IMMEDIATE PRESSURE MUST BE PUT ON SENATOR ENZI TO GET AMENDMENT INTO S.1082- UPD

[Guest guest]

IAHF List:

 

Please read Byron Richard's update on S.1082, the Prescription Drug User Fee

Act of 2007 http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron24.htm

(scroll to bottom of article for Monday's update).

 

We're monitoring the Senate floor right now on CSpan2

http://www.c-span.org/watch/index.asp?Cat=TV & Code=CS2 waiting to hear Senator

Durbin's statement

about an anticipated amendment regarding Food Safety that we're very concerned

about given Durbin's long standing opposition to dietary supplements (he is a

senator from Illinois where AMA HQ is and pharmaceutical interests exert

enormous

pressure on him.)

 

With the recent contaminated pet food issue thats all over the news right

now, and the latest news that melamine contaminated pet food has found its way

into human food via chicken feed on 38 poultry farms in Indiana and into hog

feed

http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/05/01/hscout604205.htm\

l we've got a challenging political situation but we CAN'T give up because

language currently in S.1082 guts DSHEA according to respected attorney

Jonathan Emord who has suggested an amendment to protect us!

 

Senator Mike Enzi from Wyoming is up for reelection next year. That makes him

politically vulnerable and we MUST CAPITALIZE on this! Fortunately, he is

from Wyoming, a small state population wise- which for our purposes right now is

PERFECT because its EASIEST to get the JUNGLE TELEGRAPH cranked in a small

state and we can RAPIDLY sound the alarm to health food stores, alternative

practitioners, MLMers, and consumers. Clint Miller is going to sound the alarm

to

Nature's Sunshine distributors there, and Byron Richards and I are working to

urge as many vitamin companies as possible to alert their customers in Wyoming.

We need all of your help RIGHT NOW to get word out to ANYONE who can help in

the state of Wyoming and we ALL need to call and fax Enzi's DC Office at the

very least!

 

ENZI's CONTACT INFO

 

DC: 202-224-3424

Fax 202-228-0359

 

Gillette: 307-682-6268

Cody: 307-527-9444

Jackson:307-739-9507

Cheyenne:307-772-2477

Casper:307-261-6572

 

PHONE SCRIPT:

 

I am calling to request Senator Enzi amend S.1082, the Prescription Drug User

Fee Act of 2007 to delete all reference to the terms " Foods " and " Food

Ingredients " .

 

As one of 150 million Americans that rely on dietary supplements to keep

myself and my family well, I am especially concerned that this legislation

broadens FDA regulatory power to harass functional foods and dietary

supplements-

which has nothing whatsoever to do with drug safety- (the alleged PURPOSE for

this bill.) 

 

The so called HELP Committee has failed to prepare a Committee Report for

Staff and Senators to study, so they don't know what lurks within this 262 page

bill.

 

I am OUTRAGED that the bill creates the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA,

a pharmaceutical drug development company located literally INSIDE the FDA.

This is a total conflict of interest and will WORSEN, not IMPROVE the safety of

pharmaceutical drugs- totally contradicting the alleged " PURPOSE " of this

legislation.

 

Although I would like this bill to be KILLED, at a BARE MINIMUM, I INSIST

that the following amendment, which was strongly recommended by respected

attorney Jonathan Emord of Emord and Associates be included in the bill: This

change

is necessary so that no confusion is created between drug regulation and food

regulation.

 

Amendment to Bill S1082

 

Purpose of the amendment: (See pp. 106-107)

The bill, S1082: The Prescription Drug User Fee Act, is hereby amended to

eliminate any reference to the terms food or food ingredients, such that food

and

food ingredients will not be subject to any jurisdiction or control by the

Reagan-Udall Foundation for the Food and Drug Administration.

 

Intent of amendment:

 

To eliminate from the bill any possibility that food or food ingredients

would be treated like drugs either for safety review purposes or for assessment

of

their efficacy. It is a fundamental tenet of food and drug law that foods and

food ingredients are presumed to be safe and have to be established to be

adulterated only if they present a significant or unreasonable risk of illness

or

injury.

 

I have read Byron Richard's article on this issue on NewsWithViews.com and am

calling it to the attention of every health food store, every alternative

medical practitioner, chiropractor, naturopath, massage therapist and vitamin

consumer I know both in and outside the state of Wyoming.

