From: Ken Graham [cageyjd@speakeasy.net]
Sent: Thursday, September 05, 2002 10:00 AM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: First Amendment and Drug Pusher Ads

    I understand that your agency takes the position that
it cannot restrict the advertising of drug dealers pushing
their overpriced products because this would violate their
First Amendment rights.
    This seems unwise. First, I think the only way to ever
find out if the people who think that money not only talks
but has First Amendment rights is for the FDA to regulate
and let these people put their money where their mouth is.
    Second, the Supreme Court has recently retreated from
the idea that money has First Amendment rights in the
campaign contribution area. I doubt that the majority is
in the mood to extend the First Amendment to protect
speech that threatens public health.
    Third, even conservatives like Robert Bork think that
the First Amendment is limited to political speech. I doubt
that the Founders thought that by adopting the First Amendment,
they were giving the purveyors of leeches the right to
advertise their products as the ideal way to bleed yourself
without the cost of consulting a physician.
--
Professor Kenneth W. Graham, Jr.
UCLA Law School
405 Hilgard Avenue.
Los Angeles, CA 90095
Phone: (310)825-4992
e-mail: cageyjd@speakeasy.net
or Graham@law.ucla.edu