WORLD WIDE VITAMIN, MINERAL & HERB BAN Special News Release: Distributed to The Health Industry, Health Practitioners, Members of Parliament and the General Public. By Kenneth V. Mclver: Ph. D. The New Zealand Charter of Health Practitioners Incorporated, Chief Research Officer, Health Fund and Government Liaison Committee. E-Mail nzhealthcharter@xtra.co.nz Your Government is systematically taking away YOUR FREEDOM OF CHOICE IN ALL MATTERS RELATING TO HEALTH". Wake up New Zealand!!! In line with your governments commitments to international trade, your freedom of Health Choice is being slowly and systematically destroyed. By the year two thousand if present legislative trends continue there will be no over the counter sales in pharmacies, health food shops or supermarkets of Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs and Amino Acids. By the year two thousand world wide - Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs and Amino Acids will only be available on a doctors prescription at three to four times the normal price. This is already happening in Northern Europe and within two years inline with trade agreements entered into on your behalf, by your government, without your approval or consultation all dietary supplements will not be available for sale or preventative or therapeutic use" Only dietary supplements in non therapeutic dosages, produced by pharmaceutical drug companies will be available. In France it is now a criminal offence to sell Vitamin C in dosage levels above 2OOmg. 1,000 mg therapeutic dosage levels were previously available world wide. Your government is dedicated to "Harmonising" its legislation with its trading partners. Your government officials have stated that they need to "Harmonise" with Canada and Australia. Canada is already "Harmonising" with the Nordic countries. In Canada herbs are classified as drugs and on the first of January this year the Health Protection branch of Canada banned the sale of DHEA, Amino Acids and over 60 common herbs, including the popular condiment cayenne pepper. Your government officials are already "Harmonising" with Australia. In Australia there is a move to classify herbs as drugs. Many thinking individuals do not believe that these things could happen here. This is the same type of thinking that was held by the people of the Nordic countries of Northern Europe, France, Canada and other countries where the government have sold out "THE PEOPLES FREEDOM OF CHOICE IN ALL MATTERS RELATING TO HEALTH" in the name of "Harmonisation and International Trade". In Sweden the National Board of Health and Welfare have presented a bill to Parliament, which would make it illegal for parents of children under the age of 15 years, to seek alternative medical service for their children. Both parents arid the practitioner risk being fined or put to jail for one year, if that law is accepted. Possibly the Swedish people also believed it could not happen here. It wont happen here and in other democratic countries if we as practitioners, patients and believers in democratic freedom take a stand now. The people of Sweden have taken a stand and the proposed legislation has been withdrawn. However the fact that this draconian legislation on was proposed in the first place and placed before Parliament with the support of the medical pharmaceutical lobby indicates the basic thinking of those groups who are actively campaigning through The Codex Alimentarious Commission, The World Trade Organization. The World Health Organization and The United Nations to ban not only natural health produots but also to outlaw the availability of all forms of non-drug non- prescription health therapies. Your Support is needed now – tomorrow will be too late In September 1998 the New Zealand Code Commission delegate will be voting in Bonn Germany on the German proposals to make Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs and Amino Acids only available on prescription and to ban, over the Counter sales of all Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs and Amino Acids. Practitioners need to invest five to ten hours of their spare time to ensure that their patients, their children and their own Health Freedom and Freedom of Health Choice is protected and not arbitrarily removed by the dictates of bureaucrats, parliamentary representatives and Multi-national pharmaceutical companies. Don't sit back and leave it to someone else, commit 5 to 10 hours of your spare time to change the course of history. The alternative is to do nothing and by the year 2,000 all Freedom of Choice in health matters will be gone forever and you will be the one who will say it couldn't happen here, "but it did". Don't sit back and leave it to someone else, commit 5 to 10 hours of your spare time to achieve "FREEDOM OF CHOICE IN HEALTH". Your help is needed now. NATURAL REMEDIES IN AUSTRALIA ON THE ROAD TO DRUG CLASSIFICATIONS The changes, announced by Parliamentary Secretary for Health Senator Chris Ellison, are designed to improve patient access to natural remedies while imposing new standards and quality control. They reflect the growing popularity of "alternative" medicine. Government surveys show that 57 per cent of Australians now use natural cures and