Support for a Supplement Tax

[1skinnyguy]

Since the FDA does not regulate the supplement industry, it pretty much has free reign to add whatever they want into the supps without fear of regulation or testing. Many companies do not release their ingredient amounts or lab test results. I for one am very concerned about what I am taking in. Could their be something unwanted/harmful in there?

My solution to put a small tax on all supps. This supp tax can fund a watch dog group that conducts random, testing on products that are on the self for sale. The group can then release the results online to inform the consumer. I think this is a great idea and would strongly support the tax.

Thoughts on this?

[1skinnyguy]

Reaally? No thoughts at all?

[ChristianBBer]

I feel if people consuming something without knowing everything about that product then its their own fault and any and all problems they face they deserve.

I've taking things before when I was younger without researching it and I'm grateful nothing bad has happened.

However, if you consume a product that claims it has XX but it really contains XY, then yes, deception should not go without punishment.

[xR1pp3Rx]

stop with all the fookin tax already- no more taxes foo! tha fak ...i would love to pay more for my already overpriced supplements havin a hard time not negging the fek outta you

[KevinArnold1956]

Just what we need ...another tax...brilliant idea.





























nothx.mpeg

I pay 63 separate taxes already in my state...I'm good for now but thanks for offering

[1skinnyguy]

I completely agree. The consumer has to be informed about product ingredients. But I'm more concerned about unlisted contaminants and materials that we have no way of knowing about. Scary stuff, in my opinion.

[bftme21]

I hate taxes, but I fully agree with what you're saying. But we are responsible for what we are consuming, though it's wrong to have product x in your supplement instead of your promised y ingredient.

[ko300zx]

stop with all the fookin tax already- no more taxes foo! tha fak ...i would love to pay more for my already overpriced supplements havin a hard time not negging the fek outta you

Supplements are a luxury not a necessity. If you can afford them, especially the $50 a tub ones with < 20 servings, you can afford to pay $50.50. On a similar note, not all are overpriced. There are a lot of inexpensive alternatives that are easy on the wallet. An example being these $50 creatine products vs. a $15 - 6 month supply of plain old Creatine mono. We don't buy the $50 dollar ones because they are 3 times as good, we buy them because they just appear like they are because of the advertising and fancy packaging. If you are wasting your hard earned money on the overpriced ones, that's your own fault.

Anyways, I'm all for the idea of some kind of tax to fund testing/research. Anyone who can afford $100 or more a month on supplements of whatever kind can afford $102 dollars. That $2 could go a long way and your body might thank you some day.

[1skinnyguy]

Exactly, if the tax is forced on all supplements, a small taxation could lead to a HUGE sum. If there is a 500K fund for testing of products, according to 2007 sales, we would only need a 2.1% tax! if you cannot afford 2 more cents per dollar spent...you are ridiculous.

The need for oversight is there. Of course the watch dog group can't do regulation, but it can just make us a better, more informed consumer of safer supplementation products.

[bcooley25]

Since the FDA does not regulate the supplement industry, it pretty much has free reign to add whatever they want into the supps without fear of regulation or testing. Many companies do not release their ingredient amounts or lab test results. I for one am very concerned about what I am taking in. Could their be something unwanted/harmful in there?

My solution to put a small tax on all supps. This supp tax can fund a watch dog group that conducts random, testing on products that are on the self for sale. The group can then release the results online to inform the consumer. I think this is a great idea and would strongly support the tax.

Thoughts on this?

What worries me more than having the appropriate ingredients in each sup, is the long term effects of all the new types of sups. They are not studied in detail to see if there are any long term effects and probably never will be especially since they are deemed "safe". For those that don't like taxes, I have some really, really bad news, be prepared for higher taxes for the next 10 years thanks to our Trillion + dollar deficit. FYI, in 2011, the extra money we are getting on our checks (about $20 every two weeks) goes away, and our tax rates are going up about 3% for your bracket.

[Stebo04]

Exactly, if the tax is forced on all supplements, a small taxation could lead to a HUGE sum. If there is a 500K fund for testing of products, according to 2007 sales, we would only need a 2.1% tax! if you cannot afford 2 more cents per dollar spent...you are ridiculous.

The need for oversight is there. Of course the watch dog group can't do regulation, but it can just make us a better, more informed consumer of safer supplementation products.

