the theft of his product. Only reason, he didn't get arrsted
hisself, was all the dope had been taken from his plot.

        Cops can tell some interesting stories...

Re 13.  The $5 is the generic co-pay.  If it was a brand name my co-pay would
be $10.

Re #10:  Conventional treatments cost a lot of money because
they are expensive to research, test and produce.  The FDA
has a lot to do with this.

If the FDA approval process was made shorter and less expensive,
you'd get cheaper medicines.  Somehow I don't see a public
clamor for this.  People want everything to be absolutely safe;
they have to realize that this is going to make things expensive.

It galls me that people can offer unproven and almost certainly
worthless treatments just because they are "herbal" or "natural",
but that's what Congress decided they should be able to do.  This
cynic is not surprised by either Congress or the public. ;-)

Burned by the penis enlargement pill were you...

hey man...this thing won't fit in the BONG.

LOL!

Re #18:  No, burned by an osteopath who's an incompetent
diagnostician and ordered an expensive, useless test that I'm
expected to pay for... and whose incompetence resulted in my
bronchitis going untreated and turning into pneumonia.

But I digress.

There are a lot of MDs who are incompetent diagnosticians and who order
unnecessary tests.  Hmm.

(I'm quite happy with my osteopath, who, when I had walking pneumonia,
asked if I wanted to use herbal remedies or antibiotics, and told me
later that if I had chosen only herbal remedies he would have tried
mightily to talk me into using antiobiotics.)

        Ladies and Gentlemen, we have found the man who reads the 
articles!

        And the ads.

Stuff is an amusing read when I come across copies.
forget

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