Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy Volume 3 Article 10 Issue 2 Spring 1994 Learning the Hard Way: L-Tryptophan, the FDA, and the Regulation of Amino Acids Carter Anne McGowan Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cjlpp Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation McGowan, Carter Anne (1994) "Learning the Hard Way: L-Tryptophan, the FDA, and the Regulation of Amino Acids," Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy: Vol. 3: Iss. 2, Article 10. Available at: http://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cjlpp/vol3/iss2/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Cornell Law: A Digital Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. LEARNING THE HARD WAY: L-TRYPTOPHAN, THE FDA, AND THE REGULATION OF AMINO ACIDS I sit before you helpless, broke, alone and in unyielding, relentless pain .... For those who have died and for those of us who live with cloudy futures, the lack of action is too little, too late. We have needed help with our orphan dis- ease. We need help now .... The U.S. Government is totally ineffective, and each agonizing day we grow more fragile. For those who appear to be in remission, we rejoice. But we cannot say with certainty that anyone is cured as long as the exact cause and cure is not found. For many of us, it is too late.