The FDA versus the Life Extension Foundation
by Ben Best
http://www.benbest.com/polecon/fdalef.html

(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.