| Many of Gary's listeners have heard him speaking out against legislation which may affect the public's right of access to dietary supplements. Proposed FDA legislation seeks to re-define certain nutrients as "Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products" and highly regulate them like pharmaceutical drugs. This could greatly restrict freedom of access to some common nutrients that have a beneficial effect on the body's structure, function, and health. By redefining certain important foods, nutrients, herbs, and botanicals as "medicine" products, the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry will be able to exercise greater control over these natural substances and limit their competitive threat to expensive pharmaceutical drugs. The effects could be disastrous, perhaps even requiring a doctor's prescriptions for common vitamins, herbs, or botanicals, outlawing certain dosages of vitamins or supplements, treating safe foods and nutrients that support health as if they were toxic medical drugs, and drastically driving up the prices of nutritional approaches to preventing disease. Many of these changes, which are being sought by the powerful and politically influential pharmaceutical industry, are being pushed through surreptitiously behind the scenes without any input or knowledge of the public. Similar legislation has already been promoted and passed in other countries where dietary supplements have been re-defined as drugs to be prescribed by doctors and controlled by the pharmaceutical industry and national medical association. The prices of common vitamins and nutrients in these countries have skyrocketed as the vitamin and supplement companies in those countries have been co-opted by the pharmaceutical industry. We encourage you to educate yourself on this critical issue of public health, and to take action now. Below are some of the organizations and websites which are leading the effort to publicize this issue and to provide a mechanism for registering disapproval with elected legislators. While there has been an initial outcry, more action must be taken to prevent this major assault on the public's right to make its own health choices. |
