On Jan. 1, Delegate Baxter Ennis (R-VA) filed House Bill 1585 to prohibit the sale of weight-loss or muscle-building supplements and over-the-counter medication to minors. The bill is expected to be formally introduced to the Virginia House of Delegates beginning Jan. 8.

“No person shall sell to, distribute to, purchase for, or knowingly permit the purchase by any person younger than 18 years of age, knowing or having reason to believe that such person is younger than 18 years of age, an over-the-counter diet pill or dietary supplement for weight loss or muscle building,” HB 1585 reads.

In December 2024, the New Hampshire House of Representatives also filed an age restriction bill listed as House Bill 0516. The text is currently unavailable, but the bill is titled “Prohibiting the sale of over-the-counter weight loss and muscle building supplements to minors.” The bill is co-sponsored by Representatives Alicia Gregg (D), Lucy Weber (D), Mark Pearson (R), Gaby Grossman (D), Casandra Levesque (D) and Christal Lloyd (D).

Virginia and New Hampshire are now the latest states to file age restrictions bills since late 2023. The total is now up to six states alongside Texas, Massachusetts, New York and New Jersey.

Attorney Steve Shapiro, Of Counsel at Rivkin Radler LLP (New York, NY) said he has “lots of concerns” about the ongoing age restriction bills. He said the bills are overly broad and are unclear about what products are covered.

For example, green tea extract is one of the ingredients listed under the bill. Shapiro said green tea extract is marketed for various purposes, particularly its antioxidant properties. If reading the bills as broadly as possible, many more products aside from weight loss and muscle building could be impacted, he said.

Shapiro added online retailers and e-commerce platforms may need to introduce “age restricted mail order delivery” if they want to continue selling products in states with age restriction bills. This system is used for other controlled substances such as alcohol in select states.

Shapiro said he appreciates the efforts of industry trade associations such as the Natural Products Association (NPA) and the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), to challenge these bills albeit with much failure.

“I’m not advocating for these bills. I’m not saying what they’re doing is right or wrong, but as more states join this trend, the question for the industry is whether to communicate with FDA and create federal standards on exactly what is considered and protected under these bills,” Shapiro said.

To read the Virginia bill, visit https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20251/HB1585/text/HB1585. To read the New Hampshire bill, visit https://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/lsr_search/LSR_Results.aspx.