The debate topic that I had to preside over was the regulation of drug and herbal supplements. Since I broke the debate into six parts – Pros & Cons of labeling, claiming and advertising, this paper will follow the same format. I am going to go over in great detail the high points of both sides debate. Then the paper will conclude with my own analysis of the case, and which group I thought stated their case more strongly. Except for the fact I will talk about all of the pros and then discuss the cons of the issue.
             The debate began with Kerri stating her teams' case as to why the government should step in and place stricter regulations on the entire supplement industry. I totally agree with her in that when people buy goods, the contents inside should be fully disclosed. Unfortunately for the consumer government intervention is not even allowed when the issue deals with dietary supplements. In fact the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 made the dietary supplements untouchable by the FDA. Of course this law does not apply to medical drugs, which fall under a completely different category. The only power granted to the FDA is to pull a product from the shelf due to false labeling, but not until it has already been publicly distributed.
             Obviously since herbal and dietary supplements are drugs, the ingredients used in them must be disclosed on the bottle's label, but as we all know the print is microscopic and most people don't know what the stuff is. The companies manufacturing the supplements seem to be out to intentionally trick the consumer with some of their blatant actions. The pro group stated that many companies do not give 100% accurate figures regarding what is in each bottle. This accusation has been found to be true by both random scientist tests and further investigating by 20/20. One of the companies that was busted for false labeling explained the mishap as being a "...