Posted on 02/16/2010 10:53:48 AM PST by opentalk
Most are familiar with those commercials on television promoting prescription drugs that supposedly offer relief from a variety of ailments, if one would only pressure one’s doctor to obtain them. They have become a source of great entertainment and amusement to some, the kicker coming at the end of each commercial when the FDA-approved medication’s obligatory litany of warnings and dangerous side effects is recited: “Tell your doctor if....” and “Side effects may include.....” Some of the warnings are mild like diarrhea and constipation, some list serious effects like cancer or tuberculosis, and others admit that sometimes even death can result.
The point here is that these are all FDA-approved drugs being advertised and used extensively. Drugs that can cause serious diseases like lymphoma. Drugs that can kill. The FDA’s dismal safety record is well documented; even PBS ran a Frontline special that investigated and exposed the FDA’s unsafe drug record, the influence of Big Pharma inside the FDA, and lack of long-term testing and medical review of many, many dangerous drugs. The FDA seldom removes a drug from the market even after it proves to be harmful or deadly, however they do post quarterly reports with details of the latest potentially dangerous side effects of drugs currently under investigation.
Nonetheless, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) wants this same FDA, with its dismal safety record, to regulate dietary supplements. The Dietary Supplement Safety Act (DSSA)S. 3002(text of this bill posted on Senator McCain's website), that McCain has introduced with one cosponsor, would repeal key provisions of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) to “more effectively regulate dietary supplements that may pose safety risks unknown to consumers.”
Under attack by the DSSA is the once-protected field of supplements, as they have always been considered food. Potencies would have to be reduced to comply with what appears to be a plan modeled after the European Food Safety Authority. A new list of “Accepted Dietary Ingredients” would be “prepared, published, and maintained by the Secretary,” in the future. That’s a bit like being handed a blank check and told to fill it out later as one wishes. It could certainly be used to severely limit access to, and even production of, hundreds of life-sustaining and essential mineral, herb, and vitamin products.
All ingredients contained in each supplement would have to be disclosed at the time the company registers all of its “manufactured, packaged, held, distributed, labeled or licensed,” products with the FDA. An onerous burden would be placed on the shoulders of suppliers and retailers of dietary supplements, as they would have to “obtain written evidence” from the seller that the product is registered as required by law, and keep that documentation on file. Monetary penalties for non-compliance “may, in addition to other penalties imposed in this section, be fined not more than twice the gross profits or other proceeds derived from the manufacture, packaging, holding, distribution, labeling, or license of such dietary supplement.” Those are very broad dictates and most likely subject to even broader interpretation.
The McCain bill would change existing mandatory serious adverse reporting regulations, requiring minor adverse effects to be reported as well so that the FDA could arbitrarily pull supplements off the shelves or reclassify them as drugs. This immediate recall authority would be granted to the “Secretary upon determination,” that there is a “reasonable probability” that the product is “adulterated” or “misbranded.” Adulterated in this bill takes on a whole new expanded definition: “A dietary supplement which contains a new dietary ingredient shall be deemed adulterated under section 402(f) unless there is a history of use or other evidence of safety.” The development of new products that contain newly discovered nutritional components may be entirely quashed.
The hypocritical contrast between the regulation of drugs that can kill and the proposed hyper-regulation for food products -- vitamins, minerals, herbs -- is as plain as the nose on everyone's face.
A Pandora’s box of intended and unintended legal complications and government harassment of nutritional supplement manufacturers and sellers could very well be unleashed if this bill is passed. There are already existing laws on the books that protect consumers from misbranded, fraudulent, or contaminated products. Granting the FDA additional regulatory authority over nutritional supplements seems a bit suspicious, especially considering the influence the enormous pharmaceutical industry has wielded over the research, development, and approval process inside the FDA. Let’s face it, the FDA has been no friend and often has been positively antagonistic toward the nutritional supplement industry. Therefore one wouldn’t set the wolf to guarding the sheep without dire consequences.
In this perverted overly-regulated country, food is now toxic, and drugs and chemicals are safe for ingestion, no matter the harm that results. This inversion should remind us that those who best have the consumers health and safety interests at heart are the consumers themselves. It is big government that has a proven track record of not protecting the public. And it is big government that is seeking to take away yet another individual freedom, the right to choose one’s own treatment. (Where is the pro-choice crowd on this one; the ones that claim, “my body, my choice?”)
Better yet. Beware of McCain, PERIOD!
