Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just as an example: 9% of the cases of Idiosyncratic Drug-induced Liver Injury is self-harm caused by people taking non-regulated dietary supplements: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18955056 You have a theory that the average person will wisely assume the responsibility to vet the health effects of what they consume, but empirical reality disagrees with your theory. Right now people are injuring themselves with…
Idiosyncratic Drug-induced Liver Injury (DILI) is only 13-20% of all DILI. The other ~80% being pharmacological. About 40% of all acute liver failure is caused by acetaminophen. http://www.nature.com/ajg/journal/v102/n11/full/ajg2007481a.... Meaning a single FDA approved over-the-counter drug is responsible for over 20 times as much liver failure as all dietary supplements. Some regulation may be beneficial but the c…
It's thus a poor selection if one wishes to discredit the FDA's efficacy; indeed, some other widely-used therapeutics (e.g., aspirin) came into use before drug efficacy was required for new drug approval.
At the same time, there are numerous examples of drugs either not approved by the FDA or withdrawn from the US market by the FDA. It's not clear how less regulation would achieve this type of nation-wide safety benefit.
[1] http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/793731/mcneil-history-...