Government to take away your ability to buy vitamins

[sandsnakes]

Dear Friends,

I know some of you will be familiar with this, for others you may not be aware of what parliament is about to do in your name. Codex Alimentairus is a law designed to hand over the control of natural remedies to the pharmaceutical giants. One more attempt to regulate us - with potentially dire consequences. Unless we take this last opportunity and act now we will not be able to buy vitamins or health/nutritional supplements without a doctor's prescription - they will be banned from 31st December 2009. :yikes:


You may think this can't happen, you may think why haven't I heard about this before. The reason is that there are vested interests, giant multinational pharmaceutical companies, and its not in their interest that you know about and oppose this. They and our lawmakers in Europe are banking on public apathy. Despite considerable pressure already exerted our government is still planning to implement this law - UNLESS THERE IS MASSIVE OPPOSITION IT WILL GO AHEAD.


Like many health and safety matters this was started with good intentions, in 1962 by the United Nations, to establish international free trade foods but has become a major threat to our civil liberties and freedom of choice.


As the song says: YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'VE GOT TILL ITS GONE


Please, sign the petition to the Prime Minister . . It takes 10 seconds! This is for our health, and well-being and the health and well-being of our children. Please click on this link below ...

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Vitamins/


for more information google opposition to codex alimentarius or look on facebook and you'll see that the threat is very real and opposition is from people from all walks of life, in many countries



This was circulated to my by a friend, Its your chance to have your say, everything from 'calms' for those who cant sleep to vitamin C will be subject to this insanity.

Sandsnakes

:aargh4:

 

[wanderingblade]

Sorry, but the huge amount of wasted money and harm done by people self-proscribing medication based on a magazine article, heresay or advert is wrong.

Supplements need to be regulated and controled just like any other medicine.

 

[Draven]

It's worth noting that everyone who hasn't got a specific ailment (for which the vitamens will be perscribed) could always eat right instead of popping supplements? Something which should be practiced, anyway. Can't stand the things, personally, but when I was a child I did eat the Vitamin C tablets like candy. They just tasted so good, and they were all different colours and looked like dinosaurs! I'm not a fan of the nanny state rubbish though, so I'm against it on principle. But then, I'm also against the modern implication that solutions to all problems come in rattling bottles (though I do prefer bottles to those damn strips of pills)

Pete

 

[8thsinner]

I tried to sign but it would not accept a northern ireland postcode.

I am fully against laws like this.

I realise a lot of problems may be caused by people taking too many vit c tablets or what ever, but if they start regulating things like this, before long they will be restricting simpler medicines and herbal remedies. regardless of any good reasons to, I feel this will only lead to a destructive end to our genuine herbal or alternative medicinal practices. Leaving the multi national conglomerates the ones with any control over medicines.

I might be over playing this but, again, I am fully against this.

 

[demographic]

How the hell would they restrict herbal medicines when all you have to do is walk into the garden and pick em?

 

[Bushwhacker]

They should be restricting McDonalds, kebabs, turkey twizzlers and the like.

 

[Tengu]

As a person who was force fed them as a child, Im fully in favour of this.

Im also fully in favour of better regulation and research in alternative medicines.

 

[Tadpole]

I fully support the control and labelling of all products, available to the general public. They the distributors of un-regulated potions and pills should be forced to provide clinical evidence to support the outrageous claims made for their products. For too long quacks and charlatans have escaped regulation by claiming that their product is neither a food not a drug. Now is a good chance to close such loop holes and make sure anyone who claims that £5 for a tiny bottle of water, with the “memory” of a “drug” held within its well shaken contents will cure everything from croup to diabetes
The Codex Alimentarius sets out to make sure that the product on sale is safe and that if is claims something on the label, then there is evidence to support that claim.
Anyone who fails to understand that the codex is not out to ban anything, but is there to protect the people who sell brightly coloured geegaws that at best do no good, and at worse have the real potential to harm the un-informed people who buy them.
After a quick flick around the net it seems that the people apposing the Codex all seem to have a vested interest in preventing exposure of their flimflammery, and quackery, and purveyors of vitamin tablets, health supplements, alternative medicines, and other quick fixes for a poor diet and worst understand of human food needs.

From the Codex Website
FAQ page

R1: Will Codex make all nutritional supplements only available by prescription? Will Codex ban all supplements and make vitamins illegal the same way heroin is illegal? Will all natural herbs and alternative remedies be banned by Codex?

