The Food and Drug Administration has sent warning letters to eight companies that sell herbal products, threatening to seize the products because the companies are marketing them as legal alternatives to illegal street drugs.

According to the FDA, an investigation of the companies’ Web sites revealed that the products were for “‘recreational’ purposes - i.e., to affect the mental or psychological states of those taking the products.” An FDA press release on the enforcement action states that the products were “marketed under a variety of names with labeling that claims or implies that they produce such effects as euphoria, a ‘high,’ altered consciousness, or hallucinations.”

The FDA is now going after these legal herb merchants for selling products and suggesting that the herbs might alter consciousness or act as legal alternatives to illegal drugs.

The Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics, a civil rights group focused on freedom of thought, sees the FDA action as a chilling extension of the government’s “war on drugs”. The group also argues that the FDA action violates free speech because the agency is attempting to prohibit herb sellers from telling the public that a given herb may produce euphoric effects, or have effects similar to those produced by an illegal drug.

According to Richard Glen Boire, legal counsel for the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics, “the FDA’s action is far more about politics than public health.”

According to Julie Ruiz-Sierra, another attorney at the Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics, the FDA’s action may also raise First Amendment concerns. “Unlike illegal drugs, the herbs and herbal formulas targeted here,“ she says, “are all legal.” The Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics is considering legal action against the FDA.

If the government is concerned with the use of drugs that alter the consciousness it should concentrate resources on quality harm-reduction education for all mind-altering substances, legal and illegal, and provide adequate treatment for those who suffer from problems related to these drugs.