treatment to complement Western medicine. Once Natural Remedies are classified as drugs, it is then a simple process to arbitrarily ban and remove those remedies from the market place as has occurred in Canada, where Herbs are classified as drugs. HERB BAN: In Canada effective from 1 January 1997, most herbalists and many naturopaths, health food store proprietors and their staff, importers, growers and even restaurant owners are now liable to conviction for drug trafficking. In a sudden about-turn in policy, The Health Protection Branch of Canada (HPB) has reclassified a whole list of common traditional herbal medicines as drugs because they have a pharmacological effect. One version of the list includes: Bayberry, betel nut, boldo, rhamnus, calamus, capsicum/cayenne pepper, cascara, chaparral, coltsfoot, comfrey, ephedra, eyebright, feverfew, gelsemium, germander, ginkgo. goldenseal, gotu cola, hawthorn, horsetail, kava kava, lily of the valley, lobelia, poke root, psyllium seed, black radish seed, blood root, senna, squill, pau d'arco (taheebo), tea tree oil, valerian. In Canada there is a growing ground swell of public opinion against the non democratic action of the Health Protection Branch. According to an article by Lorna Hancock, over 15 years ago the British Columbia Medical Association entered into a global political strategy to eliminate Alternative Practitioners and Health Food Stores by the year 2,000. On July the first 1997, Dr Brill-Edwards, who has called for an immediate independent public enquiry into The Health Protection Branch, will be informing a public meeting. in Vancouver at the Hyatt Hotel, exactly why she left The Health Protection Branch and why Canadians should be concerned about The Health Protection Branch. Dr Brill-Edwards a clinical pharmacologist was employed by Thc Health Protection Branch up to January 1996. She terminated her employment because in her opinion The Health Protection Branch was being manipulated by the pharmaceutical industry and the standards which she believed the Health Protection Branch was supposed to stand for were being compromised. Canada is "Harmonising" with the Nordic countries, Australia is "Harmonising" with Canada and The New Zealand Government wants to "Harmonise" with Canada, Australia and any one else. We need your support now, involving a special research and Networking project, designed to change your governments direction in health care. Contact The New Zealand Charter of Health In New Zealand we have the Qualifications Authority that has been drafting standards for Health Practitioners. We also have the proposed Health Industry Standards Training Organization and the Industry Training Organization. These organizations are designed to improve practitioner standards. However with the Codex proposals and your Governments support of those proposals, Health Practitioners regardless of any setting of new improved standards, will not have available the necessary health products to prescribe for their patients. Health products that have a therapeutic purpose will only be available on a medical doctors prescription and will not be available for over the counter sales. There is no need for the Government to outlaw the practice of alternative or complimentary therapies. All the Government has to do is to follow the dictates set by The Codex Alimentarious Commission and ban health products from over the counter sale in the name of "Harmonisation" with our trading partners. Codex has been designated by the World Trade Organization as the officially recognized rule - making body for international trade issues related to food. Under GATI', Codex decisions have the clout of international law. "The decisions of Codex have great impact on the import and export of food and thus on the health of New Zealanders and consumers world-wide." The representatives that New Zealand and other nations send to Codex to make these decisions are not answerable to consumers. At the Codex meetings themselves, these government representatives are highly vulnerable to influence peddling by pharmaceutical and vested industry representatives. These manipulations result in decisions that benefit profit and production, not health and nutrition. Without Health Practitioners and Health Products readily available as they have been in the past we can only look forward to a continuing deterioration in the Nations health status and an increase in degenerative disease. Core Health Services are in a crisis situation at the present time with lengthy hospital waiting list. This problem will be compounded once the ban on over the counter sale of Vitamins, Minerals, Herbs and Amino Acids is enacted and the New Zealand public is unable to obtain the necessary supplements for the maintenance of optimum health. It has been truly stated that "PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE". Now is the time to prevent The Codex Commission and the planned pharmaceutical take over of the Nations health. It is the intention of the Charter Health Fund and Government Liaison Committee to keep practitioners informed of future developments regarding The Codex Commission through not only the Charter Journal but also via the proposed Practitioner Networking Project. |