These are some of the many unfounded rumours about Codex that can be found on the internet. The Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements (CAC/GL 55-2005) adopted in 2005 do not contain provisions for the prescription or prohibition of any nutrient supplements. They do not deal with natural herbs and remedies at all.

 

[VirusKiller]

Chain mail sent to all my contacts...

 

[Toddy]

On the principle that it's *my* choice if I chose to supplement my diet, and in the complete and utter assurance that it's not any philantropic concern for our health, but sheer greed and restrictive practice by big business, I've signed the petition.

At present I can buy iron tablets for £1.95 for 100, what's the cost of filling a prescription ?
Even if prescription costs are removed from the individual they will still have a real cost to the NHS
Let alone the inevitable queues that will crowd out every doctor's surgery in the land as people are no longer able to simply drop into the chemist's ??

As for the alternatives, visiting the garden..........well I do, daily, but even I struggle to have evening primroses in bloom in the dark of Winter, and unless I grow a huge acerage I won't have enough to make oil
Rose and Lavender ? trust me on this, enfleurage in a damp Scottish Summer is an incredible guddle.
I physically do not have enough time in my life to grow, gather, process all the various things I use, and I do a damned sight better than most.

Sorry you've all been 'force fed' vitamins by well meaning and caring people, but for the vast majority I don't think it did you any harm and it might just have done some good.
Have a search for the value of zinc re attention deficit children, iron deficiency on menorraghic females, lack of vitamin c and scurvy, the effects of Vitamin D on bone depostion and the problems of osteoporosis later in life.

This legislation has another edge too. How about using Ginger for a cold with Lemon........that makes Ginger a herbal product...........will that end up restricted too ?

It's not big brother and the nanny state that's the force behind this restrictive legistlation, it's international business conglomerates, who own no allegiance to either governments or charitable or research institutions.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[VirusKiller]

Agreed. The supplements industry is as guilty as the next in terms of exploiting ignorance to increase profits, but it's the availability of these supplements that concerns me.

 

[wanderingblade]

.........it's *my* choice if I chose to supplement my diet........

I agree with you on principle - BUT where do millions of people get their health advice from? Magazine articles and the media.

And how reliable is that source of information? How many people will medicate themselves because a freind or family member recommends a particular supplement? How many medical conditions will go undiagnosed because a patient is trying to medicate themselves on the advice of a Marie Clair article?

We've all seen them - with lists of symptoms as ambiguous as the horoscopes which recommend this supplement or that.

I know there are great benifits to be had from the right person taking the right supplement - but your desicion to take a medicine is only as good as the information upon which that desicion is based.

With regard to the pharmecutical companies - I would imagine they will be totally against it as it will limit supply, negate the effects of advertising and lose them money.

 

[sandsnakes]

All

This is very dear to my heart for the past 27 years I have kept my diabetes in check using minerals and vitamins. My own efforts have placed no burden on the NHS or taken up funds and time that could be used for another’s welfare. If and when this proposed bit of EEC legislation goes through I will eventually end up on insulin. The sad thing is that GP's do not want the responsibility as they do not have the training and would probably not give recommendations because of 'good practice', the same applies to state nutritionists. So girls with PMT who take magnesium and B6, arthritics with fish oils and glucosamine. Nytol, valerian, Kalms for the insomniacs. All will be lost. In the end this will increase the burden on the GP and will be another load placed on the national health and your taxes.

Before you shout I am an informed individual and the the products I use do have scientific peer reviewed trials etc, etc. Like every one I am against the the 'Snake oil formula for cancer company' etc. But if they did care that much about health, alcohol and tabacco would have been banned first. It has been proven time and time again that they are responsible for clinical disease and death. For some reason freedom of choice applies in this area, for the life of me I cannot think why. The same applies to knives and much of what we do.

Freedom of choice and personal liberty. Interestingly when they found out that evening primrose oil could lower blood pressure and lower cholesterol levels, it ended up costing about £50 to the NHS a months supply. It was still available in boots for about £9. If you are a drug company thats a nice profit margin.

Sandsnakes

 

[Toddy]

I think there are two issues here.

Firstly the accessiblitiy of resources and the freedom of choice.

Secondly mis representation and downright fraud.

The second is always with us, but the first is becoming all too often more and more restricted.

Education and informed choice is, I suspect, the answer to both.


cheers,
TOddy

 

[gregorach]

If the supplements aren't tested and regulated, how do you even know they contain what they claim to? There have been many cases where testing has revealed that they don't. Remember, a lot of these products are manufactured under license in China - the country that brought you poisoned baby milk.

