Posted on 06/09/2004 7:11:35 PM PDT by Coleus
A RIGHT can ONLY be exercised by a "sane adult," as that is the only person who can be considered competent to do so. A child's rights are exercised by his or her guardian until the child is emancipated, usually at age 18, but sometimes earlier... under unusual circumstances. A person who is mentally incompetent has his rights also exercised by a guardian. However, the wise parent or guardian will allow and encourage the minor/mental patient to exercise as much as is prudent under the specific circumstance. In the case of a child, it is expected that his or her self-exercise of rights will increase as the child grows, with full exercise and full self-responsibility coming on emancipation. Your comments show the same intellectual thrust as those which might be found at DU.
In which case you have committed fraud. An actual CRIME. Mislabelling Altoids as vitamins does come under the heading of the very real crime of fraud and misrepresentation. A PRIVATE testing lab, similar to but not unlike Underwriters Labs, could quite easily test and publish the results of any substance meant for ingestion. Your Altoids hoax might last as long as a week but I doubt it.
Haven't been to GNC lately have you. Check it out, the bottom of every single box in that place has a disclaimer saying that none of their claims have been verified by testing and there's no garauntee of results. Most of the pills in there are less useful than Altoids but it's not fraud because they use the disclaimer to cover their butt. Once you've used to disclaimer to undo all your promises nobody can say you promised anything and therefore you can't have broken your promises. Disclaimers are the panacea of the suppliment industry. My Altoids hoax should last at least as long as Metabolife.
I have read many disclaimers. They are required so that the product does not come under FDA cognizance for making medicinal claims for a dietary supplement. If we did not have that unconstitutional FDA, such claims could be made and tested for veracity. Yet another "solution" from FedGov that creates many more problems than it could ever resolve.
They could be tested for varacity by someone other than the FDA, UL could do it as you suggested. Instead the suppliment industry remains almost entirely untested by anybody, including the companies. Disclaimers are used throughout advertising to undo promises, not just in the suppliment industry, the most famous disclaimer in history has become it's own meme: your milage may vary. That's how promises get unmade in the world of selling things to people, unmaking promises is how you avoid fraud suits. I'm not saying there needs to be a government solution for this, I'm just saying that anytime you think a fraud suit can stop a scam you need to look for the disclaimer, if there is one then no a fraud suit cannot stop that particular scam.
One man's ephedra may be viewed either positively or negatively by others >>
My SIL took a supplement with ephedra in it after foot surgery since she knew that she would be in bed and at home for about 3 months and didn't want to gain any weight, not only did she not gain weight, she lost 25lbs. from doing nothing.
Many of those who died took way too much of the stuff, some people think if a little is good, more is better. They learned the hard way.
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