Is it Ten Minutes to Midnight for the Alternative Health Industry?

[Guest guest]

http://campaignfortruth.com/Eclub/280203/CTEleadarticle.htm

 

Is it Ten Minutes to Midnight

for the Alternative Health Industry?

 

 

all about vitamins, herbs, and naughty government officials….

Q & A time with Campaign for Truth founder Phillip Day

 

ECLUB: Last issue we were dealing with the huge European Union vitamin and

herbal issue. You were explaining that the EU is determined to regulate

alternative remedies in its efforts to standardise commerce across the Eurozone,

and that the vitamin issue is just one example among many of how the new

European superstate is arrogantly muscling in on citizens' personal freedoms.

You see Britain leaving the EU as a means of solving a number of this country's

problems simultaneously, don't you?

 

PHILLIP DAY: We hear about the benefits of Britain being part of 'Europe', but

the EU is not Europe. It's 15 nations, due to go to 25 next year, out of a total

of 45 countries that make up the true 'Europe'. And who's ever learned in detail

what these EU benefits are Britain is supposed to be enjoying? I've hunted in

vain. All we see is Britain paying £1.25 million an hour to be part of a new

Soviet-style EU superstate which threatens our very nationhood and sovereignty,

and intends to abolish our legal system and currency, all the while dictating

what British citizens can and can't do down to the last detail with tens of

thousands of Gestapo-like diktats. Who needs all this when we are the EU's

biggest customer and Brussels would have to continue trading with Britain with

or without our asinine membership?

 

ECLUB: How do you see the European health legislation affecting, say, the United

States, Australia and Canada?

 

PHILLIP DAY: Good question. Last fall, when I was touring Australia and New

Zealand, a rather interesting article appeared in the press. A Professor

Alistair MacLennan announced that a study by Adelaide University had discovered

that Australians are spending $2.3 billion a year on alternative medicines and

therapies - four times the amount they spend over the counter on pharmaceutical

products.

 

ECLUB: That speaks volumes about the direction things are headed Down Under.

 

PHILLIP DAY: Yes. In my new book, Ten Minutes to Midnight, I discuss that this

is the crux of the problem facing the drug industry. Now recognising it has

severely underestimated the public's lack of faith in drug-based medicine, the

pharmaceutical cartel is seeking to redress its crisis of market-share by

dominating the huge, alternative health sector. We know that in Europe,

pharmaceutical interests lobbied heavily for the passing of the food supplements

and herbal directives last March. This new legislation will hand over marketing

control of key nutritional products to Corporate Medicine with effect from July

2005. The question is, if the European Union succeeds in its supplement

takeover, will other nations follow suit? There is good indication Australia

will.

 

ECLUB: What evidence do you have?

 

PHILLIP DAY: Professor MacLennan's report on the Australian situation concluded

with him advising Australians that " no children or pregnant women should be

given these alternative medicines - they are particularly vulnerable and none of

these products have been tested for their safety. " Never mind that these

products, often food factors, have been used for decades without any problems.

MacLennan went on to state that all alternative medicines should face the same

testing and labelling as standard pharmaceuticals. By implication, this would

present enormous problems for small Australian manufacturers of alternative

remedies and nutritional supplements having to stump up millions to get their

products through regulation, which is what it costs these days. Almost

certainly, they would never recoup the expenses incurred through subsequent

profits from sales, so the end result is that they cease selling the product.

 

ECLUB: And the corporations pick up the slack?

 

PHILLIP DAY: Drug companies already have a well established relationship with

government regulatory committees. It's no bother to run another few products

through the approval program. Needless to say, these companies have the budgets

necessary to smooth over any lumps or bumps in the process. The little guys

don't.

 

ECLUB: And what about the United States?

 

PHILLIP DAY: The battle-lines are more obvious in America. The Food and Drug

Administration has employed enforcers for years to arrest and harass alternative

health practitioners and naughty supplement manufacturing companies. The result?

A highly intimidated and paranoid US alternative health industry, constantly on

the back foot.

 

ECLUB: You covered some examples of this harassment in your book Cancer: Why

We're Still Dying to Know the Truth.

 

PHILLIP DAY: Yes. Essiac, Vitamin B17, Vitamin C… the battles between

government/big business and the underdog have been endless. American government

agencies like the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the FDA, the Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA) are legendary for their Darth Vader tactics.

Consistently applied strategies against the alternative health industry over the

years have inculcated in the public mind the belief that Big Government is

unchallengeable in matters of health and will do whatever it wants anyway. Many

today believe you can't fight City Hall.

 

ECLUB: But there's a change in the public mood lately, isn't there?

 

PHILLIP DAY: No question. Over one million turned out in London in February to

protest the idea of an Iraqi war. Similar protest marches were seen all over the

world. Forget about whether you agree with the opinions of the marchers or not.

