Fwd: [SSRI-Research] Alliance for Natural Health: FOR YOUR URGENT ATTENTION PLEASE

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JustSayNo

Thu, 15 Jan 2004 10:47:14 -0500

[sSRI-Research] Alliance for Natural Health: FOR YOUR URGENT ATTENTION

PLEASE

 

As I mentioned in our last mailshot on 19 December 2003, I am now writing to

update you on our legal action, the first stage of which is going to be

heard in the High Court on Friday 30 January 2004. I am also making an

urgent appeal to you.

 

Full details of the legal challenge will be available on our website

(www.alliance-natural-health.org) but in summary we are seeking permission

from the Court to challenge (on EU law constitutional grounds) the

implementation in England of the ban on non-positive list nutrients, which

is being imposed by the EU Food Supplements Directive ( " FSD " ) from July

2005.

 

Once permission is given we will then be seeking a reference of the case to

the European Court of Justice (the EU ‘Supreme Court’), which has the power

to strike down the FSD ban as being unconstitutional under EU law.

 

Unless this ban is overturned thousands of the most beneficial products

presently on UK, Swedish, Irish, Dutch and other markets will be lost and

this legal challenge is the last chance we have to stop the ban and save

these food supplements.

 

We need your help with the challenge and I will be giving details below.

 

But in summary you can play your part by doing the following:

 

Please make a financial donation

 

Spread the word as widely as you can by forwarding this e-mail to your

contacts

 

Urge your contacts to do the same and to join the Alliance

 

Many people, across 43 countries, have already taken up this cause with the

Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) and are determined not to allow the

systematic destruction of natural therapies on dubious grounds claimed by

the legislators.

 

We have no issue with legislation that properly regulates food supplements

in the EU. Indeed we welcome it and the improvements in quality control that

will need to be made by some sectors of the industry but there is absolutely

no legal or scientific justification for the ban. It is in reality a blatant

attempt to remove from sale in the EU high potency, bioavailable and

effective food supplements.

 

The campaign we are running is about to escalate to a new level, the

consequences which will impact the lives of millions of people throughout

the world.

 

I would like to personally express my sincere thanks for your support for

the cause of health freedom. As a supporter of the ANH, your efforts and

contributions are essential if we are to continue to be successful.

 

I have analysed the sources of our funding since we came in to being as a

campaign organisation early in 2002 and although we have a growing number of

companies who have made valuable donations to our cause, the majority has so

far has come from individuals like you!

 

With your help ANH has been able to achieve much.

 

Our five most important achievements in the campaign to-date may be

summarised as follows:

 

February 2002– present: The pulling together of innovative dietary

supplement interests, including practitioners and consumers, across Europe

and other parts of the world* under the single umbrella of the ANH. The ANH

has itself been developed as a professional campaign organisation with

potent scientific and legal expertise having the sole purpose of positively

shaping European and other legislation affecting natural healthcare.

 

* ANH currently has supporters in 43 countries, signed up through the ANH

website www.alliance-natural-health.org; of these, 39% are in the UK, 17%

are in the USA, 6% are in Sweden and Australia, 4% are in Ireland, and 2%

are in each of the following countries: Netherlands, Germany, Spain and

Canada. All other (34) countries each represent 1% or less of supporters.

 

June 2002 – December 2003: Securing support for amendments to oppose the

European Commission’s proposal for the definition of a medicine and the

broadened scope of the Pharmaceuticals Directive which would otherwise risk

the ‘medicalisation’ of all food supplements. Support has come particularly

from Members of the European Parliament, practitioners, consumers and

companies.

 

July 2002 – December 2003: Demonstrating to the European Parliament that the

proposed Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive would unfairly

discriminate against non-EU herbal traditions including Ayurveda, Chinese

Traditional Medicine and herbal cultures from Southern Africa, South America

and other parts of the world. Amendments to modify these restrictive

provisions have now been accepted by the European Parliament, the European

Commission and the Council of Ministers.

