I would like to copy here a long e-mail I received today and put it up for discussion as it affects the life of all of us, and as often we are not aware of what is happening. I believe this needs to be put an the radar screen! (bold are mine)
I received an urgent plea from a colleague to forward a somewhat lengthy and occasionally redundant letter and call to action regarding a global movement that would limit access to natural remedies. Before I copy the whole email into this post, I would like to say that the two countries where Codex has the greatest grip are the two mentioned in the email: Germany and Norway. I have had occasion to see first hand what happens. Vitamin C jumped to $48 a bottle in Norway. I exported some cilantro to Norway. The price to the consumer was more than 12 times the cost to the importer. There are profit margins and then there are ways of exploiting people when they are already down on their luck.
When I was consulting in Germany, the doctor phoned the local pharmacist and asked them to show me around. Basically, in the front of the apotheke, you could buy toothpaste and shampoo and one brand of essential oils for aesthetic rather than medical uses. When I asked about milk thistle, it was in the back, neatly stored in drawers. A customer could buy certain things without a prescription, but only if the pharmacist considered the request appropriate. However, many items we take for granted were only available by prescription. These included most vitamins, enzymes, probiotics, and many herbs.
Across the street, there was a grocery store. It sold traditional herbal products in liquid and tablets and the health claims on the bottles exceeded what I would have thought permissible, but one could buy St. John’s wort and hawthorn berries along with artichoke juice and digestive bitters.
In Europe, the reaction against Codex has been vehement. Literally, hundreds of millions of signatures opposing Codex have been collected and when Codex has met, there have been unbelievable demonstrations, ergo the increasing secrecy and attempts to railroad controls into place without the public realizing what is happening.
Obviously, we have seen this occurring on a rampant scale in our country and many of us spend a lot of time signing online petitions and trying to make our opinions count for something. It’s very hard to keep this up when more and more rules are being made every moment and our elected officials are sometimes trying to whitewash themselves by claiming they hadn’t read legislation before they voted. I am going to urge you to read the post and to forward it to others because your freedom of choice in health care is at stake.
Many blessings,
Ingrid
_____
Dr. Darrell L Wolfe, Ac. Ph.D.
The Wolfe Clinic
1-800-592-9653
Over 25 years preventing and treating chronic illness.
<http://www.thewolfeclinic.com>Join my newsletter: <mailto:healthtips@thewolfeclinic.com>
May 16 2005
Hi Folks,
A couple of months ago I wrote a note about the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS (food code) and about how your life could be severely affected if this law passes.
Now, I want to give you some updated information, especially on a recent legal ruling in Europe. First, though, if you are as angry and concerned as I am about this please read the following carefully and then make sure to contact everyone you know to prevent this attack on our freedom of choice. I encourage you to forward this important message to everyone on your contact list. As well, you should telephone, mail or email your elected representatives!
Write your government officials and tell them your opinion on this matter – NOW. http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/officials/
In Canada write your M.P. <http://canada.gc.ca/directories/direct_e.html>
Your right to choose your vitamin, mineral, herb and other supplements may end before the end of this year (2005). The large Drug Companies would prefer that you were oblivious to this fact and kept like a mushroom. (In the dark and fed Sh_t)
If these laws come into effect all supplements and Vitamins will need a prescription. They will also be produced and supplied only by the Drug Companies. This means that a low quality bottle of Vitamin E (90 caps) may soon cost you a doctors visit and well over eight hundred dollars. The pharmaceutical companies even include baking soda and table salt on their list of, soon to be called, “drugs” that they wish to sell and control. The following is a compilation of information I have received from a large number of sources:
After July, North American supplements will be defined and controlled by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
It is called the CODEX ALIMENTARIUS (food code) and it is setting the supplement standards for all countries in the WTO. CODEX met secretly in November, 2004 and finalized ‘Step 8 (the final stage)’to begin implementation in July, 2005, severely restricting the use and availability of numerous vitamins, minerals and other supplements.
In the US, the President and Congress agreed to the takeover when the WTO treaty was signed, therefore these supplement standards WILL BE ENFORCED BY THE WTO AND WILL OVERRIDE US LAWS. CODEX violations are/will be punished by WTO trade sanctions.
CODEX Includes:
No supplement can be sold for preventive or therapeutic use. (Obviously they know nothing of Vitamin C preventing and curing scurvy, Vitamin D preventing and curing rickets and osteoporosis, or vitamin B curing and preventing anemia. It also ignores the mountain of evidence showing our diets are chronically deficient in essential nutrients because of factory-style farming practices).
Any potency higher than RDA (recommended daily allowance, aka minimal (strength) is a ‘drug’ requiring a prescription and must be produced by drug companies.
Over 5000 safe items now in health stores will be banned, terminating health stores as we now know them. CODEX regulations become binding internationally. New supplements are banned unless given very expensive CODEX testing and approval.
CODEX now applies to Norway and Germany, among others, where:
Zinc tablets rose from $4 per bottle to $52.Echinacea (an ancient immune-enhancement herb) rose from $14 to $153.
Both examples above are now allowed by prescription only. They are now ‘drugs’.Vitamin C above 200mg is banned for over-the-counter and sold as a prescription drug only.
Niacin above 32 mg is banned for over-the-counter and sold as a prescription drug only.
Vitamin B6 above 4 mg is banned for over-the-counter and sold as a prescription drug only.
Same for Amino Acids like arginine, lysine, carnitine, etc.
Same for the Omega Essential Fatty Acids and many more supplements including DMEA, DHEA,CoQ10, MSM, beta-carotene, etc.
The CODEX rules are not based on real science. They were made by a few people meeting in secret; not necessarily scientists.
