Thanks, Clare. You're right.
I've verified the definition of a drug at Merriam Webster: "a substance recognized in an official pharmacopoeia" (
merriam-webster.com/dictiona…)
Folic acid is indeed listed by the FDA as a drug:
dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailyme…
And in Britain:
sigmaaldrich.com/AU/en/produ…
And globally:
store.usp.org/product/128600…
In other words, your case is rock solid. Unlike folate, folic acid is a drug, and adding a drug into people's food by force is nothing short of criminal.
Informed consent is a separate issue - the main issue is that folic acid is actually a drug. One can't pump drugs indiscriminately into an entire population. A drug must be targeted to an individual's needs.
There is no provision in Bentham or Wiley (or anyone else in the origins of Western civilisation, I believe) to justify pumping a drug into ALL people as a preventative measure.
(Of course, most economists - being slaves of the Fabian socialist Pigou - will gladly provide "justifications" for folic acid fortification, and will also conjure up a CBA. I think economists have done a lot of harm to society through their socialist inclinations.)