LAST WORD
Supplement Support How supplement laws stifle free speech and miss the mark on eating disorders By Steve Mister
Steve Mister
Your dietary supplement aisle is under attack. As retailers with stores in New York know, as of April 22, 2024, a wide range of dietary supplements has been restricted from sale to anyone under 18 years old. The products affected are any that are “labeled, marketed, or otherwise represented” for weight loss or muscle building. Unfortunately, the state provided no guidance for which products are affected. Stores are left to sort that out for themselves and are provided vague criteria in the law that suggests impacted supplements could include any products using the word “metabolism” and “muscle” on their labels. The proponents of this legislation argued, without evidence, that using these products leads to eating disorders and body dysmorphia among young people. They asked other legislators to trust there were studies to support their claims, but CRN conducted its own review of the scientific literature and can find no evidence that these products cause or exacerbate eating disorders or body dysmorphia. If anything, the research suggests a possible reverse causality—abuse of these products may result from an underlying disorder. It’s well documented that anorexia and body dysmorphia are complex psychological conditions triggered by a range of factors, including social media usage, bullying, social pressures and more. Ritualized eating, compulsive exercise, use of supplements and other behaviors may be evidence of the disease rather than its causes. Meanwhile, millions of people use these products safely with beneficial results every day.
42 June 2024 DRUGSTORENEWS.COM
Limiting legitimate products and stifling truthful claims about their effects is not the solution.”
However, with Governor Hochul’s signature last fall, the law is now in effect. Even more troubling is that at least six other states have considered similar bills and could impose their own age restrictions on various dietary supplements. Three-quarters of Americans use dietary supplements, and a 2023 survey of consumers revealed that 95% of supplement users are confident about their safety and quality. Imagine if large segments of this category become subject to age-gating, disappear from self-service shelves (as the Massachusetts legislation would require), or have to be evaluated by a state health agency (as the California bill would mandate). The Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade association for the dietary supplement industry, is pushing back. In addition to fiercely opposing these bills in state legislatures, we recently filed a lawsuit in New York to stop enforcement of the new law. Despite a series of objections and roadblocks put up by the New York Attorney General, our lawsuit has survived the early opposition. At the heart of CRN’s suit is the concern that this law (and similar bills modeled on it in other states) violates the First Amendment rights of marketers, retailers and consumers to provide and receive truthful information about dietary supplements. Commercial speech, like the structure/function claims that appear on supplement labels, is protected by the First Amendment and can’t be limited by a state legislature based on mere supposition that the product may be harmful.
We will continue to fight these age restriction laws on supplements and invite our retail partners to join us in protecting your consumers’ access to these products. We take the prevalence of eating disorders among young people seriously, but even well-intentioned restrictions can have a chilling effect on free speech, prompting retailers to overly restrict access to beneficial products out of fear of penalties. Limiting legitimate products and stifling truthful claims about their effects is not the solution. dsn Steve Mister is the president and CEO of the Council for Responsible Nutrition.