I hate to turn this into a economic or political thread but ur logic is flawed. If you tax something you get less of it and also u really think that these so called watch dog groups will prevent bad things from happening? I mean we already have FDA for medical and another federal entity for food but does that stop medical side effects and food poisoning? NO it doesnt. So paying for some bull**** watch dog group to do something that has been proven time again to be a failure is pointless and will only cost us the consumers money. If these so called watch dog groups are needed and gave a damn they should be funded by private hands not other people money thru legalized theft. I understand what u want but the way u think we should get there will just be worse for everyone as a whole.

[rideelement247]

Good luck on your campaign OP.

[1skinnyguy]

I think we can all agree there is a need for standardized, unbiased, 3rd party testing of supplements. I don't think it is enough to have the subjective company deem their products "safe" without releasing evidence to prove it is.

While this may not be the perfect solution, it is the best one I can think of. You speak of a private organization that should test, yet you don't talk about how the private organization will be funded. Will people just donate?

I try not to shoot down an idea, unless I have a better one. If you just hate an idea automatically without providing a feasible(funding source) second way, progress can't be made.

[1skinnyguy]

I'm not crazy...there is no way in hell i can carry this through. I just thought I'd throw out the idea and gauge the response.

[redbirdfan1]

If you're that concerned and you don't wanna look into igredients and seek out info then your supps should be food.

any watchdog group is going to end up as corrupt as the FDA if not worse.

[Stebo04]

I think we can all agree there is a need for standardized, unbiased, 3rd party testing of supplements. I don't think it is enough to have the subjective company deem their products "safe" without releasing evidence to prove it is.

While this may not be the perfect solution, it is the best one I can think of. You speak of a private organization that should test, yet you don't talk about how the private organization will be funded. Will people just donate?

I try not to shoot down an idea, unless I have a better one. If you just hate an idea automatically without providing a feasible(funding source) second way, progress can't be made.

Im not shooting down ur idea but what u are proposing has already been implemented in other industries. The SEC did not stop Bernie Madoff and numerous of other white collar crimes, the FDA does not prevent food poisoning or serious medical side effects any better than someone doing their own private research. No one is against a 3rd party watch dog group just how it should be implemented. It should not be done via legalized theft aka taxation.

[onemorep]

I hate to turn this into a economic or political thread but ur logic is flawed. If you tax something you get less of it and also u really think that these so called watch dog groups will prevent bad things from happening? I mean we already have FDA for medical and another federal entity for food but does that stop medical side effects and food poisoning? NO it doesnt. So paying for some bull**** watch dog group to do something that has been proven time again to be a failure is pointless and will only cost us the consumers money. If these so called watch dog groups are needed and gave a damn they should be funded by private hands not other people money thru legalized theft. I understand what u want but the way u think we should get there will just be worse for everyone as a whole.

strong 2nd to this, OP do you not own a television? We already pay so many taxes as is for the Government to help the people and look what it has got us... A bogus president with an absurd healthcare proposal, The constant joke that is Social Security... Do you really want more?

[BFast55]

OP, do you realize how much cr@p the FDA would immediately pull off the market? Oh, and whoever said that the tax on a 50$ item will only be .50 is just kidding themselves...a .01% tax? Get real!

How about the Gov't regulate this forum due to the amount of "disinformation" that is shared here. After all, people could hurt themselves if they took the wrong advice. Therefore I propose that a gov't panel be set up to evaluate the credentials of any person wishing to be a member here to see if they should be allowed to join. Oh and btw, membership would cost 20.00 / month in order to play the salaries of previously mentioned gov't panel.

[Acetyl-CoA]

But we are responsible for what we are consuming.

Umm dude? How exactly does the average consumer have the capacity to perform chemical and microbiological analysis on their supplement samples?

I think the OP is saying that when you buy a bottle of dietary supplement pills they should be conform to the same standards of potency, safety, and purity that is found in OTC drug pills like tylenol. Forget what the ingredients are or what it does... the crap shouldn't have heavy metals or mycotoxins (not that they all do, but some do/will inevitably without real quality control testing).

[Wolv3rine13]

it would turn into the tobacco tax. every year that sh*t goes up more and more. now not saying i care but if u were to put a tax on supps then that is what will happen. ppl get sick every year cuz of food and drugs that aren't good and the FDA doesn't care until there are ppl knocking down their door and when this happens its a banning spree. taxing for the sake of taxing does nothing for the country or protects anybody it just makes our wallets lighter and some random account in the gov get its all and then disappears.

