Contact your Representatives NOW! H.R.207

There is a bill before the U.S. House of Representatives that is going to be voted on shortly that would make some nutritional supplements controlled substances. Controlled substances are illegal drugs not prescription drugs!! Two of the supplements targeted are two supplemental hormones - DHEA and Pregnenolone. If this passes, Progesterone (which is derived from Pregnenolone) would most likely become a target.

Without the ability to use it un-restricted, women will not be able to buy or use natural progesterone products. That means that we will be thrown back into the hands of the pharmaceutical companies and our doctors to resolve our hormonal issues. This issue is HUGE because the synthetic hormones being prescribed have been proven to greatly increase the risks of various types of cancer, as well as increasing risk of strokes and heart problems. Thousands of women have turned to effective natural products instead of prescription products, especially over the past year. The pharmaceutical companies are starting to feel it in their pocketbooks, and are lobbying HARD to have these beneficial products removed from the market.

It is extremely important that we let our representatives hear our voices now.

Please take a moment to contact your Representative. We should be free to decide whether we want to choose natural products to treat our health challenges, and preserve our good health...The big pharmaceutical companies want us dependent upon their products. Please Act now, and write your representative!

The letter below just needs to be sent to the appropriate person in your area. Please pass on to people, ping them, e-mail them. This isn't just about women's health. This will affect everyone who wants to maintain the right to choose what is best for his/her health---natural products or prescription products.

Here is a sample letter:

Dear Representative:

It has come to my attention that a bill (H.R. 207) has been introduced that aims to classify a wide variety of nutritional supplements as controlled substances. As a consumer of nutritional supplement products, I am gravely concerned about the consequences of this bill.

This bill represents an abuse of the legislative system, and a blatant misuse of the Controlled Substance Act. How can the government vote overnight to make criminal the possession of substances that have been used safely for years by millions of Americans? How can the government allow the attorney general to classify compounds as controlled substances without determining the existence of appropriate toxicological or pharmacological activity? Was the Controlled Substance Act enacted with the intention that it be used as a political tool?

If the government believes nutritional supplements such as pregnenolone and DHEA are unsafe and wishes to restrict access to them, then let it do so through already established legitimate means. Let the government produce the evidence that these substances are a risk to individuals and society, or that they meet the legal/scientific qualifications to be listed as controlled substances. Then, and only then, should the government be allowed to act.

If this bill is passed it will directly affect the freedoms and lives of millions of Americans, including mature individuals that use DHEA and pregnenolone for anti-aging/disease-prevention purposes.

Please vote NO on H.R. 207.

Sincerely,

I looked up and found the actual bill.

The b*st*rds!!!

Classifying any precursor, such as DHEA, growth hormone release promoting supplements, etc. as controlled substances.!!

Here is the relevant excerpt, followed by the full text:

"To amend the Controlled Substances Act with respect to the placing of certain substances on the schedules of controlled substances, and for other purposes.

1) by inserting `or for the immediate precursor of a scheduled anabolic steroid, without regard to the requirements of section 102(41), including the requirement that the substance promote muscle growth' after `section 202(b)'; and

(2) by adding at the end the following: `However, once an immediate precursor described in section 102(23)(A) is placed in a schedule pursuant to this section, it becomes a controlled substance and the Attorney General may schedule an immediate precursor of that substance in accordance with this section.'.

Here is the link http://thomas.loc.gov/ (put in HR 207)

and the actual text:

To amend the Controlled Substances Act with respect to the placing of certain substances on the schedules of controlled substances, and for other purposes. (Introduced in House)

HR 207 IH

108th CONGRESS

1st Session

H. R. 207
To amend the Controlled Substances Act with respect to the placing of certain substances on the schedules of controlled substances, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

January 7, 2003
Mr. SWEENEY (for himself and Mr. OSBORNE) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees on the Judiciary and Education and the Workforce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

A BILL
To amend the Controlled Substances Act with respect to the placing of certain substances on the schedules of controlled substances, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SCHEDULING OF CERTAIN SUBSTANCES.

(a) DEFINITION- Section 102(23) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802(23)) is amended?

(1) by striking `(A)' and inserting `(B)(i)';

(2) by striking `(B)' and inserting `(ii)';

(3) by striking `(C)' and inserting `(iii)'; and

(4) by inserting after `means a substance?' the following new subparagraph:

`(A) which the Attorney General has found to be, and by regulation designated as being, the immediate chemical precursor of an anabolic steroid that has been scheduled as a controlled substance (hereinafter in this subparagraph referred to as `scheduled anabolic steroid') which either is a metabolite of a scheduled anabolic steroid or is transformed in the body directly into a scheduled anabolic steroid or the metabolite of a scheduled anabolic steroid; or'.

(b) PLACEMENT ON SCHEDULE- Section 201(e) of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 811(e)) is amended?

(1) by inserting `or for the immediate precursor of a scheduled anabolic steroid, without regard to the requirements of section 102(41), including the requirement that the substance promote muscle growth' after `section 202(b)'; and

(2) by adding at the end the following: `However, once an immediate precursor described in section 102(23)(A) is placed in a schedule pursuant to this section, it becomes a controlled substance and the Attorney General may schedule an immediate precursor of that substance in accordance with this section.'.

SEC. 2. AT-RISK EDUCATION PROGRAMS FOR GRADE AND HIGH SCHOOL TEENAGERS.

(a) IN GENERAL- The Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (hereinafter in this section referred to as the `Director') is authorized to undertake education programs at the grade and high school levels to highlight the harmful effects of steroids and steroid precursor use by youths.

(b) TARGET REQUIREMENTS- The Director shall, to the maximum extent feasible, use amounts made available to carry out subsection (a) for existing State and local antidrug programs. Furthermore, funds made available for this purpose shall be used primarily on education programs that will directly communicate with teachers, principals, coaches, as well as grade and high school children at the school level on the harmful effects of steroids and steroid precursors.

(c) AUTHORIZATION- There is authorized to be appropriated for programs under section 2(a) $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2004, $15,000,000 for fiscal year 2005, and $17,500,000 for fiscal year 2006.

And I'm all for HR207.

There is no proof that natural hormonal replacements have any fewer side effects than the pharmaceutical ones. There is no consistency or quality standards used in their manufacture. Each and every bit of information I have read about these states that you need to be careful in taking them because you cannot tell how much actual active ingredient you're getting.

While I don't want government control, if people are going to try and convince women that what is effectively old news (the Prempro study you were referring to) is new and alarming data and that they should be using XYZ brand of soy isoflavones instead of Prempro, there should be some standards for advertising and manufacture.

Hormone supplements are powerful drugs, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, and trying to convince people that they are drugs if they are animal derived and not drugs if plant derived is at best dishonest.

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