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Who cares
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Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Referred to consumer protection
- Referred to rules
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the general business law, in relation to prohibiting the sale and distribution of sexual performance dietary supplements or foods containing an unsafe sexual performance food additive; and to amend the tax law and alcoholic beverage control law, in relation to the denial, suspension or cancellation of certain licenses for repeated violations of the ban on the sale of sexual performance dietary supplements or foods containing an unsafe sexual performance food additive
Purpose or general idea of bill
This bill amends the General Business Law, with regard to prohibiting the sale of unregulated dietary supplements in New York State that are marketed for the purposes of enhancing sexual performance and/or curing the symptoms of erectile dysfunction. Where the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a series of public safety notifications regarding hidden ingredients in these products, many of which are manufactured overseas, their continued sale represents an unreasonable threat to the health and safety of New Yorkers.
Summary of specific provisions
Section 1 amends the General Business Law by adding a new Section 391-t, relating to a prohibition upon "sexual performance dietary supplements and food additives in New York State. The Section defines products covered by this legislation, including "dietary supplement," "sexual performance dietary supplement," "food," and "unsafe sexual performance food additive." The Section further enumerates penalties for violations of the Section by retailers and creates enforcement power at the Department of Agriculture and Markets, including routine inspections that may be conducted by this Department. Section 1 also mandates that the New York State Department of Health create a website containing information and images pertaining to violating products that are in the marketplace.
Read the full memo (626 words)
Section 2 sets forth the effective date of this legislation.
Justification
The sale of unregulated dietary supplements marketed to enhance sexual performance and/or cure the symptoms of erectile dysfunction has become an all too common practice in the State of New York. In every corner of the State, consumers can obtain these potentially dangerous products at neighborhood convenience stores. Often sold in packaging that includes explicit sexual imagery and claims appealing to a consumer's desire to achieve heightened sexual satisfaction, many of these dietary supplements are wholly manufactured abroad or contain ingredients that are produced overseas with little to no regulatory oversight. During two months alone in 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") issued twenty-five public safety notifications warning that these commonly available products contained "hidden drug ingredient s ." Among the ingredients not included on product labels were sildenafil and tadalafil, the active ingredients in FDA-approved Viagra and Cialis, as well as dapoxetine, an anti-depressant not approved for use in the United States. In fact, the FDA found that some supplements contained a pooling of up to six ingredients that did not readily appear on product labeling.
Where effective FDA-approved medications to treat erectile dysfunction are available for sale in the United States, the continued sale of unevaluated and unapproved over-the-counter supplements represents an unnecessary harm to the people of New York. In the recent case of basketball star Lamar Odom in Nevada, the inherent danger of these supplements was made abundantly clear as Odom fell into a coma after ingesting several of these supplement pills over the course of a few days. The FDA itself warns of potentially dangerous interactions between Viagra and Cialis with other common medical conditions, including a weak heart, further necessitating the need for a patient to obtain treatment under the care of a doctor.
Prior legislative history
This is a new bill.
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Effective date
This act shall take effect on the one hundred eightieth day after it shall have become a law.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.