Creating the Utah Department of Clinical Studies

    It would be helpful if states established their own clinical study agencies.

   Repeatedly as you study nutrition, you find reference to not enough studies yet being done to determine if something is bad for you. Other times, you read one thing in one place, only to find it contradicted in another. Red meat is bad for you, says one source. No, it is not, says another.

   Let the federal Food and Drug Administration work it out? Obviously, they are falling short. Whether there is just an overwhelming amount of studies that need done, or whether they leave that to the drug companies, it just isn't getting done. 

   The Constitution says all powers not reserved to the federal government belong to the states. "The Congress shall have power . . . To promote the Progress of Science . . . by securing for limited Times to . . . inventors the exclusive Right to their . . . Discoveries."

   That gives the federal government power to grant patents, but it does not empower it to conduct studies on health and nutrition. 

   True, universities and others often embark on such studies, but often they are conducted with federal grant money. One must wonder if that is Constitutional. If the federal government is paying the bill, that is not much different than the federal government doing it itself.

   So, let the states do it. I am proposing that Utah open such an agency. The Utah Department of Clinical Studies, or whatever you wish to name it. Now, you might suggest that the efficient way of doing this is at the federal level, for if all the states have their own agencies, it will lead to duplication, waste and repetition. They will be stepping on each other. But, consider that there are so many studies needing to be done, that perhaps one agency is not enough. Consider that no one has ever suggested that all the universities in the nation should combine under one, so they don't duplicate each other's work. 

   No, Utah having its own Department of Clinical Studies is a good idea. All states do not need to have such agencies, but if they do, that, too, is fine.