Voices for Herbal Diversity ( http://www.traditionalmedicines.info )
This is a brand new site which deals with the issue of whether or not herbalists in general should adopt the Traditional Medicines Congress (TMC) draft document, which is a regulatory scheme, cooked up by trade organizations, which aims to allow more information on labels, about how herbal products are to be used. The problems with this are many, including the effect of taking away the ability of herbalists to use herbs which relate to many indigenous medicine practices, (since they have no written historical documentation). It also sets the stage for standardization and licensure of herbalists in the U.S.
We must realize that herbal medicine is an ORALLY-TRANSMITTED tradition, which is the ORIGINAL form of medicine for humanity, and which has thousands of generations of knowledge behind it. Today, the herbalists alive on Earth, around our globe, representing all diverse herbal traditions, are indeed the keepers of this important human knowledge. Please go to this site for a better understanding of the many threats which emanate from international trade treaties, and are destroying traditional herbalism and with it, the cultural heritage of the peoples of the world. This site will give you lots of information about what you can do to
Click here to download V.H.D.'s new STOP THE T.M.C. trifold brochure
Codex and F.D.A. Threats to Herbs & Supplements
note* This is page was constructed from an alert letter, and is presented in its entirety, with all active links originally included, plus one added link. See the authors credit at bottom with conference call information. We encourage you to participate in the conference calls. The number and times are at the bottom of the page.
"WAKE UP FRIENDS, THIS IS EXTREMELY SERIOUS, WE MUST STAND UP! NOW!"
"Can you afford to pay $100 per month for each and every vitamin and mineral supplement you take?"
"Please read this very important health message below and contact everyone!"
"Your right to choose your vitamin, mineral and other supplements may end in June of this year (2005). After that U.S. supplements will be defined and controlled by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). The CODEX ALIMENTARIUS (Food Code) is setting the supplement standards for all countries in the WTO.
These "supplement standards" will be enforced by the WTO and will over ride U.S. laws and your Constitutional Rights !
The U.S. President and Congress agreed to this take-over when the WTO Treaty was signed. Violations are now punished by WTO trade sanctions.(huge fines on international traders)"
"CODEX drastically restricts vitamins, minerals, herbs and other supplements. CODEX met secretly in November, 2004 and finalized Step 8 (the final stage) to begin implementation in June, 2005. "
"The CODE includes":
"(1) No supplement can be sold for preventive or therapeutic use.
(2) Any potency higher than RDA (minimal strength) is a drug requiring a prescription and must be produced by drug companies. Over 5000 safe items now in health stores will be banned, terminating health stores as we now know them.
(3) CODEX regulations become binding internationally.
(4) New supplements are banned unless given very expensive CODEX testing and approval."
"CODEX now applies to Norway and Germany, among others, where zinc tablets rose from $4 per bottle to $52. Echinacea (an ancient immune-enhancement herb) rose from $14 to $153 (both examples are now allowed by prescription only). They are now drugs. Vitamin C above 200 mg, niacin above 32 mg, vitamin B6 above 4 mg, all are banned over-the-counter as drugs. No amino acids (arginine, lysine, carnitine, etc. = essential amino acids!), essential fatty acids (omegas 3, 6, 9, etc.), or other essential supplements such as DMEA, DHEA, CoQ10, MSM, beta-carotene, etc. are allowed."
"The CODEX rules are not based on real science. They are made by a few people meeting in secret (see web sites below), not necessarily scientists. In 1993 the FDA and drug corporations tried to put all supplements under restriction and prescription. But over 4 million Americans told Congress and the President to protect their freedom of choice on health supplements. The DSHEA Law was passed in 1994, which does so. But this will be over ruled by CODEX and the World Trade Organization. Virtually nothing about it has been in the media."
"What the drug corporations have failed to do through Congress they have gotten by sneak attack through CODEX with the help of a silent media."
"What can be done at this late hour?"
"(1) Spread the word as much as possible. Inform yourselves fully at www.ahha.org/codex.html , www.iahf.com, www.alliance-natural-health.org and www.mercola.com"... (I've added the fourth link here)
"(2) Oppose bills S.722 and H.R.3377. These support the CODEX restrictions with U.S. laws, changing the DSHEA law."