The FDA needs to be reduced by about 80%
Darn that Senator Government! oh... sorry... he’s not “That one...” I thought he wanted people to think he was a Republican?!?!?
We need to run a primary opponent and get rid of him if for no other reason than he’s been there too long. We are not supposed to be Senator for life, no matter what party or ideology.
It’s long past time for him to be out of office.
We need to be moving in the other direction. The whole scam of the government requiring people to get a “prescription” from a doctor in order to buy any of thousands of medications, is just that — a scam. It turns doctors into toll collectors, and massively increases the overall cost of health care (both in money and time), while massively infringing our personal freedom.
Apart from a handful of medications which truly pose a *public* health risk, no prescriptions should be required for any medication. E.g. Vancomycin, which if abused/overused will lead to the appearance of utterly antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria that can many people who never took Vancomycin themselves, poses a public health risk. But it’s a *really* short list of medications that truly pose a public health risk.
“We need to run a primary opponent and get rid of him if for no other reason than he’s been there too long. “
Thanks for posting this article.
More here:
McCain strikes another blow to freedom! Legislation alert!
[snip]John McCain spent the last 8 years campaigning for president. The only things he managed to involve himself with were investigating doping in sports, pushing an amnesty that his base didn’t want and humiliating everyone on the conservative side of politics.
But no, that’s not enough for John. Now he’s introduced S 3002.
The bill is touted as a protection against natural supplement products, but fails to provide safety and implements only more expensive regulation and takes your freedom of choice.
Natural Solutions Foundation puts it this way:
McCain anti-DSHEA Bill a Clear and Present Threat to Health Freedom
Bill filed as Senate Bill S 3002. Follow it at: http://www.thomas.gov and search for that bill number.
Update: http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=4615#2
McCain’s senate speech introducing this monstrosity Feb. 3, 2010.
This is part of
Codex Alimentarius
http://www.anhcampaign.org/campaigns/codex
________
Oldie but goodie.........
“Panel at Total Health 1998:
Zoltan Rona, M.D., Suzanne Harris J.D., David Rowland, Ph.D., Len Horowitz Ph.D. and John Hammell, Legislative Advocate
CODEX ALIMENTARIUS BACKGROUND
Canada is a member of the United Nations/World Health Organization subsidiary called the Codex Alimentarius Commission. Codex Alimentarius means “food code”. The Commission, composed of member governments, is mandated to set international reference standards for trade in all kinds of food products such as raw and processed foods, pesticide residues, contaminant levels, labelling, nutritional content, etc. It met in Germany in October 1996 to create binding new global trade rules for health supplements. In June 1999, Codex members will vote on the following laws proposed by the Germans, and supported by the drug giants Hoechst, Bayer and BASF. These are the three daughter companies formed when the Nuremberg War Trials disbanded the notorious IG Farben Cartel of Nazi Germany. These companies are the ones now pushing the hardest to prevent access by the public to nutritional supplements.
Proposed Draft Guidelines for Dietary Supplements:
1. No dietary supplement can be sold for preventive (prophylactic) or therapeutic use;
2. No dietary supplement sold as a food can exceed potency (dosage) levels set by the commission. Dietary supplements of higher potency will be sold as drugs and sold by the pharmaceutical or phytopharmaceutical companies. Supplements without an RDA (e.g. Coenzyme Q10) would be illegal to sell because they would all become drugs;
3. Codex regulations for dietary supplements would become binding (the GATT escape clause would be eliminated);
4. All new dietary supplements would be banned unless they go through extensive Codex testing and approval.
http://www.iahf.com/world/981101a.html
Could be a blessing in disguise. This kind of stupidity may just be enough to cost him the primary.
And more importantly, getting rid of prescriptions, and the automatic insurance payments that pay for the bulk of the them, people would actually LOOK at the prices of their medications, and consider what effects can be had for what cost. Look at the Coumadin scam — years and years of people on this prescription drug, and eventually it was shown that the vast majority of them would have done as well or better on plain old aspirin.
Maybe he’ll crash his sixth plane before November !
I just told him that he is killing the only hope we have to keep ourselves well, just as obama is killing our hope for medical care. Everyone should send a message to his web site. There is a place for comments.
I’ve let him know how we feel about this. Go tell him again.
I’m more inclined to send a “don’t vote for this” message to MY Senators. But with a whopping one co-sponsor (who I’d never heard of before), I don’t think this bill is going anywhere but the circular file.
Newbie, You might want to find some other source to prove your point.
John Birch Society fringe crap is not believable
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