The NaturoDoc Blog

The Natural Solutions Foundation (NSF) milked the FDA’s CAM Guidance Document for all it was worth, as a distraction to stop people from putting their focus where it belongs right now — on defending DSHEA by amending S.1082/ HR 1561 to defuse the BOMB lurking within it.

Now that the FDA comments period on that non-issue has concluded, the Natural Solutions Foundation has seized on yet ANOTHER non-issue that is being used as the LATEST distraction: HR 2117, The Health Freedom Protection Act, which was reintroduced from the last Congress by Rep. Ron Paul on May 2, 2007.

Since several of you have written and called, feeling confused about HR 2117 and asking what our priorities should be and why, I’ve decided to devote part of today’s e-Alert to a discussion of this issue.

The first thing to realize is that there is no connection between the two bills, and that HR 2117 doesn’t solve the problems caused by S.1082/ HR 1561, which will blow the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act sky-high if it is not amended. HR 2117 would stop the FDA from blocking truthful health claims from being made on supplements. While that would indeed be valuable, it’s crazy to focus attention on this when our ACCESS to supplements is threatened to the DEGREE that it is by S.1082/ HR 1561. This bill would give the FDA new tools for attacking supplements via the Critical Path Initiative, wherein the FDA would challenge their safety via the unproven new sciences of genomics and proteomics.

Given that the FDA recently banned ephedra on a whim by only looking at the alleged “risks” while ignoring benefits, it’s clear that unless the word “unreasonable” is removed from the current bill’s language, the FDA will be free to make subjective opinionated judgments by comparing product risks with benefits. In this case, they would only be able to ban a dietary supplement if it presented a SIGNIFICANT risk, which is a much higher standard to meet.

In Byron Richards’ most recent article about this, “China Has a Solution for the FDA’s Problem,” http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron32.htm, he notes that Zheng Xiaoyu, the former head of China’s FDA, was sentenced to death for accepting $832,000 in drug company bribes and for dereliction of duty.

He suggests that in marked contrast, here in the USA where FDA Commissioner Andrew Von Eschenbach is responsible for approval of Avandia, a diabetes drug that just killed 35,000 people, all that’s going to happen is that Congressman Waxman is going to hold an oversight hearing on June 6th where Von Eschenbach’s wrists will merely be slapped (when by Chinese standards, he too should get the death sentence.) There is a chance that Waxman will attempt to put some teeth into HR 1561 from a drug safety standard to protect the public in an effort to undo some of the harm caused by S.1082, its Senate companion bill. However, since Waxman is the biggest opponent of DSHEA in the House along with Congressman Dingell, it’s a certainty that these men will try very hard to block the amendment that attorney Jonathan Emord is urging us to push for, so we have to get very busy!

WHAT TO DO:

Please go to the Life Extension Foundation (LEF) website at http://www.lef.org and scroll down to Consumer Alerts. I don’t mind if you send their form letter pushing for HR 2117 as long as you don’t take that action to the EXCLUSION of sending their form letter to amend S.1082/ HR 1561. An attempt to dissuade LEF from putting an alert into the top spot under Consumer Alerts failed, and as it stands now they intend to have an alert for HR 2117 in the top spot until June 10th, and then put the one for S.1082/ HR 1561 BACK into the top spot, but don’t be misled if they do that.

I’ve just made contact with Dr. Julian Whitaker’s office on this issue, and we can expect help from Dr. Whitaker to also sound an alarm on S.1082/ HR 1561.

You can help us by educating the owners and managers of your local health food stores. Download the form letter from the LEF website and take copies to the stores. Ask them to pass them out to customers. If they try telling you that Natural Products Association (formerly NNFA) says this is a “non-issue,” tell them that’s wrong and direct them to this article of Byron Richards: “Understanding the Threat to Dietary Supplements” at:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron31.htm

MORE DETAILS IF YOU’RE INTERESTED OR STILL CONFUSED

We need to realize that 96 percent of all bills that are introduced are never passed into law. In all probability, HR 2117 falls into that category, but S.1082/ HR 1561 is DIFFERENT — it is considered “MUST-PASS” legislation by Congress due to the fact that it renews the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (which is renewed every year through the passage of legislation.)

It’s not that HR 2117 isn’t a good bill — it IS a good bill, and I would like to see it be passed into law. But knowing what I do about legislation and about the level of THREAT arrayed against us by what lurks inside S.1082/ HR 1561, and knowing that Waxman and Dingell (arch-enemies of DSHEA) control the committees that we have to work with in an effort to get the amendment we’re seeking, plus knowing from long experience how challenging it can be in the summer to rally the grassroots to do anything legislatively given how busy people get outdoors in the summer and with taking vacations — I am not going to send anything out that DIVERTS grassroots attention from the task at hand: Amending S.1082/ HR 1561.

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@iahf.com
800-333-2553 N.America
360-945-0352 World

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