Interesting reading LEF wins against FDA

[Guest guest]

The FDA versus the Life Extension Foundation

by Ben Best

 

(based on " Victory Over the FDA " by Saul Kent)

The concept of life extension lies beyond the boundaries of therapeutic

categories in the limited minds of government bureaucrats who are satisfied with

their limited lifespans. This would not be worrisome were it not for the fact

that it can lead to murderous constriction of the lifespan ambitions of those

with more knowledge & imagination than the bureaucrats.

The US Federal Drug Administration (FDA) refused to include life-extension

within its treatment categories -- refusing to acknowledge that aging is a

disease. For the FDA, everything that is not acknowledged is prohibited. In

imposing its narrow-minded rules upon the lives of others, the FDA has waged a

long &

vicious battle against the Life Extension Foundation (LEF,www.lef.org), in

particular (and those who could benefit from its products).

The Life Extension Foundation was founded by Saul Kent, a science journalist

with an intense desire to find means of slowing aging -- and ultimately of

ending death. LEF studied scientific literature for evidence of life-extending

properties of vitamins and other nutrients. The results of these researches were

published in a magazine (currently LIFE EXTENSION) and made available as

products through mail-order sales. Saul Kent has remained President, but

Vice-President William Faloon has effectively acted as CEO after Saul began

founding

other new companies devoted to life-extension.

Shortly before opening-time on the morning of February 26, 1987 twenty-five

armed Federal Drug Administration (FDA) agents & US marshalls smashed thorough

the glass doors of the Life Extension Foundation store, simultaneously raiding

the nearby warehouse in Florida. With drawn guns, the agents lined LEF

employees against the wall while seizing products, literature, documents,

computers

and personal effects -- more than 80% of which were not within the authority

of the search warrant.

Having lost most of their product inventory, LEF principals Saul Kent & Bill

Faloon were facing 5-to-20 years in prison. All the attorneys they consulted

recommended a guilty plea as the only possible means of reducing prison time.

Instead, Kent & Faloon fought back both in the courts and through political

action. A Political Coordinator's Office was established at LEF. LEF members

(numbering less than 5,000) cooperated with letters, FAXes and phone calls to

political leaders.

On January 9, 1991 the FDA raided the LEF Arizona Shipping Office with the

complicity of the Arizona Board of Pharmacy. A permanent embargo was placed

against all future shipments of 42 LEF products, including Life Extension Mix

and

Coenzyme-Q10. Fifteen days after the embargo, LEF lawyers handed a 300-page

lawsuit to the Attorney General of Arizona -- who promptly ordered the Pharmacy

Board to lift the embargo. The Pharmacy Board Director agreed that his agents

would take no future actions on behalf of the FDA without investigating

matters themselves first.

The FDA then threatened that Kent & Faloon would become the target of

criminal indictments that would " destroy their lives forever " and were told to

plead

guilty of crimes against the state. Kent & Faloon responded with a lawsuit

against the FDA in a Florida District Court seeking an injunction against

discriminating prosecution.

On November 7, 1991 Kent & Faloon were arrested and thrown into an 8-by-8

Fort Lauderdale jail cubicle containing several men charged with drug-related

crimes. Several hours later they were taken handcuffed before a magistrate who

informed them that they were charged with 28 criminal counts, including

conspiracy to sell unapproved drugs. After more hours in jail, they were

released on

$825,000 bail each.

Kent & Faloon retaliated by filing motions attacking the legal &

constitutional foundation of the indictment. They charged that the FDA had

illegally

obtained the search warrant and had illegally seized many items not on the

warrant.

They also filed a motion charging that they were being selectively prosecuted

by the FDA, because AIDS Buyer's Clubs similarly informed their members of

the FDA policy of allowing importation of drugs for personal use.

Despite continued threats of more FDA indictments that could put Kent &

Faloon in jail for the rest of their lives, LEF became the first company to

offer

pharmaceutical-grade Melatonin in the United States in 1992. In 1994, LEF

established the " FDA Holocaust Museum " to document " the 70-year reign of terror

that the FDA had perpetuated against Americans " .

In 1995 the FDA began exerting strong pressure to bring its lengthy legal

fight against the Life Extension Foundation to trial. The FDA told Kent & Faloon

that in exchange for a guilty plea they would not have to go to prison and

could continue doing business on a more limited basis. The FDA wanted to censor

the contents of LIFE EXTENSION magazine and probably intended to " regulate " LEF

by limiting the products they could sell. Instead of pleading guilty, Kent &

Faloon filed a new battery of legal motions, escalated their political attacks

on the FDA and began extensive preparations for their trial.

In November 1995, the FDA dropped all charges except the charge of

" obstruction of justice " against Saul Kent. In February, 1996 even this charge

was

dropped. It was the first time in the history of the FDA that the agency had

given-up on a criminal indictment against a political opponent.