I used to buy melatonin tablets at my local health nut store, and
   found them to be very effective for treating insomnia.       When I
   researched this compound on PaperChase, everything was good and
   rosey.

   Now they tell me that they can no longer sell it OTC.
   Can somebody explain the FDA’s reasoning, here?

The FDA’s reasoning is that melatonin is a drug and should go through
the regular drug approval process before being sold OTC. The FDA
believes that all supplements and herbal compunds are drugs (they said
so in a position paper released two years ago) and would have
regulated them as such by now if it were not for the hue and cry
raised by the general public.

–
Bernie Simon (bsi…@stsci.edu)                    Software slave