fw: DRUGS LAW IS BITTER PILL FOR HEALTH SHOPS

July 31, 2002

www.laleva.cc is in european languages,

GLOBALIZATION OF SUPPLEMENTS? NO THANK YOU!!

Do you want to preserve your access to vitamins, minerals,

herbals and other natural products of effective strength?

The EU and Codex are about to cut you off.

Their plan is to give nutritionally efficient products over

to the pharmaceutical industry to eliminate competition.

THIS SHOWS HOW " EUROPE " IS RIDING ROUGHSHOD OVER THE WISHES

OF THE MAJORITY. 604 MILLION PEOPLE PARTICIPATED IN THE LAST VOTE

AGAINST THIS EU DIRECTIVE. (ALSO VISIT The Silent majority

http://www.silentmajority.co.uk/index.html and

http://www.vitamins-for-all.org/english/default.html ).

DRUGS LAW IS BITTER PILL FOR HEALTH SHOPS

By Christopher Booker, Sunday Telegraph, 21. July 2002, UK

Representatives of Britain's 2,000 health shops have been

told in Brussels that there is now no chance of stopping an

EU directive which will close most of them down.

This is because it is part of an avalanche of EU legislation

which is being " fast-tracked " to give eastern European

countries a chance to comply with it before they join an

enlarged Union.

There are several odd features about this " Herbal Medicines

Products " directive, for which pharmaceutical companies have

been lobbying behind the scenes for years.

Although it is a British initiative, championed by our

Medicines Control Agency, it seeks to apply to herbal

remedies the principle of continental law that things can

only be allowed when they are specifically authorised. This

reverses the British tradition that everything is allowed

unless specifically prohibited.

Under the directive such herbal remedies as Hypericum,

Rhodiola and Echinacea, used by five million people in

Britain for a wide range of conditions, could only be sold

if they had been through the MCA's prohibitively expensive

licensing procedures.

Thousands of safe herbal products will thus have to be

removed from the market, which is why many health shops will

be forced to close.

What makes this even odder is that the MCA tried it on

before, when in 1994 it proposed a statutory instrument

which it claimed was necessary to implement a 1965 Brussels

directive, passed three years before Britain's Medicines Act

specifically exempted herbal medicines from licensing

requirements.

When the European Commission explained that this was not

what the directive intended, the MCA was told, after heated

discussion in Cabinet, to drop its proposal. Now seven years

later, the MCA has got its way, by successfully lobbying for

an EU directive.

There are no health reasons for banning the 3,000 herbal

preparations currently on sale in Britain. Almost all

adverse reactions linked to herbal remedies (infinitely

fewer than those due to synthetic drugs made by

pharmaceutical firms) are caused by preparations made up by

Chinese practitioners. These are specifically exempted from

the directive.

July 31, 2002

John Draper wrote:

>

> Representatives of Britain's 2,000 health shops have been

> told in Brussels that there is now no chance of stopping an

> EU directive which will close most of them down.

<snip>

> Although it is a British initiative, championed by our

> Medicines Control Agency, it seeks to apply to herbal

> remedies the principle of continental law that things can

> only be allowed when they are specifically authorised. This

> reverses the British tradition that everything is allowed

> unless specifically prohibited.

I think time is coming when violent response is appropriate. If they

" remove " key people from those agencies, committees, etc., and the worst

lobbyists, these bad things will stop. I think this is appropriate

because it's beginning to be defending one's health and well being.

Roman

July 31, 2002

Hey John & group,

Good post about the proposed legislation in the EU. I have recently attended seminars in Ireland by our own Irish Medicines Board (IMB) outlining the requirements etc.

It is technically incorrect to say that supplements & herbals will be banned. In fact the proposed legislation makes them soooooo legal, none of us practitioners etc will be able to have access to the good & safe products currently available. Small companies and indeed clinics will NOT be able to supply formulae in as little as 2 years.

Speaking recently to two seperate pharmaceutical manufacturers, both agreed off the record that the EU directives are being "fed" by the pharma' industry world wide.

Take note of the words world wide. What is happening here will make its way to the USA in time.

Take a look at the pharmacies, they are keeping their heads low, hoping to hold on to the health products for themselves, to be dispensed extemporaneously in future.

I don't believe TCM & chinese formulae are exempted, they also mus have a 30 year history of traditional use in order to be licencable.

Regards,

Ian O' Flynn