Senate Bill: all Vitamins and Herbs to be "Only by Prescription"

[kerry-is-my-prez]

Honest to God... When I went to my health food store they were asking people to sign a petition against Bills S. 722 and H.R. 3377.
There are 4 bills. 2 are somewhat reasonable but the other 2 are outrageous.

Petition: http://capwiz.com/nnfa/issues/alert/?alertid=4089036&type=CO

These bills "in both the House and Senate would dramatically change the current law governing dietary supplements, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA). Of particular concern are bills S. 722, the Dietary Supplement Safety Act and H.R. 3377, the Dietary Supplement Access and Awareness Act".....


http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/dsp.cgi?msg=492.2

If a new Congressional bill (H.R. 2597) introduced by Representatives
Henry A. Waxman (of the 24th District in Los Angeles) and John D. Dingell (of the 16th District in Michigan) becomes law, the FDA will have the power to stop you from buying vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients from health-food stores. If the FDA has its way, many nutrients such as Coenzyme Q-10, the Mineral Orotates, and Germanium will be banned, and it will only be possible to obtain nutrient products "approved" by the FDA with a prescription from a medical doctor! Most MD's don't prescribe nutrients, so it is likely that you may NEVER be able to obtain dietary supplements!

H.R. 2597 proposes to give the FDA broad sweeping new enforcement powers at a time when the agency is routinely abusing its current powers by illegally embargoing and seizing safe and healthful nutrients. Under H.R. 2597, the FDA could impose fines on the owners of nutrient companies and health-food stores of up to One Million Dollars for each act that the FDA decides is a "violation" of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

The last time the FDA tried to gain control over the nutrient supplement industry was in the 1970s, when they tried to get the authority to regulate vitamins as prescription drugs. The only thing that stopped them was a massive letter-writing campaign by people like yourself who wanted to retain the freedom to purchase and use vitamins according to their own wishes!

There were more letters written to Congress in the early 1970s about
stopping the FDA from seizing control over vitamins than about any issue other than the Vietnam war. The public outcry over the FDA's proposed actions led to congressional hearings, culminating in the Proxmire Act of 1976, which stopped the FDA from regulating vitamins as drugs.

If H.R. 2597 is passed, the Proxmire Act will be repealed. The FDA will proceed to regulate vitamins as drugs, destroy the health-food industry, and eliminate every vestige of freedom of choice in healthcare in this country. It is thus essential that you do the following to stop H.R. 2597 from becoming law.

[Heddi]

1. This is just insane

I don't see this happening. Or I should say, I hope I don't see this happen.....

[kerry-is-my-prez]

4. They try to do this every so often. This time they've got momentum

because of their success with banning ephedra. They got a lot of good P.R. from that....

One of my friends used to manage a health food store. She said that every time they found a product that "worked" it would all of a sudden be taken off the shelves and made into a "prescription only." The product would usually just disappear (or the price would triple) becasue doctors don't want to deal with vitamins.

[beyurslf]

2. Why would they want to do that?

The only thing good would be if you did get a prescription, your insurance would more than likely cover it. I spend a $100 a month on vitamins.

[MoonRiver]

13. That's a point. But we only get vegan vitamins.

These probably wouldn't be covered by prescription.

[OrAnarch]

3. There has been little oppisition...

Check out the following group though.

http://www.usfa.biz/modules.php?op=modload&name=phpBB2&file=viewforum&f=1


They are raising money for lobbyist, etc. Although they are concerned more with progresterone, 7-keto, dhea, etc, these new bills are far morer inclusive and dangerous.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

5. As usual, the Prescrip. Co's are going to benefit from this somehow...

Probably too much competition from the vitiamin/health food industry.... NOW everyone will have to go to them for "synthetic" (and more expensive) drugs that will have musch more side effects....

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/prescription/hazard/independent.html

Is the FDA too cozy with the industry it regulates? Critics of the 1992 Prescription Drug User Fee Act argue that industry funding of the drug review and approval process gives pharmaceutical companies, and their lobbying arm, PhRMA, too much influence. To address these issues, in excerpts from FRONTLINE's interviews, are Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group; Steven Galson, acting director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research; Raymond Woosley, vice president of the University of Arizona's Health Sciences Center; and John Kelly, spokesman for PhRMA, the industry's lobbying organization.


-snip-

The positive opinions of the pharmaceutical industry of the FDA have never been higher than they were at least from 1997 to 2001. The last year, they've been complaining a little, because there's been a smaller number of drugs approved. But one way of gauging how favorable the FDA is acting towards the pharmaceutical industry is just to ask the pharmaceutical industry what they think of the new FDA, the FDA from, let's say, 1995-1996 through 2000-2001. They love it. They gave a former FDA commissioner an award for doing a terrific job. You would not have seen these things 10-15 years ago, when the FDA was in an appropriately vigilant and appropriately adversarial attitude with industry.

