Photo ID for diet pills? Michigan bill would ban supplements for minors

A Michigan House bill would impose new photo ID requirements to purchase weight loss and muscle-building supplements, blocking sales to anyone younger than 18 and requiring retailers to keep products out of reach
Public health researchers say the supplements’ use by minors is a “gateway behavior” linked to eating disorders and steroid use and may cause other health problems
Dietary supplement lobbyists oppose the legislation, arguing it could restrict access for all customers while harming Michigan’s $1.8 billion dietary supplement industry

Michigan retailers selling weight loss and muscle-building supplements would need to verify a customer’s age by photo identification before approving sales under a recently introduced bill in the state House.

The proposed legislation would stop those younger than 18 from purchasing over-the-counter diet pills in person and online, extending ID requirements to products containing creatine, green tea extract, raspberry ketone, garcinia cambogia and coffee bean extract.

State Rep. Erin Byrnes, D-Dearborn, introduced the bill last month, saying today’s youth face a “constant barrage” of advertising and social media content that promotes “impossible to meet” body goals. The law, she said, would protect “vulnerable” minors from the supplement companies who work to “encourage and then capitalize” on their low self-esteem.

“Unrealistic narrow body image standards are designed to fuel insecurities and ultimately sell products that will supposedly lead someone to attain these false standards,” Byrnes said in a news conference last month. “Our federal regulatory framework for these companies has not caught up to the modern dangers that our kids face.”

Researchers, meanwhile, said use of the supplements is linked to eating disorders and steroid use.

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Steve Mister, the president and CEO of The Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade association representing dietary supplement manufacturers and suppliers, said the bill is going after an “easy scapegoat” for young people’s eating disorders.

“These products are legal dietary supplements,” Mister told Bridge Michigan. “They are subject to federal laws and regulations and they are safe products. There is nothing to show that when somebody is using one of these products that they are more likely to have an eating disorder because of the product.”

The proposed Weight Loss Products and Minors Act, which has been referred to the state House Committee on Health Policy, would require retailers to place their products in a locked case or out of reach of the general public and impose fines on those who violate the law.

‘Gateway behavior’

Public health researchers and registered dieticians from across the state joined the Dearborn Democrat’s call for tighter regulation around supplements and heightened awareness that their use may be a warning sign for eating disorders.

“These products are linked with serious risks for young people,” Vivienne Hazzard, an assistant professor at the Michigan State University College of Medicine, said during the November press conference.

Female adolescents who use diet pills were four times more likely to be diagnosed with a first-time eating disorder than their peers who do not, according to a five-year longitudinal study conducted by Hazzard. Other studies with larger sample sizes have made similar findings.

“While we cannot say from these studies that diet pills cause eating disorders, they suggest that diet pill use is an early warning sign and may serve as a gateway behavior, setting youth on a path toward serious eating disorders,” Hazzard said.

One study that Hazzard co-authored found adolescent protein powder consumption was tied with future steroid use. She said the available public health research indicates a “consistent pattern” that weight loss and muscle-building supplement use in minors predicts later harm.

The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages the use of diet pills and cautions of the “adverse effects” of taking supplements.

Samantha Hahn, assistant professor of population health research at Central Michigan University, joined Hazzard and Byrnes to support the legislation, saying she recently completed research that found widespread use of “unregulated muscle-building substance” among high school students in the state.

“One in three of our adolescents in rural Michigan are using harmful products that are widely available on store shelves,” Hahn said. “Widespread use and easy access to diet pills and muscle-building products has mistakenly led youth to believe these products are safe.”

Out of Kids’ Hands

Michigan is the latest state to join a nationwide effort to ban the sale of over-the-counter diet pills and muscle-building supplements to minors.

At least eight other states have seen prohibition campaigns mounted by the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders, or STRIPED, run by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Boston Children’s Hospital.

A health food and vitamins store — Retailers would need to check a customer’s age before selling weight loss and muscle-building supplements under House Bill 5250. (Eli Newman/Bridge Michigan)

New York saw its Out of Kids’ Hands legislation go into effect in 2024, a decision lauded by STRIPED Director Dr. S. Bryn Austin as a “commonsense measure to put the health and mental health of young people first.”

Aside from its correlation with eating disorders, the Harvard group cites the prevalence of tainted supplements and increased risk for severe medical events as reasons to enhance oversight over the dietary supplement industry. Currently, the US Food and Drug Administration lacks the authority to test or approve the products before they become available to consumers.

The Council for Responsible Nutrition is working to stop STRIPED’s efforts. The lobbying group asked the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Monday to rehear its case attempting to block New York’s law from going into effect.

While designed to stop minors, Mister said Michigan’s proposed legislation would end up “restricting access to everybody” as retailers adjust to the regulation, potentially curbing a customer’s ability to buy multivitamins, probiotics and prenatal vitamins because of the legislation’s phrasing.

House Bill 5250 allows the state to consider marketing and labeling to determine if a product falls under the statute, including products that purport to “modify, maintain, or reduce body weight, fat, appetite, overall metabolism, or the process by which nutrients are metabolized.”

Mister said it becomes a First Amendment rights issue if the state bases its restrictions on a product’s “factually true” claims.

“Mom and pop local retailers, the local vitamin stores, the health food stores … they will see a reduction in sales,” he said.

An organic food and vitamin store — Vitamin shops selling products containing creatine, green tea extract, raspberry ketone, garcinia cambogia and coffee bean extract would be banned from selling to minors under the proposed legislation. (Eli Newman/Bridge Michigan)

More than 8,500 Michigan jobs are connected to the dietary supplement industry, according to the Council for Responsible Nutrition, accounting for $1.8 billion in direct economic impact statewide. The association points to Amway, headquartered in Ada, and Perrigo in Grand Rapids as major supplement manufacturers in the state.

Bills seeking to further regulate the weight loss and muscle-building supplement market rarely make it to the governor’s desk, according to Mister. In 2024, Byrnes introduced similar legislation that did not make it out of committee.

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