I may not trust the big pharmaceutical companies, but at least their products have stringent testing requirements. The companies producing supplements are every bit as profit-driven (the market is worth about £13.5 billion), but there's currently nobody keeping them even half-way honest. They can sell anything they like and call it whatever they want. How can that be a good situation for consumers? It's no different from the old-fashioned patent medicine show.

Mind you, at least we don't have government ministers in cahoots with pill-pedlars claiming that vitamins can cure AIDS, like they do in South Africa... Is that the sort of industry you want to protect from regulation?

 

[Toddy]

That's not what the regulations are actually going to do though. All they will actually achieve is restriction of availability, the closure of small concerns. Groups like Rob's won't even be able to sell their organic honey and beeswax lipbalms, especially if they add something, like a home made mint or rose infused oil........it's the simple knock on stuff that concerns me.
I think it's too big a stifflling blanket of a legislation.

I detest the cheat, the snake oil, but I really don't think this is the way to deal with it.

cheers,
Mary

 

[Tadpole]

. So girls with PMT who take magnesium and B6, arthritics with fish oils and glucosamine. Nytol, valerian, Kalms for the insomniacs. All will be lost. In the end this will increase the burden on the GP and will be another load placed on the national health and your taxes.

Surely what these examples really say is, PMT and insomnia etc are controllably or even preventable by having a truly balanced diet. Your example is saying, with a balanced diet lots of modern ailments are preventable without reliance on snake oil and pseudodrugs, many would go away were the sufferer to eat a more healthy natural diet.
My Brother-in-law like you is a diabetic and he uses no injections, he has a fish rich health balanced diet and keeps his problem under control without the need for £30 worth of placebos a month.

That's not what the regulations are actually going to do though. All they will actually achieve is restriction of availability, the closure of small concerns. Groups like Rob's won't even be able to sell their organic honey and beeswax lipbalms, especially if they add something, like a home made mint or rose infused oil........it's the simple knock on stuff that concerns me.
I think it's too big a stifflling blanket of a legislation.

I detest the cheat, the snake oil, but I really don't think this is the way to deal with it.

cheers,
Mary

Toddy I think you must have missed this when I posted it

R1: Will Codex make all nutritional supplements only available by prescription? Will Codex ban all supplements and make vitamins illegal the same way heroin is illegal? Will all natural herbs and alternative remedies be banned by Codex?

These are some of the many unfounded rumours about Codex that can be found on the internet. The Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements (CAC/GL 55-2005) adopted in 2005 do not contain provisions for the prescription or prohibition of any nutrient supplements. They do not deal with natural herbs and remedies at all (see also W1)

 

[smoggy]

If one takes the trouble to read the link provided above......one will find the following.....

"I have heard that the Codex will become law on 31 December 2009. Is it true?

This is an unfounded rumour: The standards, guidelines and codes adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission are voluntary and do not therefore contain implementation deadlines or dates, nor can the Commission turn them into binding law."

Therefore the petition, the original posting and the ensuing thread are somewhat meaningless!

Please do yourself and everyone else a favour, either take the time to check before repeating such rumour mungering or just keep your junk mail to yourself.

smoggy

 

[BorderReiver]

That's not what the regulations are actually going to do though. All they will actually achieve is restriction of availability, the closure of small concerns. Groups like Rob's won't even be able to sell their organic honey and beeswax lipbalms, especially if they add something, like a home made mint or rose infused oil........it's the simple knock on stuff that concerns me.I think it's too big a stifflling blanket of a legislation.

I detest the cheat, the snake oil, but I really don't think this is the way to deal with it.

cheers,
Mary

Now that's not good.

The rest of the multi-million pound "let's fleece the gullible" industry needs regulating but the collateral damage is unacceptable.

Unfortunately the legislators never seem to bother to think about what they are doing.

 

[Toddy]

To achieve a truly 'well balanced' diet a lot of people would need to gnaw bones, each fish heads, bark, roots, etc. We no longer live that way.

In our climate in the past scurvy was an enormous problem, we don't have fruit growing in Winter and not everyone has access to sea vegetables.
Lack of Iodine caused goitres that are unheard of now.
I cannot digest milk.......in a sunless overcast Winter the lack of Vitamin D is a real issue, Rickets is now virtually unheard of in the UK, it was incredibly common in the past.

The list goes on and on and on.

I'm all for knowing what's in the supplements, and being assured that it is actually what's on the label, but this is a leap too far.

cheers,
Toddy