RED ALERT: Protect Your Access To Dietary Supplements and Alternative Medicine While There Is Still Time

Written by Thomas Corriher Wednesday, 03 March 2010 16:22

The face of evil, and prostitute for Big Pharma. The dishonorable Senator John McCain.

On February 3rd 2010, Senator John McCain introduced the Dietary Supplement Safety Act of 2010.  The bill was titled in a manner which implies safety, similar to the way that the infamous P.A.T.R.I.O.T. act was titled to prevent criticism.  After all, any criticism of the Patriot Act must be unpatriotic, right?  The Dietary Supplement Safety Act would require herb and vitamin manufacturers to register with the F.D.A. before they can sell their products.  In addition, it would require that the FDA test products before they appear on shelves.  In other words, it is designed to completely eviscerate the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994, which was written specifically to stop F.D.A. interference, and allow Americans to have free access to any health treatments that they choose.

If enacted, this bill would shut down herbal stores overnight, and limit your health choices to the large pharmaceutical companies.  Right now, dietary supplements are usually produced by small companies, instead of multi-billion dollar corporations.  Since small companies cannot afford to put their supplements through studies, or register with the F.D.A.; they will be forced to go out of business.  The cost of dietary supplements (from Big Pharma) would go up, and the quality would go down.  After all, it is not in the best interest of pharmaceutical companies to produce high-quality, effective dietary supplements.

Even if safety testing with the F.D.A. was fast and cheap (don't hold your breath), would the F.D.A. use the same safety standards that they use for drugs?  Even NSAIDS like ibuprofen kill 16,500 people each year.  How many deaths would a dietary supplement have to cause, before it is removed from shelves?  In the case of herbs, it has historically been less than one.

Take the case of the herb ephedra.  The F.D.A. claimed it caused 100 deaths.  These deaths were for people who where taking blood pressure medications.  Of course, it was the herb that was blamed, instead of their pharmaceuticals, and despite the well known carnage caused by such medications, which makes 100 deaths look like the tip of the iceburg.

"The FDA protects the big drug companies, and is subsequently rewarded, and using the government's police powers, they attack those who threaten the big drug companies.  People think that the FDA is protecting them.  It isn't.  What the FDA is doing, and what the public thinks it is doing are as different as night and day."

 

Dietary supplements are currently produced by many small companies, but that would be stopped if each company had to register (get permission) with the F.D.A. before they could begin sales.  It generally costs $millions for drug companies to get through the approval process (it's called a bribe to the rest of us), and this is money that dietary supplement companies simply do not have.  This is likely the plan:  to shut all of them down via financial strangulation ― all in the name of "protecting Americans".  Know anyone who died of vitamins?  How about from medical treatments?  Yes, it is the foxes in congress guarding the hen house for Big Pharma.

Dietary supplements are currently cheap, unless they are prescribed.  For instance, prescribed fish oil is approximately 8x that of the same supplement that you can get at a health food store.

"McCain’s bill would wipe out even the minimal protections contained in DSHEA.  It would give the FDA full discretion and power to compile a discreet list of supplements allowed to remain on the market while banning all others."

— DailyPaul.com (The website of Rep. Ron Paul, M.D.)

The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) claims that even the F.D.A. has said that this will not help consumers, but it would just overburden the agency.  That means that even less time would be spent on ensuring that pharmaceuticals aren't going to place people in the emergency room.  Are we to believe that unsafe dietary supplements are responsible for the over-burdened hospitals which constantly deal with fatal reactions throughout the day and night?  After all, the F.D.A. has done such a stupendous job with synthetic chemical drugs.  Just ask any E.R. doctor.

We strongly recommend that each of our readers contact their elected representatives about the true nature of this bill, and why they oppose it.  It is vital that we send a strong message to those who would otherwise consider supporting it, letting them know that we value our health freedom.