Activism Change

Regulation of Herbal Products

Question:

Regulation of herbal products production is sorely needed to satisfy our many concerns about purity, potency and safety.  Manufacturers and importers of herbal products are not obliged to provide information about content and possible side effects.  Most botanicals marketed in the USA have not been scientifically tested.  Benefits touted for these botanicals are usually either hearsay, testimony, or tradition.  How were they cultivated?  What extraction and preservation processes were used?   How can we be sure they have not been contaminated by insectisides or pesticides? How do we know they do not contain animal or human waste products? Until we can get some kind of government mandated regulation of herbal   products, we need to be very cautious and suspicious consumers and buy only from larger reputable companies of which there are from none to a few.

Response:

Regulation of herbal products production is sorely needed to satisfy our many concerns about purity, potency and safety.  Manufacturers and importers of herbal products are not obliged to provide information about content and possible side effects.  Most botanicals marketed in the USA have not been scientifically tested.  Benefits touted for these botanicals are usually either hearsay, testimony, or tradition.  How were they cultivated?  What extraction and preservation processes were used?  How can we be sure they have not been contaminated by insectisides or pesticides? How do we know they do not contain animal or human waste products? Until we can get some kind of government mandated regulation of herbal products, we need to be very cautious and suspicious consumers and buy only from larger reputable companies of which there are from none to a few.

Response:

Regulation of herbal products production is sorely needed to satisfy our many concerns about purity, potency and safety.  

The above represent my _personal_ opinions, not those of anyone else unless they have been quoted I am on a SPAM restricted diet. Reply-to has been changed accordingly.

Response:

Herbal products (e.g., herb teas) can be pulled from the market or recalled it there is contamination, mislabeling of ingredients, or proven hazards. So, there are some protections against contamination *and* some protection against arbitrary FDA bans of herbs. It would be wonderful if more detailed traditional and scientific information was listed on the labels of herbal products. Hopefully, that will be allowed in the future. Best Wishes,                              - Mark                      Holistic Healing Web Page                     http://www.HolisticMed.com/

Response:

Regulation of herbal products production is sorely needed to satisfy our many concerns about purity, potency and safety.  

(Snip) Government regulation is not the answer.  It would only open the door for the pharmaceutical manufacturers to pressure regulatory authorities into condeming every herbal/natural product that would compete with the high-priced prescription drugs.  The cost burden of efficacy trials would be laid on the grower/manufacturer and we are talking $250,000,000 upward for prescription drugs.  So maybe the government would be real nice and let farmer Joe down the road pay only 10% of that.  Unfortunately, I don’t think farmer Joe has any directors sitting on FDA advisory boards. This kind of regulation has made herbs pricey and difficult to obtain in Europe (study up on the CODEX).  Canada is also rapidly coming under the control of pharmaceutical manufacturers.  I lived in BC for a while. Beautiful place, wonderful people, but I moved back largely because I no longer had legal access to many of the herbal and natural products I was used to in the US.   Look at it this way:  Medicine, medical research, and medical services are a trillion dollar/year industry in the US.  It is in the interest of the drug companies for you to remain chronically ill and spend billions for palliation and management of your ailment.  Cure is a very dirty word. Try to get something published about a "cure" in a peer-reviewed journal. Guess who buys the advertizing that sustains those journals?   Neither is government your friend.  It is in the interest of government for you to be healthy enough to pay taxes until you retire.  And then the government wants you to collect social security forever?  Come on.  Do you think your government economists are going to tell you that they would kinda prefer that you drop dead at 65? If big biz is not your friend, and big government is not your friend, who is going to hold your hand?  No one.  You are responsible for your own fate.  You’ve got to research, to think, to organize, to shout, to vote, and if necessary, practice civil disobedience.  No one is stopping you from organizing your own "consumer reports" for herbals and  alternative care companies.  No one is stopping you from doing your own testing and forming an herbal "underwriter’s laboratories". Vincent

Response:

I have to agree.  I work in the food industry as well as herbs.  The food industry is going into a new stage of HACCP which is turning a lot of  the responsibility of Government inspectors, over to the manufacturers themselves (in a nutshell).  Where I work, it is completely changing the way we do This kind of regulation in the herb business, will put many "farmer Joes" and family business out.  Those with the most money and of course clout…..win. Juli Herbs for Health http://herbsforhealth.miningco.com – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – Regulation of herbal products production is sorely needed to satisfy our many concerns about purity, potency and safety. (Snip) Government regulation is not the answer.  It would only open the door for the pharmaceutical manufacturers to pressure regulatory authorities into condeming every herbal/natural product that would compete with the high-priced prescription drugs.  The cost burden of efficacy trials would be laid on the grower/manufacturer and we are talking $250,000,000 upward for prescription drugs.  So maybe the government would be real nice and let farmer Joe down the road pay only 10% of that.  Unfortunately, I don’t think farmer Joe has any directors sitting on FDA advisory boards. This kind of regulation has made herbs pricey and difficult to obtain in Europe (study up on the CODEX).  Canada is also rapidly coming under the control of pharmaceutical manufacturers.  I lived in BC for a while. Beautiful place, wonderful people, but I moved back largely because I no longer had legal access to many of the herbal and natural products I was used to in the US. Look at it this way:  Medicine, medical research, and medical services are a trillion dollar/year industry in the US.  It is in the interest of the drug companies for you to remain chronically ill and spend billions for palliation and management of your ailment.  Cure is a very dirty word. Try to get something published about a "cure" in a peer-reviewed journal. Guess who buys the advertizing that sustains those journals? Neither is government your friend.  It is in the interest of government for you to be healthy enough to pay taxes until you retire.  And then the government wants you to collect social security forever?  Come on.  Do you think your government economists are going to tell you that they would kinda prefer that you drop dead at 65? If big biz is not your friend, and big government is not your friend, who is going to hold your hand?  No one.  You are responsible for your own fate.  You’ve got to research, to think, to organize, to shout, to vote, and if necessary, practice civil disobedience.  No one is stopping you from organizing your own "consumer reports" for herbals and  alternative care companies.  No one is stopping you from doing your own testing and forming an herbal "underwriter’s laboratories". Vincent

Response:

Filed under: Civil disobedience

Related Posts

• NYC Police Crush the U.S. Constitution Right to Peaceful Assembly under Iron Boot
• War declared on Americans today by court-appointed Leader
• Hobson's choices
• How has September 11 affected you?
• NO ballistic parachute in U.K.?
• Gay Gardeners Resign, Invite Rowan Williams To "Cut The Grass Himself"!
• The LANDMARK Event!! Mayor Gavin Newsom : Gays :: Rosa Parks : Blacks
• Prattle in Seattle
• Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, Cuban Political Prisoner
• New New Left Is Born / What Is Anarchism?