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Another part of the problem is that these unapproved 'health supplements' are often not even checked to see if they contain what they claim to contain. Unsurprisingly, some of them contain prescription pharmaceuticals. And even when it is discovered that those products do have them, they aren't always taken off the market.

https://www.snexplores.org/article/many-food-supplements-unlawfully-contain-drugs

It's nuts.

Welcome to research chemicals. They invent new drugs and sell them wherever until the DEA puts them on the restricted or regulated schedule, then they just make a new drug that has just a little different chemical compound but still essentially does the same thing as the last one that got banned and start the process all over. It's a legal loop hole for selling drugs.

I think the situation blurs with "natural" things

Yeah I always thought over the counter meant it was checked before being put behind the counter unlike stuff on the floor

Because the rules are made up as the ruling class goes along.

These aren’t being sold to treat anything. They are just sold with flashy labels but no claims.

Historically OTC drugs were just drugs that existed before the fda was formed, and therefore were exempted from the rules. OTC drugs are almost always less regulated, less tested, and have had less research done on them. Hence the whole thing with allergy meds last year.

Taking 12 ibuprofen probably isn't good for you.

I was always paranoid about overdosing on literally anything as when I was at university one girl managed to overdose on prescription medication and nearly died. She was fine in the end and 2 hours after being released from hospital was doing shots (because at 18 you are indestructible), but it was quite a shock you could die from prescription medicine.

That was my impression too. Plus, he didn’t really die of an overdose per se, he choked on his own vomit from the pizza rolls. The same thing could happen with alcohol, Ambien, or even heavy sleeping.

It’s a tragedy for sure, but I’m not sure that this particular case is rock solid evidence that the product needs to be taken off the shelves. It would be a good idea to get this stuff regulated for quality though.

Intentionally set up... well sort of in my opinion. All in all it is about money. Testing and what not cost a ton of money. And that would reduce what can be funneled to "other" places. It would also cost money to the people selling the crap. So that makes it politically unpopular. They don't need a nefarious agenda to do the wrong thing, they do that naturally.

It's a shit show either way. I remember when vaping started, it was pretty awesome that it was unregulated and a lot of experimentation, discussion and "consumer led" development.

The regulations and outright bans on vaping pushed by the WHO were and still are concessions to puritanical thinking (no harm reduction for smokers!) or support for nicotine replacement therapies (much less effective like patch). And of course they also lead to a few big companies being able to afford the regulations (big tobacco) now being able to compete against smaller companies (less competition).

But of course without any regulations, sooner or later you have other "big whatever" corporations pushing shitty unsafe products. And once money is flowing they will always lobby and capture the legislation to improve profit instead of competition or better quality or safer products.

Regulations are a major form of power that is very badly managed. The economic power / money behind this leads to major distortions and corruption. In many cases new ideology is being crafted by PR campaigns that have long term effects. We need to get some kind of democratic control into this, maybe like a fifth estate comprised of nerds that can act quickly and smartly and have no political or monetary incentive.

You can't effectively use an education if products overtly lie about their contents/effects or are contaminated.

The answer is regulation not prohibition. There's a big difference between "this is illegal, you're under arrest if we catch you with it" and "this is being sold illegally, we'll pull your business license if you keep selling it" or "this product is mislabeled and contaminated, we're banning it from being imported".

Tianeptine is extremely dangerous, and the fact that it's being sold as an entirely unregulated supplement is a bad thing.

Education+regulations

Absolutist statements like this generally confuse political discourse, not simplify it. America prohibits the sale of lots of things and people don't mind.