Before the turn of the 20th century, there was very little regulation of food and drugs in this country, and residents were free to buy worthless or even dangerous elixirs, diet remedies that contained live tapeworms, cocaine and many other questionable substances.

Then in 1906, under President Theodore Roosevelt, the U.S. Congress passed the Pure Food and Drugs Act, which according to the present-day U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is “a law a quarter-century in the making that prohibited interstate commerce in adulterated and misbranded food and drugs.”

Then sometime in the latter part of the 20th century, our national leaders on both sides of the political aisle decided that there were too many regulations, and that these regulations were harmful to businesses. The thinking was that regulations should be cut back, and new ones should be avoided whenever possible.

This attitude led to the repeal of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act in the 1990s, which many people believe in turn led directly to the Great Recession of 2008. The attitude has also lead to a very poorly regulated herbal supplement industry. According to the findings of the attorney general of New York State, Eric Schneiderman, many, if not most, of the nutrition supplements that consumers buy, which amounts to about $13 billion worth per year, contain not a trace of the ingredient that is advertised on the label.

On February 3, Schneiderman announced that he had sent letters to GNC, Target, Walmart and Walgreens, telling them to stop selling some supplements because tests showed that just 21% of the products tested contained DNA evidence of the material that was supposed to be in the product. Put another way, 79% of the products tested were fraudulent, and either worthless or perhaps in some cases dangerous, because they contained ingredients that weren’t listed on the container that could trigger allergic reactions.

A press release from Schneiderman’s office detailed the samples tested. From Walgreens, containers of gingko biloba, St. John’s wort, ginseng, garlic, echinacea, and saw palmetto were tested. The release says, “Only one supplement consistently tested for its labeled contents: saw palmetto. The remaining five supplements yielded mixed results, with one sample of garlic showing appropriate DNA. The other bottles yielded no DNA from the labeled herb.

“Of the 90 DNA tests run on 18 bottles of herbal products purchased, DNA matched label representation 18% of the time. Contaminants identified included allium, rice, wheat, palm, daisy, and dracaena (houseplant).”

The national chains involved in the sale of the contaminated products said they would stop selling them, but GNC also pushed back a bit with a statement that said, “The methodology that we understand has been employed... in testing our products has not been approved by the United States Pharmacopeia and may not be appropriate for the testing of these herbal products.”

The method of testing is called DNA bar-coding. According to Schneiderman’s release, “DNA barcodes are short genetic markers in an organism’s DNA and are used to identify it as belonging to a particular species. Barcodes provide an unbiased, reproducible method of species identification. Barcodes can be used to determine the exact plant species being tested.”

One would think if the main ingredient in a bottle is supposed to be ginseng, some of the plant’s DNA markers would be found in the bottle.

Of course, there is much debate about whether nutritional supplements, contaminated or not, serve any real benefit to consumers. “The evidence for these herbs’ effectiveness is sketchy to begin with,” said David Schardt, senior nutritionist of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “But when the advertised herbs aren’t even in many of the products, it’s a sign that this loosely regulated industry is urgently in need of reform. Until then, and perhaps even after then, consumers should stop wasting their money.”

So why is this industry so loosely regulated? Many published reports give the bulk of the credit to Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, which is the center of the herbal supplement industry. Hatch has protected the industry from regulation since the 1990s, when the market for herbal supplements began to grow in a serious way. He has also received a lot of campaign money from the industry.

According to a New York Times article from 2012, Hatch blocked an amendment to a bill that would have required supplements to be registered with the FDA. Hatch said at the time that the honor system among manufacturers was working fine as it was.

It seems pretty clear that the honor system is completely broken in the herbal supplements industry, and the fix would be a healthy dose of regulation.