Supreme Court Repealed DSHEA Today By Denying Writ of Certiorari on Ephedra Case

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Supreme Court Repealed DSHEA Today By Denying Writ of Certiorari on Ephedra

Case

-- Need to Amend S.1082/HR1561 Now Critical 

 

US SUPREME COURT SCREWED THE VITAMIN CONSUMERS OF AMERICA TODAY MAY 14, 2007-

WHATS NEXT.... 

 

IAHF List:

 

Today, May 14, 2007 the Supreme Court denied the Writ of Certiorare in the

Ephedra Case (See

http://www.supremecourtus.gov/orders/courtorders/051407pzor.pdf

see 06-922 Nutraceutical et al v Echenbach, Comm'R, FDA et al

 

WHAT THIS MEANS

 

By taking this action, the Supreme court has effectively scuttled DSHEA

because this now means that the FDA can do the same sort of flawed, drug based

" risk/benefit " assessment that they used to (fraudulently) ban ephedra to ban

ANY

dietary supplement on equally flawed grounds (on a whim), in other words, the

Supreme court intends to allow the FDA to regulate foods as DRUGS despite

congressional intent with DSHEA that dietary supplements be regulated as FOODS

and

NOT as DRUGS (!!!)

 

HOLD ONTO YOUR HATS FOLKS- THIS IS GETTING REALLY UGLY

 

This truly puts vitamin consumers behind the 8 Ball, leaving us wide open to

anything the FDA wants to do from here on in unless we can mount a campaign

big enough to get a now ABSOLUTELY CRITICAL amendment into S.1082/HR1561 to

protect ourselves, but we find ourselves in the following very strange

predicament:

 

Senators Hatch/Harkin/Kennedy and Enzi all INSISTED in a colloquy in the May

2 Congressional Record that there is " nothing " in S.1082 that undoes DSHEA,

and the (pharma dominated) Natural Products Assn (formerly NNFA) has announced

this colloquy to the world on the front page of their website which will

put vast numbers of health food stores and vitamin manufacturers to SLEEP on the

issue unless we can all work together to WAKE THEM UP! (See their announcement

for Thursday May 3: http://www.naturalproductsassoc.org/site/PageServer

 

Ironically, even as they made this erroneous announcement, the Natural

Products Assn filed an Amicus Brief regarding the Ephedra case which fully bears

out

the importance of the Supreme Court taking this case on to stop the FDA from

continuing to violate the law as they did when they banned Ephedra by using a

drug based risk/benefit analysis that DSHEA doesn't allow them to do:

http://www.naturalproductsassoc.org/site/PageNavigator/ic_amicus

 

Its obvious to IAHF that the Natural Products Association, Senators Hatch,

Harkin, Kennedy and Enzi either fail to grasp the nature of the threat posed by

allowing the words " Food " and " Food Ingredients " to remain in S.1082 in the

provision establishing the Reagan Udall Institute, and fail to grasp the sort of

arbitrary decision the FDA will be allowed to make regarding Food Safety via

their " Critical Path " technology, or they DO understand this all too well and

are just PRETENDING not to understand our concerns.The NPA does have

pharmaceutical companies amongst their membership, and have never enforced their

conflict of interest disclosure bylaw and the front office of the trade

association

has always seemed unduly influenced by pharma due to this.

 

The huge number of dietary supplement consumers who have contacted Hatch and

Harkin's offices requesting that the words FOOD and FOOD INGREDIENTS be

REMOVED from the section of S.1082 that creates the Reagan Udall Foundation for

the

FDA were ABSOLUTELY CORRECT in their concern!!