 

January 2003 – January 2004: Development of a pan-European legal challenge

against the Food Supplements Directive, using the best EU law specialist

barristers available. The case has involved months of research and pulls

together critical data on the impact of the Directive from companies all

over Europe. Assuming success on the 30 January, we will proceed to a

hearing in the European Court of Justice.

 

December 2003 – January 2004: Demonstrating to the European Parliament and

European Commission that the Commission and Council’s final wording for the

Pharmaceuticals Directive was not sufficiently effective legally to prevent

food supplements, cosmetics, foods and other non-medicinal products from

being re-classified as drugs. With the assistance of Members of the European

Parliament and the EHPM (www.ehpm.org), ANH was then pivotal in securing

recognition, by the Commission, that this issue must be resolved by means of

consultation with stakeholders, including the ANH.

 

These achievements have only been possible because of your donations!

 

You have made the challenging of nonsensical, potentially life-threatening

aspects of this legislation possible – legislation that so profoundly works

against both our democratic sense and our freedom of choice!

 

This legislative assault against natural healthcare is occurring globally –

and many of you will have views on the likely motives behind it. When

dietary supplements are statistically easily the safest group of products we

consume – being on average much safer even than foods – it is not acceptable

for the legislators to simply claim that these proposals are occurring in

order to protect consumers!

 

The real debate on the value and safety and efficacy of food supplements is

only just beginning, and as is usual with such campaigns, may last a long

time – and as you are aware, the future of healthcare for future generations

is potentially at stake.

 

We made a decision to fight our Food Supplements Directive case with the

very best European lawyers in the UK, at Brick Court Chambers. These

chambers include the UK barristers who previously managed to overturn the

Directive, which sought to ban tobacco advertising in the EU. It can be

done!

 

We are confident from our close work with Brick Court Chambers and our

solicitors the Simkins Partnership that we have an excellent chance of

gaining the Reference to the European Court of Justice – and a good chance

of winning the case there. The same arguments, which were successfully

applied in the Tobacco case, we are advised, can also be deployed for our

benefit here.

 

Filing the legal case in the High Court in London has cost over £80,000 and

we anticipate that we will need another £20,000 to cover preparation for and

the Hearing on 30 January.

 

ANH staff have worked extraordinarily hard against difficult odds in order

to fight this battle – as I know have many of you who have made regular

contributions to the fighting fund – helping in distribution of literature,

giving talks on the subject and raising people’s awareness on these issues.

ANH Legal Director David Hinde and I have made great personal sacrifices in

the process, having worked tirelessly, (often completely unpaid), on this

issue for nearly two years, sometimes putting in 100-hour weeks.

 

I now want to ask you to do your part financially in this great endeavour.

 

We need on-going funding whilst we continue to the campaign and legal

challenge, and as I indicated above, it is your contributions which have

been so instrumental in getting us this far!

 

So, I now appeal to you to contribute (for the first time or once again)

whatever you are able to afford, even if is only £5, €5 or $5, but this time

I would like you to help us continue the challenge by paying this amount

monthly on a standing order if you are in the UK or by credit card or

electronic (‘swift’) transfer if you are outside the UK.

 

That said, a contribution of any amount from everyone will ensure our

on-going ability to continue this campaign on behalf of this and future

generations!

 

Please go to our website

(http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/index.cfm?action==donate.default) and

fill in the on-line standing order right now or complete another means of

payment. We need your help now in advance of the UK Court Hearing on 30

January!

 

No matter how small your contribution, every pound, euro, dollar or other

denomination counts, and will be spent solely on fighting our cause.

 

Once again, I wish to offer to you my heartfelt thanks for helping us to get

this far and helping us to take these critical next steps in the legal

challenge and related campaign.

 

Thank you.

 

My very best wishes for your good health, now and in the future.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Dr Rob Verkerk BSc (Hons), MSc, DIC, PhD

Executive Director

Alliance for Natural Health

E-mail: info

Tel: +44 (0)1252 371 275

Web: www.alliance-natural-health.org

 

Note: Remember: please email this information andappeal to all the people

you know who might share similar concerns!

 

 

SSRI-Research/

 

 

 

 

 

 

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