If we look beneath the surface, we can appreciate that there were middle

Englanders marching with anarchists along Piccadilly. Hippies with secretaries

from Streatham. Mullahs marching with mother. Goggle-eyed eco-warriors shoulder

to shoulder with stock brokers. These marches, while all about Iraq, also

revealed a deeper indignation. That the public is now at the end of its tether

with spin, hypocrisy, cover-up and sleaze, routinely used not just by one

government, but by politicians the world over. People want to live in peace, and

yet increasingly, this offensive new government style is seen by the people as

the enemy of personal freedoms. I think the current change in public mood is

highly significant… and heartening. It means people are finally waking up and

getting ticked off.

 

ECLUB: You've been on your new 'Let's Fix Britain' UK tour for a few months,

talking about the EU directives and health in general. Are you seeing an

acceleration of mood in the people you meet?

 

PHILLIP DAY: Absolutely. Also, the threat to the alternative industry has

compelled its organisations to work together in ways they normally wouldn't have

under different circumstances. For instance, I'm currently working with a whole

spread of alternative health and traditional medical organisations around the

world I wouldn't otherwise be meeting. This is creating a powerful synergy for

potential action in the future.

 

ECLUB: Give us an example.

 

PHILLIP DAY: In the UK, the Health Freedom Movement has organised a march in

London this coming 15th June, starting in Hyde Park at 11am. Primarily, the

event is about healthcare freedom and to protest the EU directives. Thousands

are planning to be there. Also, anti-European Union organisations will be

attending to draw public attention to those issues of British sovereignty and

free choice we covered in the last edition. The march, like others before it,

will become a statement of anger and concern by the public that once again their

rulers are not taking heed of the people.

 

ECLUB: Are people getting mobilised in America and Australia?

 

PHILLIP DAY: Yes, and the tensions over Iraq are perversely helping. Folks are

already feeling threatened on the global stage because of the potential for more

terrorism and war. They're wondering what else is happening that they should

know about. The Campaign for Truth in Medicine has representatives in these

countries who hold meetings and discuss similar issues to those I cover in my

talks. The Campaign is receiving record sign-ups, which to me is a clear

indication of the public's desire to articulate their concerns and join with

others in sending an unequivocal message to their leaders.

 

ECLUB: Would you say the public, while angry, has also become unnerved in

sensing that the government isn't listening to them?

 

PHILLIP DAY: Yes, you can see this in many western nations today where voter

apathy is epidemic. The public has simply lost the sense that it's being

represented at all in many areas of public policy. So much horse-trading and

dickering is carried out by ministers and representatives on the national and

international level, and at such a rate, that the public is rarely told a lot of

what is going on, let alone consulted on the issues. The pixie dust the

politicians puff back at the electorate is just the usual " We know what we are

doing. We're changing things for the better and we're doing it FOR YOU! " which

of course they mostly don't and won't.

 

In Ten Minutes to Midnight, the man and woman on the street are becoming

skittish. Those used to a traditional parliamentary or congressional democracy

are sensing that as governments grow more socialist, they become more remote,

more inscrutable and harder to rein in or control. People are unprepared for and

unwilling to tolerate the modern style of 'shoot first and stroke the public

later'. They hate the impotent feeling of not being able to do anything about

it.

 

ECLUB: But many ordinary people are getting active, certainly on the EU

supplements issue, who would previously have laughed at the notion of becoming

an activist….

 

PHILLIP DAY: Many are commendably coming out of their comfort zone because if

they don't get on the stump, who will? Speaking in the Daily Telegraph on 3rd

September 2002, Conservative Member of the European Parliament Daniel Hannan

stated: " If you are a regular buyer of natural remedies, but have never before

campaigned against an EU measure, try extrapolating from this experience. You

are now being treated as fishermen, art dealers, abattoir workers, hauliers and

countless other victims of EU meddling have been treated before. It is not just

this law that is wrong, it is the system that spawned it. "

 

ECLUB: But in fairness, don't you feel that the alternative health industry,

largely unregulated, could benefit from some standardisation and policing?

 

PHILLIP DAY: No question. But, also in fairness, the argument stands: why

regulate supplements and herbs into oblivion that have been used for decades

with no ill-effects? No-one's seriously questioning that the alternative health

industry needs to operate responsibly, but the supposed harmonisation of

vitamins and herbs has nothing to do with enhancing the safety of the public.

This is a corporate coup d'état, pure and simple. And the public knows it.

 

ECLUB:

What advice do you have for readers in Australia, America and other nations who

are monitoring these developments in Europe, who want to become involved?

 

PHILLIP DAY: It's important to get an organisation put together now in your

country and link it in with the Campaign for Truth in Medicine

(www.campaignfortruth.com). CTM in turn is linked with organisations across the

world, so this gives us the resources and contact ability to pass information

quickly and effectively. Anyone's organisation can provide members with a

regular e-mail update of the latest news. It's vital for people to be engaged

and educated on these issues. Never underestimate the clout a huge,

co-ordinated, well-informed, and outraged public can bring to bear on

governments. If the millions who participated in the marches proved anything,

that was it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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