|
|
|---|
National Health Freedom Action (NHFA) Speaks Out on S1082/H1561By Diane Miller, Director of Law and Public PolicyS.1082/H1561 is trying to launch what it would call the “Reagan-Udall Foundation” in Subtitle B of S1082/H1561. S1082 passed the Senate and is on its way to the House. If the House bill is not amended to exclude foods, dietary ingredients, and dietary supplements from the jurisdiction and purpose of this Foundation, foods, dietary ingredients, and dietary supplements could be forced to be treated like drugs when evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. In the USA, foods are not drugs and are not evaluated with a risk/benefit assessment like a toxic substance. Foods are nutrients and considered safe unless the government can show that they present a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury under— (i) conditions of use recommended or suggested in labeling, or (ii) if no conditions of use are suggested or recommended in the labeling, under ordinary conditions of use. This is a foundational concept, allowing Americans personal access to maximum nutrients. If the bill is not immediately amended Americans will lose one of the greatest foundational protections of access to nutrients; namely that the burden of proof should remain on the government to show significant harm before blocking access to nutrients. (Go to Healthkeepers Alliance to write to your Congressman and let them know about your support of the amendment – click here: http://www.healthkeepers.net/issueinline.php). Also (See below for amendment language and further article by Byron Richards on the politics of this bill). What is the bigger picture? It is deeply alarming to think of the United States Congress passing a law to mandate that the heads of four government agencies incorporate their own non-profit organization, (Commissioner of the FDA, Director of the National Institutes of Health, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality), then go on to becoming ex officio members of the Board of Directors, after appointing the first Board of 12 persons and after naming the first Chairman of the Board from a list of candidates provided by the National Academy of Sciences. The new Foundation would have the purpose to advance the mission of one of the agencies, namely, the Food and Drug Administration. And the new entity would have duties to name a few such as: identifying unmet needs in the development, manufacture, and evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of products; licensing, distributing, and releasing material, reagents, and techniques to maximize, promote, and coordinate the availability of them for use by the FDA; and ensuring that action is taken as necessary to obtain patents for inventions developed by the new Foundation or with funds from the Foundation. Basically the government is entering the business of drug technology development. What are American Senators and Congressmen thinking? Is the concept of government so blurred as to think that government and for-profit industry do not need to be kept separate? When representatives from the Executive branch of the government partner directly and financially with representatives from a major for-profit industry, under the guise of a non-profit corporation, the interest of individual American’s becomes directly at risk. There is no stronger force to cripple a government “by the people”, than the merging of government power with corporate interests. It is not the powers or interests that are bad in and of themselves. No. Rather it is the relationship between government and financial interest parties that has gone awry in America. Rather than creating ways that government can remain separate in its financial affairs, being accountable to itself and its resources, encouraging innovation, setting policies without financial biases, and soliciting information from the people and industry that promotes progress, the government loses it’s integrity and trustworthiness to the people by financially partnering with industry. What is really happening here? Has the government attempted to architect ways to achieve the FDA’s Critical Path program goals in applying new technology standards to new drug approvals without becoming a drug and technology developer of its own? Why were food, food ingredients, and dietary supplements thrown into the pot of a drug development technology scheme? Could it be to eliminate competition? Is this really the only way that the FDA can achieve the goals of their Critical Path program for drug development? Have policy makers searched avenues of how to reach the goals of industry and government without participating in a financial venture together? And most importantly, do Americans know, or even care, that government and industry are financially partnering in this way? S1082/H1561 is an over-reaching dangerous intermingling of government power with corporate financial interests to create what all American’s should perceive as a frightening tower of potential abuse of power. And because, in this circumstance, it happens to be government merging with the powerful and lucrative health care industry, dangerous and bizarre outcomes could take place such as: making determinations, using technology developed by Foundation-funded drug companies, that foods and dietary supplements are unsafe based on drug toxicology assessments instead of complex natural processes; promoting the use of Foundation-funded technology including invasive imbedding of computer chips into human flesh; and developing and promoting the use of state of the art Foundation-funded technology, for profiling individual DNAs in supercomputers in order to receive medical care. Results such as these could cost Americans a lot;-- access to important products and nutrients, an increased illness and death toll, and lastly loss of personal liberty and choice in health care unmatched in the history of the United States or in the history of the world. Action Step: Let your Congressman know that the following amendment, drafted by Emord and Associates, should be immediately added to the S1082/H1561: Changes in Proposed Bills Proposed amendment to S 1082 and HR 1561:
******************************************************* To Read more about S1082 from another key voice in the freedom movement, read articles by Byron Richards at Truth In Wellness, the need for amendments, additional amendments, the language of amendments, and a form letter to send to your Congressman. http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron31.htm
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