 

 

Biomarkers are changes in proteins at the cellular level. Through the

critical path initiative outlined in S.1082, Hatch/Harkin/Kennedy/ and

Enzi intend to

allow the FDA to evaluate FOODS and FOOD INGREDIENTS (including Dietary

Supplements) on a totally ARBITRARY BASIS based on FDA's interpretation of how

they

effect biomarkers. This new science of Proteomics is in its infancy, yet it

is highly PREDICTABLE that if you allow the FDA to create a pharmaceutical drug

development company inside of itself (as you clearly are with this

Reagan-Udall Foundation) that you've created a much bigger conflict of interest

than has

EVER existed at the FDA.

 

Such an entity would profit from the creation and patenting of drugs that it

develops and this would absolutely set the stage for the FDA to go after SAFE

dietary supplements based on totally arbitrary interpretations of safety based

on how a given product impacts certain biomarkers. It is ESSENTIAL that we

get language written into this legislation which protects us.

 

Back in 1989, NNFA (now the Natural Products Association) was initially in

FAVOR of a horrible bill called the NLEA or Nutrition Labelling and Education

Act. This legislation effectively repealed the Proxmire Vitamin Act and set the

stage for huge FDA attacks on the dietary supplement industry. Due to Pharma

penetration of the trade association back then which persists to the present

day, incredibly, NNFA was initially in FAVOR of this bad bill and didn't REVERSE

their position til our grass roots information campaign kicked into high gear

and the trade association realized that unless they pulled a " 180 " on the

issue that their membership would MUTINY in large enough numbers that they

wouldn't be able to pay the salaries of their office staff or keep the

organization

going.

 

When I first read the language of the NLEA it was the summer of '89, the

hardest time of year to rally the grass roots to do anything due to so many

people

being on vacation or doing things outdoors so that they weren't paying

attention to what was happening right under their noses. I was shocked by the

magnititude of the threat, and dropped everything I was doing to jump in with

both

feet to try to educate anyone who would listen in an effort to catalyze a fight

back.

 

I remember at first being perplexed and astonished when the vast majority of

health food store owners wouldn't lift a finger to help circulate the form

letter that Clinton Miller had told me needed to be urgently circulated to get

people calling Congress.

 

When I learned that NNFA was behind these store owners sitting on their hands

my jaw dropped and I really got frantic!

 

We find ourselves in a nearly IDENTICAL dilemma today! IAHF is teamed up with

Byron Richards in an effort to take certain actions which can hopefully

rapidly generate a MUCH higher level of awareness and understanding so that

(hopefully) we might yet get Senators Hatch/Harkin/Kennedy/Enzi and the Natural

Products Association to OPEN THEIR EYES.

 

Byron Richards is currently working on a new article that we'll have out very

soon with a new set of instructions that will help us all to fight back with

maximum possible firepower.

 

Those who do not learn from history are too often doomed to REPEAT history.

Well I LEARNED a LOT from what happened back in '89 because we FAILED to turn

NNFA around fast enough, we FAILED to kill the Nutrition Labelling and

Education Act. As a result, the FDA came out with the implementing regulations

from

HELL in the form of the Dykstra Report--- and that NECESSITATED the FRENZIED 4

year campaign to pass DSHEA which in TURN is now under the biggest attack that

its EVER BEEN, yet you would never know it by going into ANY health food store

in this country! Together, we're going to wake up these health food store

owners, just like we did in the early 90s!! WE CAN TURN THIS AROUND, WE MUST!!!

 

Stay tuned folks, lots of phone calls and important emails got sent today

relative to this situation. IAHF is not asleep at the switch, and thank God

neither are ANY of you!

 

We'll have a complete new set of instructions out momentarily and I will be

going to Capital Hill soon in an effort to get a now even MORE needed amendment

in to S.1082/HR1561, but you never just GO to the Hill, you go with a PLAN

and we're developing one NOW! Your donations will help us make the trip to DC

that we're planning. In the mean time, please alert more people to sign on to

the IAHF email distribution list for updates at http://www.iahf.com because

there is safety in numbers.

 

IAHF 556 Boundary Bay Rd.

 

Point Roberts WA 98281 USA

 

Via paypal at 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