The Food and Drug Administration has banned the only over-the-counter asthma inhaler, Primatene Mist, on the grounds that it releases chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and is thus bad for the ozone layer. [Chris Horner, Big Government via Alkon; Washington Post](& welcome Above the Law readers)
More from @larkinrule: “I was alone at my family cabin had an asthma attack and no inhaler. The corner store had one left. I believe it saved my life.”
The FDA has moved to require tobacco marketers to place grotesque photos of cadavers and body parts on cigarette packs, and Barton Hinkle of the Richmond Times-Dispatch thinks there’s no reason for it to end there. More: Ann Althouse.
Bloomberg columnist Ramesh Ponnuru tackles the pharmaceutical-shortage issue covered recently in this space.
P.S. Although it is only indirectly related to the issue of manufacturing shortages, note also the interesting reader comment on the gout drug Colchicine, known and used for millennia. Per relatively recent FDA rules, colchinine and various other older drugs, formerly “grandfathered” and free for anyone to produce, have been awarded in exclusivity to a single manufacturer, at considerable cost to consumers.
I posted briefly on the Lauren Stevens acquittal last month, and now I’ve got a longer treatment up at Cato at Liberty:
…U.S. District Court Judge Roger Titus ordered the acquittal of Lauren Stevens, a former in-house lawyer for drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, who had been charged with obstructing a federal investigation. In strong language, Judge Titus said Stevens “should never have been prosecuted” and that allowing the case to go forward to a jury “would be a miscarriage of justice.” …After the stunning dismissal, the U.S. Department of Justice was quite unapologetic, a top official suggesting that its prosecutors intended to do nothing differently in future.
The full post is here. P.S. Scott Greenfield has some additional thoughts that should not be missed.
The U.S. Department of Justice falls flat on its face in its unsuccessful prosecution of Lauren Stevens, an in-house lawyer and vice president at drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, on charges of lying to the government and obstructing justice during the company’s response to a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigation of its marketing. [Main Justice]
Well, then, FDA, just don’t consume any of it (h/t), rather than conducting year-long stings on Amish farmers to keep others from doing so.
We’ve previously discussed the FDA’s ban on importation of European “Kinder Surprise” kids’ treats (a toy wrapped in a chocolate egg) and last night conservative writer Mark Steyn ran into the law, as his kids saw two of the confections confiscated at the Canada-U.S. border. The Border Patrol agents would not allow the kids to separate the chocolate from the surprise, eat the chocolate on the spot, and then take home the toys. “The real choking hazard,” he observes, “is the vise-like grip of government.”
Plus: “Woman campaigns to legalize chocolate Kinder eggs” [Northwest Florida Daily News]
A competitor drug company warns “compounding” pharmacies of “FDA action” if they persist in any such mischief [L.A. Times]