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comment by wasoxygen

    You're presenting a lot of this data from the point of view of your conclusion

I agree that I am giving one side of the argument; I think it is a side that gets less attention and should be included in a balanced discussion. Regulation has benefits and costs; alternatives to regulation have benefits and costs.

When you say "There's trade-offs with every one of these regulatory decisions" you have expressed 90% of what I want to say. Trade-offs are almost inevitable in complex environments, and it's hard to make fair evaluations. I think there is a common tendency to over-value intentions rather than results, and to overlook large but inconspicuous effects.

Mainly I find it fascinating to look into these subjects and learn what snake oil actually was, and that the FDA permits prescription-based homeopathic remedies for grave illnesses.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts; in particular I had not heard of the Drug Efficacy Study Implementation.