[ko300zx]

OP, do you realize how much cr@p the FDA would immediately pull off the market? Oh, and whoever said that the tax on a 50$ item will only be .50 is just kidding themselves...a .01% tax? Get real!

Those numbers were based on multiple calculations and estimates to determine the appropriate % required to fund such a group.

Or they were just random numbers to illustrate a point about how much some people spend on supps each month...I'm not sure which it is.

[son_of_samhain]

****.
That.

[rideelement247]

Umm dude? How exactly does the average consumer have the capacity to perform chemical and microbiological analysis on their supplement samples?

I think the OP is saying that when you buy a bottle of dietary supplement pills they should be conform to the same standards of potency, safety, and purity that is found in OTC drug pills like tylenol. Forget what the ingredients are or what it does... the crap shouldn't have heavy metals or mycotoxins (not that they all do, but some do/will inevitably without real quality control testing).

You realize acetominophen has been proven to be extremely liver toxic...right?

[Billton]

I thinking about asking the government to tell me what to wear tomorrow.....it seems like they are already trying to control everything else!

[koard31]

I thinking about asking the government to tell me what to wear tomorrow.....it seems like they are already trying to control everything else!

I'd go with stripes and plaid.

[1skinnyguy]

Umm dude? How exactly does the average consumer have the capacity to perform chemical and microbiological analysis on their supplement samples?

I think the OP is saying that when you buy a bottle of dietary supplement pills they should be conform to the same standards of potency, safety, and purity that is found in OTC drug pills like tylenol. Forget what the ingredients are or what it does... the crap shouldn't have heavy metals or mycotoxins (not that they all do, but some do/will inevitably without real quality control testing).

This guy gets it. I don't want unlisted stuff in my supps. Right now there is no way to catch this, we can only take their word.

Would you eat brownies that even has the potential to have dog poop in it? The biased manufacturer says it doesn't but there is no way to confirm the presence of dog poop. This is the situation we face with supps.

I used 500K as an approximate number for how much a group like this would cost. By all means, 500K is just an estimate and not a concrete number. I used this site, "http://blog.nutritionbusinessjournal.com/nbj/2009/02/05/gloomy-economy-has-yet-to-dim-supplement-sales/" to determine the amount of dollars spent on supps to figure what percent of sales would equal 500k. i.e. 500k/3.8bil=.021 or 2.1%

[wood.aaronj]

OP is also the guy who said "what about vegetarians?" when I said I don't feel sorry for people who rely too much on protein powders and not enough on their diet to get their daily protein.

Boo hoo, what about vegetarians? What about the lactose intolerant?

OP admitted to being a vegetarian, now wants to tax supplements so they can be regulated...

[1skinnyguy]

OP is also the guy who said "what about vegetarians?" when I said I don't feel sorry for people who rely too much on protein powders and not enough on their diet to get their daily protein.

Boo hoo, what about vegetarians? What about the lactose intolerant?

OP admitted to being a vegetarian, now wants to tax supplements so they can be regulated...

If you actually read what I was saying, you would see I'm not saying regulation. All I want is an unbiased, 3rd party group that conducts random, off the shelf testing of supps. They will have no authority to shut down companies or products. I just want to be as informed about what I am ingesting as possible.

Yes, being vegetarian I take about 2-3 protein shakes a day. This might make me more susceptible to unlisted stuff in supps, but this doesn't change the fact that supps are sold without confirmation of their purity. EVERYONE is affected by this, not just vegetarians...I don't see your point about me being a vegetarian. Don't try to be smart, it doesn't look good on you.

[dsade]

If you actually read what I was saying, you would see I'm not saying regulation. All I want is an unbiased, 3rd party group that conducts random, off the shelf testing of supps. They will have no authority to shut down companies or products. I just want to be as informed about what I am ingesting as possible.

Yes, being vegetarian I take about 2-3 protein shakes a day. This might make me more susceptible to unlisted stuff in supps, but this doesn't change the fact that supps are sold without confirmation of their purity. EVERYONE is affected by this, not just vegetarians...I don't see your point about me being a vegetarian. Don't try to be smart, it doesn't look good on you.

500k would cover this "group's" legal bill for one lawsuit by a private company.

[1skinnyguy]

Yea that might be the case. But at the same time, they could find something in the supp and sue the company! We could go into specific details/situations/exceptions, but it does not negate the fact that there is general need for standardized, 3rd party supplement testing.