[MoonRiver]

15. Drug moguls don't want us to be healthy from vitamins and supplements.

If we don't need their scripts, cause we're taking care of ourselves, they lose money. And I am being very serious here.

[Mr.Green93]

6. Henry A. Waxman and John D. Dingell

Aren't they on our side? What gives?

[chromotone]

10. As Joseph Cotton said to Teresa Wright in "Shadow of a Doubt..."

"Are they?"

on edit: This legislation is ridiculous! My 11-year old daughter maintains a small herb garden. Does this make her something akin to a drug dealer? If Bush can have his poppies, my daughter can have her thyme!

[Kazak]

7. 'Script needed for vitamins???

Laughable...are Pharmaceutical companies that hard up?

[Walt Starr]

8. These is butter on the bread for the pharmaceutical corporations

and the logical course for the war on some drugs to take.

The only acceptable drugs will be those that are produced by pharmaceutical corporations. Naturally occuring herbs are outright wrong because where is the profit in that?

We have become the Ferengi.

[amazona]

9. they just keep coming back with this...

They've been trying to push it through since the 1970s. Eventually they'll get it through because they have persistence on their side.

It isn't about keeping people healthy, it's about keeping them sick and dependent. Sigh.

Imagine having to go to a doctor just to get a vitamin B6 or C supplement -- and you probably wouldn't get it anyway because lots of doctors don't even believe in that.

[mike_c]

11. unfortunately, this is a knife that cuts both ways....

There are a number of companies in the supplements industry that make outrageous claims about the health benefits of their products, e.g. lose weight without effort, take 20 years off your life, and so on. People buy those products on the basis of those claims, and the whole industry's reputation suffers. The industry itself hasn't been successful in regulating the snake oil quackery-- which might indeed not be representative of the industry as a whole-- and this is unfortunate, because the mainstream pharmaceutical corporations are beginning to get the scent of a multi-billion dollar business in what is to a certain degree faith-healing.

The empirical case for "nutritional therapy" is not particulary strong, despite the adament and heartfelt beliefs of its proponents. That's fine-- people should have the right to make up their own minds and act accordingly-- but when a segment of the industry abuses that right for the sake of profits, someone has to protect people from their inherent gullibility. Ideally, the supplements industry should have some credible way of doing it internally, perhaps through a joint standards program, but failing that, how do we clear out the quacks and get rich quick artists that give the entire industry a bad name?

[stickdog]

23. Who GIVES A FUCK?

If it ain't killing anyone WHO GIVES A FUCK?

Do you realize how many people have died from aspirin?

Or how many die from prescription drugs every year?

Why the hell should it be the government's business if I want to take some harmless herbs?

[sendero]

29. If they wanted to do something useful....

.... they would crack down on false advertising. It would be very easy to do, I agree that many claims made by herb/vitamin/supplement makers are beyond ridiculous.

Slap a few $1,000,000 fine on these folks and that problem is solved.

Regulating the distribution of things like Vit C is beyond stupid, it is another trampling of essential freedoms.

Shame on Waxman and Rangel for having anything to do with this bullsh*t.

[blondeatlast]

32. So right, and people don't realize that herbals mixed with

prescription or otc drugs can have toxic effects. My sister is a pharmacist and she sees this more often than you would suspect.

I don't necessarily support this, but EVERY herbal supplement should carry a strong warning about informing your doctor or pharmacist that you take them.

Simple common sense.

[lulu]

12. This is why my sister is a republican

About ten years ago, when the first drive to take vitamins off the shelves began, she helped manage a health food store in Oklahoma City. She grew to hate the democrats, led by Ted Kennedy back then I think, and their wish to destroy the health-food business.

I was working for Wild Oats in Albuquerque then. New Mexico was the grassroots leader in keeping this thing from happening, and who was their savior then? None other than Senator Orrin Hatch. He spoke at a rally I attended in Santa Fe, and all the progressive organic foods and supplement people were laughing at the irony of having a republican save the day. Come to find out later, the epehdra industry had somehow given Hatch a million dollar investment in their products. So, this new turn of events (banning ephedra) is puzzling, to say the least.

I really don't understand why the democrats keep pursuing this issue. Most of the people in the alternative health industry, unlike my sister, are progressives and liberal. What gives?

[Malva Zebrina]

14. people need to begin to protect themself

and grown their own herbs. I believe that. Vit C--? Not only in orange juice--which is so carbhydrate high that diabetics see an increase of over one hundered points on their blood sugar. During WW II, the British people got their vit c from Rose Hips. Yes that is correct. You can make wonderful jams and good tasing jelly out of rose hips or simply add them to soups and stews or other dishes.

