Food and drugs and politics. (cover story)

The article criticizes the way in which the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) handles drug approval. The FDA makes its presence felt more widely than most Americans realize. The federal agency's oversight authority ranges over food, food additives, drugs and medical devices, TVs and microwave ovens. Indeed, the modern FDA is a characteristic mid-20th century institution. It is deeply rooted in unlimited enthusiasm for government regulatory intervention, naive confidence in legalistic processes and an unthinking insensitivity as to means. In effect, the FDA would have to compete for trustworthiness. Everyone else would have more freedom--and responsibility. A consumer could choose to use a doctor-prescribed drug knowing that it had not passed the FDA but had been approved in, say, Great Britain. If something went wrong, the consumer might have to bear the consequences.