(Recently the pharmacists published a white paper (see the white paper. ) that was signed off on by all the mainstream medical associations including the AMA which clearly indicates that they plan on attacking DSHEA in the current Congress- perhaps via a new bill we haven't seen yet, or perhaps through a renewed push behind Durbin's bill, (above), but I suspect they might try dropping a new bill on us.)...(Ref. John Hammell president of International Advocates for Health Freedom.
(3) Support H. R.1146 which would restore the sovereignty of the U.S. Constitution over CODEX, etc.
Read about and sign the petition against S.722, which restricts herbs.
(4) Express your wishes to the President, Senators and Representatives (They got us into this!)" Look them up online at Thomas Legislative Information, ASAP. (I added this last sentence and link)
"(5) Contact multi-level health marketing groups that can get their members to inform the government.
(6) Send donations, however small, to the British Alliance for Natural Health (see web site above). It has succeeded in challenging the CODEX directives in World Court in December 2004 ! (This is just the opening volley of what will most likely be a landslide of legal challenges.)"
"They need help financially, having carried the fight effectively for everyone."
"CODEX and the FDA wish to "protect" us by controlling supplements in the same way they do prescription drugs. A study of the latter...(prescription drugs), by three medical scientists was reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, April 15, 1998 Vol. 279, No. 15, p. 1200."
"Incidence of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) was found to be extremely high. Covering 30 years (1966 to 1996) it was found that in the U.S. an average of 106,000 hospitalized patients per year, (290 per day), die from ADRs and 2,200,000 need more hospitalization for recovery. These were FDA approved drugs, properly administered by competent professionals in hospitals--none were considered malpractice."
"This (the ADR issue above) is the number four cause of death in the U.S. When combined, these account for 7% of all hospitalized patients. This is equivalent to a 9-11 attack every ten days. There are very few fatalities from supplements or the news would be on every front page."
See the F.D.A.s own statement about what they propose to do. Don't let them lie to you about their true intent.
Click on this link to read a statement by the former head of F.D.A. Articles by us and others You will realize this has been their intent for a decade or longer. (this last paragraph and link is my own).
The preceeding, (except for indicated insertions) was provided by:
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Are Herbs Safe?
Let me introduce you to a couple of statistics which can help clarify the truth about herbal safety, and hopefully, help you see beyond the claims and rhetoric... to where the real struggle is being directed. Look at the first statistic and you can begin to understand that the pharmaceutical companies are out hunting for more business amongst the 80 % of all humans who DON'T use (or have no wish to use) pharmaceutcal drugs.
I'd like for you to think of all the billions of people throughout the world.... try to visualize over 6 billion of them... and then visualize 80 % of them.... over 4.8 Billion people.... This is how many people use herbs as their main form of medical treatment here on Earth... ("fully 80 % of all people in the world use herbs as their primary form of medical treatment.")... World Health Organization statistic, quoted from Herb quarterly, Fall 2002 pg. 37 "Are Herbs Safe"
"Harper's Magazine estimates that 1,900 Americans die from properly prescribed pharmaceuticals each week. Confirming Harper's figures, a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association also estimates that 2.2 million Americans (42,300 per week) are either permanently disabled by or hospitalized with serious complications from pharmaceuticals each year. In contrast, NBC Prevention News ( in information supplied by the American Botanical Council ) estimates that of the 60 million Americans who use herbal medicines each year, only two die from properly prescribed botanicals. (one person is estimated to die from properly prescribed vitamins.)"...(From " Vital Man" by Stephen H. Buhner , 2003, Pg.8 "According to widely published botanical expert James Duke, recently retired from a long career with the US Department of Agriculture, drugs kill more than 100,000 people a year, and herbs kill fewer than 50 ." (within the United States).
There are many other statistics out there regarding the safety and effectiveness of herbs, however they all point to the same conclusion: "there are 180,000 known treatment-related deaths in hospitals every year, making appropriately prescribed drugs and treatments the fourth to sixth leading cause of fatalities in America." Ref: ( Herb Quarterly, Fall, 2002, pg. 34-39 by Karta Purkh Singh Khalsa, CD-N, AHG ).
How can it be that when 55,000 men died in war (Vietnam), I saw huge protests, and yet when 1,900 a week die due to drug medications, (apparantly for the past 30 years), I hear no huge public outcry?
What else can you do in your own area?
An example of what you can do as far as organizing well thought out responses to these threats, along with fellow practitioners and community members, can be found at the SILVER CITY HERB GUILD web page.