St. John's wort grows in abundance all over my property here. It is easy to make a solution. I can find fifty herbs in the wild if I put my mind to it. There are so many herbs that grow alongside the roadways in rural areas for example. It is well known that the native Americans cured scurvy by making a tea out of pine bark and teaching the British and other occupiers how to make it.

I do believe that there is an herb for every ailment, and, especially now, I do believe that our government is trying to force us to spend inordinate amounts of money on drugs that, as we read recently,do not do the job on as many as fifty percent of the people who take them.

I would urge all young people to buy some land--to get back to working it--it seems our regulatory or the privatized corporations, do not have our well being atheart--we knew that.

Also, it will be well to recognize which of those currently involved in "selling" us these supplements and herbs are indeed qualified and indeed concerned about our health instead of their own profit.

There needs to be a sober examination of the entire alternative medicine field and there needs to be sincere, caring people in charge. Once money and profit gets into it, we are ALL affected by the rising prices and the hype of the "sell".


I find that disturbing and it adds to the confusion of the chaotic health care situation in this country. It seems to be every man for himself.

[RainDog]

19. whole sources

btw, if you want rose hips, you need to grow rosa rugosa.

also, blueberries are the same as the bilberry supplement.

echinachea is another name for the common purple coneflower, which grows like a weed in the U.S.

dandelions and watercress are both high in vit. C.

you can eat garlic, not take garlic tablets.

...what I want to know is how I can get the sedum that is the source of rhodiola rosea.

[FlaGranny]

34. I wonder if plant and seed sales would

also be regulated. Burpee and Fields might be in trouble! We might get another whole new drug war.

[SOS]

16. I will order my supplements

from Canada. No sales tax, 35% discount on the dollar.

[evil_orange_cat]

17. safety nazis on both sides of the aisle...

there are the hardcore drug warriors on the right and the safety nazi nannies on the left... maybe I'll move to Canada :(

[soothsayer]

18. this is what the stupid EU is doing

welcome to the new world order

it sucks

[stickdog]

24. Well, that's a load of crap but at least the EU recognizes

herbalists are complementary medical providers!

[Pontus]

26. EU is dictitorial.

I really think too much power concentrated in France and Germany is dangerous. If I were Russia I'd really be concerned.

[latebloomer]

20. Thanks for the heads-up!

This is very disturbing.

I agree that there are forces allied to stop us from taking control of our health. The pharmaceutical industry WANTS us to stay sick.

[Ilsa]

21. This is also an assault

on midwives, etc, who regularly prescribe herbs, etc for pregnant women and postpartum, etc.

Midwives in Texas are under attack as they see birthing centers get shut down for no other reason than the politics of the AMA.

[oceanpoetry]

25. I remember

this same battle in the early 90's ...we won it and the FDA backed down from their attempts to regulate the industry. I am disgusted to discover similiar legislation is back again.

[loudnclear]

22. We need to get all the supporters of these bills out of office.

The Coporcrats want people to have to pay high costs for prescriptions onw way or another.

[NicRic]

27. Educate ,Then let Adults decide !

What they want or dont want to put into their bodies .To me the idea of a country calling itself free and then make illegal what informed adults decide to put in their bodies is ridiculous ! All they are doing is creating a underground supply of these drugs that will deny us the ability to regulate the items ingredients , making the product even more dangerous. I believe in America ,it should be everyones right to injest whatever they want , the repugs want not only to be in our bedrooms now they are moving into the kitchen also !

[Sugarbleus]

28. And here we thought

this was a "free enterprise" nation!

I didn't read the link yet so I wonder if this is part of the "war on drugs" or "drug free america" thing? What an outrage this action would be. Thanks for the post.
One party wants to control the world, the other wants to control the citizens (it would appear). geeeeeez x(

[Justice]

30. Wait A Minute People

The dietary supplement industry is in need of regulation. This bill goes too far (and it won't go anywhere IMO) but let's not pretend the industry doesn't need to be regulated.

Orrin Hatch has led the fight against regulating dietary supplements. I read alot about his fight, due to the fact that so many companies are Utah based -- and about the so called ingredients (parts of insects, other digusting stuff) that are in products.

Prescription? - No, Regulation and Oversight?- Yes.

[blondeatlast]

33. And warnings about drug interaction.

Many people are afraid (or just don't know they should) to tell their docs or pharmacists about supplements they are taking. Consequently, interactions occur far more often than you would expect.

Supplements are drugs just as much as Viagra, only the terminology is different.

[FlaGranny]

31. There is only one explanation.

The large and healthy vitamin/supplement industry IS NOT contributing enough money. That's the bottom line. Most other industries get away with "murder."

Edit: Many herbs and nutrients have been used for thousands of years and many of them have been the source of present-day medications. My brother developed a cardiac problem and his cardiologist recommended he use CQ10 in addition to his meds. Yesterday, while doing some research on a veterinary site, I came across the recommendation to use CQ10. Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate are now mainstream in both veterinary and human rheumatology.