 

Following is a form letter to fax in:

 

 

Please Amend S.1082 to Protect Dietary Supplements

 

May 1, 2007

 

The Honorable Mike Enzi

400 S. Kendrick Avenue, Suite 303

Gillette, WY 82716

 

Phone DC (202) 224-3424

Fax DC (202) 228-0359

Phone Wyoming (307) 682-6268

Fax Wyoming (307) 682-6501

 

 

Dear Senator Enzi;

 

The issue of drug safety is of the utmost importance to myself and all

Americans.  I am concerned, however, that bill S.1082, as currently written,

opens

the door for considerable regulatory confusion. 

 

There must be no confusing the safety of drugs and the safety of food and

food ingredients ? which are governed by different laws.   This bill authorizes,

on pages 106-107, the creation of a new regulatory category that enables the

FDA and the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA to attack dietary supplements

and functional foods.

 

I am sure you were not intending to create such confusion, and this matter is

easily corrected with a simple amendment.  Please support the following

amendment to S1082:

 

 The Amendment:

 

The bill, S1082, is hereby amended to eliminate any reference to the terms

food or food ingredients, such that food and food ingredients will not be

subject to any jurisdiction or control by the Regan-Udall Foundation for the

Food

and Drug Administration.  

 

Intent of amendment: 

 

To eliminate from the bill any possibility that food or food ingredients

would be treated like drugs either for safety review purposes or for assessment

of

their efficacy.  It is a fundamental tenet of food and drug law that foods

and food ingredients are presumed to be safe and have to be established to be

adulterated only if they present a significant or unreasonable risk of illness

or injury

 

Sincerely,

 

 

------------------------Additional Note:

 

We'll have an additional chance to kill and amend this legislation in the

House and I will need to make an emergency trip to DC. This situation is very

much like what we faced back in 1989 when the Nutrition Labelling and Education

Act was a stealth bill that was fast tracked through the House and was on its

way to the Senate like a guided missile aimed straight for the heart of the

supplement industry. When I first noticed it, it was July, and I was hard at

work

on a book I was writing which I was forced to stop work on as I jumped in

with both feet to try to kill the NLEA. July and August are the hardest months

to

try to move the grass roots to action because so many people are on vacation.

I have never lobbied for health freedom before and did not know what to do,

so I sought guidance from Clinton Ray Miller.

 

He advised me to make a list of every health food store within a 50 mile

radius of my house and to take a form letter to them all to urge them to

bagstuff

them and to get their customers into motion contacting congress. I said to

Clint, " But that takes in Manhatten island Clint, we're talking about THOUSANDS

of stores in NYC and North Jersey! " His response still echoes down through the

years in my memory banks " How badly do you REALLY WANT your HEALTH FREEDOM? "

 

My back is to the WALL. I have a GENETIC NEED for the supplements I use. With

no one helping me, I made a list on a legal yellow pad of every health food

store in my area, got directions to them, kept a log of the names of owners,

managers and went to as many as I could with form letters. The vast majority

told me to GET LOST, CAN'T YOU SEE WE'RE BUSY?

For a long time I was baffled, but eventually learned that NNFA (Now NPA) was

FOR the bad bill. Over MONTHS of outraged grass roots pressure they

eventually did a 180 and turned AGAINST the bad bill.

 

We didn't kill it, but we DID CURB some of its worst excesses- but most

IMPORTANTLY, we ALERTED THE PUBLIC and started the movement of the huge

AVALANCHE

of letters that helped us pass DSHEA in '94 to protect ourselves. Today, ALL of

that HARD WORK is being threatened by what is unfolding between S.1082 and

the FDA's Trilateral Cooperation Charter and we ALL must WORK TOGETHER to ONCE

AGAIN Awaken the Sleeping Giant: The American People. This is HARD work, but

its work we MUST DO because OUR LIVES and the lives of future generations depend

on us right now.

 

 

IAHF

556 Boundary Bay Rd.

Point Roberts WA 98281 USA

Paypal: http://www.iahf.com/index1.html

 

 

For Health Freedom,

John C. Hammell, President

International Advocates for Health Freedom

556 Boundary Bay Road

Point Roberts, WA 98281-8702 USA

http://www.iahf.com

jham

800-333-2553 N.America

360-945-0352 World