In 1993 the FDA and drug companies tried to put all supplements under restriction and prescription, but over 4 million Americans told congress and the president to protect their freedom of choice on health supplements. The DSHEA law was passed in 1994 which does so, but this will be overruled by CODEX and the WTO.
Virtually nothing about it has been in the media. What the drug corporations have failed to do through congress, they have gotten by sneak attack through CODEX with the help of a silent media. I’m sure most Crack dealers are more honest.
Canadian Author Helke Ferrie, has a clear, concise explanation of the dangers of “Codex.” Read this, and get worried:
LIFE UNDER CODEX
In the mid-1990s my mother, then in her 80s, had a stroke. She lived in Germany. When she left hospital, I was ready with a nutritional plan that included high-dose vitamins: C, E, and B – especially Inositol, as well as Co-enzyme Q 10. I went to the pharmacy, whose owner was a family friend for some 25 years, and handed him my list.
He handed me a small packet with a price sticker of DM 200 (then about $200) containing vitamin E capsules manufactured by one of Germany’s largest pharmaceutical companies. The source was synthetic, not the “mixed” version from living plant sources I wanted which contains the whole E spectrum. The package contained a total of 10,000 international units of E, the equivalent of a mere 25 capsules of 400 IU each that we are used to buying (I take that many in 3 days). Our bottles contain 90 capsules and cost about $20. If Codex rules in Canada, we will likely pay $800 for a bottle of 90 capsules of low-quality vitamin E – if Health Canada lets us buy that many at once, and if you can find a doctor willing to prescribe it.
He then handed me a tube-shaped metal container with vitamin C effervescent tablets. Each tablet, when dissolved in water, would release 10 mg of vitamin C in a refined sugar solution. Thus, this ridiculously low amount, was to be taken in a toxic medium that would neutralize the vitamin without it doing anything at all. The cost: about $10 for 12 tablets.
Then he asked me, “What’s Co-enzyme Q 10? Are you allowed to buy all this in Canada in such dangerous dosages?” When I told him what I take daily, his eyes popped. Then I asked, “Why can’t I buy these supplements here?” He replied, “Well, Germany is a Codex country.” Oddly, Germany has several government-run hospitals where environmental illness is treated with nutrients only, intravenous vitamin C etc. Life is full of paradoxes and few more follow below.
CODEX AND THE EU
Dr. Carolyn Dean, a medical doctor and naturopath well known to Toronto readers, is currently the president of “Friends of Freedom International” in which capacity she attended the Codex meeting in Bonn last November. She describes Codex as “the ultimate Big Brother marching backwards into the future.”
Effective 1 August, all vitamin and mineral supplements on the so-called “positive list”, including everything from Beta Carotene to Zinc, will only be available in the 25 EU countries if they comply with specific rules set out in the 10 June 2002, EU Directive Relating to Food Supplements. All products must show maximum safe levels “as established by science.”Those nutrients found in the mythic “balanced diet” are to be subtracted from the final values, and Article 6 (2) decrees that labels shall “not attribute to food supplements the property of preventing, treating or curing a human disease, or refer to such properties.”
So, the Directive’s “science” knows nothing of Vitamin C preventing and curing scurvy, Vitamin D preventing and curing rickets and osteoporosis, or vitamin B curing and preventing anemia. It also ignores the mountain of evidence showing our diets are chronically deficient in essential nutrients because of factory-style farming practices.
To “ensure a high level of protection for consumers and facilitate their choice”, they even included baking soda and table salt. We must assume they will be unavailable as of 1 August anywhere in Europe – with interesting consequences for the tourist industry in the baked goods paradises Austria, Switzerland and France.
Now, there is also a “negative list” covering essential fatty acids, phytonutrients, all the enzymes and more. Those cannot be marketed at all, until the EU scientific committee in charge has made a final decision. So, forget omega-3 and omega-6 fats, cod liver oil, and much more.
The effect of this directive will be that thousands of products and businesses will be gone this year. In the UK alone some 21 million people will suddenly have no access to any supplement vitamins, minerals, enzymes, fatty acids and more. Since the onus is on businesses to produce the scientific information on safety, they can’t produce or sell anything – not even to physicians who have the power to prescribe any toxic drug as well as any essential nutrient. Obviously, there will be ludicrous enforcement issues: Picture basement-concocted vitamins sold in dark alleys alongside crack and Ecstasy.Here is a fact. Contrary to pharmaceutical drugs, there are few fatalities from supplements. Can you just imagine the news coverage if vitamins and supplements created the amount of death that drugs do?
There is no need for more control of supplements than is already in place, which is substantial. Instead of drastically restricting supplements, why don’t they better control and restrict the extremely dangerous pharmaceutical drugs which are now killing us at the rate of a major airline crash per day?
Behind the Codex Alimentarius Commission is the United Nations and the World Health Organization working in conjunction with the multinational pharmaceutical cartel and international banks. Its initial efforts in the US with the FDA were defeated, so it found another ally in the FTC. Now Codex, with the FTC and the pharmaceutical cartel behind it, it threatens to become a trade issue,
Codex began simply enough when the U.N. authorized the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization to develop a universal food code. Their purpose was to ‘harmonize’ regulations for dietary supplements worldwide and set international safety standards for the purposes of increased trade. Standardize labeling and regulatory requirements between countries to facilitate increased international trade.
Pharmaceutical interests stepped in and began exerting their influence. Instead of focusing on food safety, Codex is using its power to promote worldwide restrictions on vitamins and food supplements, severely limiting their availability and dosages.
Real Goals of Codex
This is to bring about international ‘harmonization.’ While global harmony sounds benign, is that the real purpose of this plan? While the stated goal of Codex is to establish unilateral regulations for dietary supplements in every country, the actual goal is to outlaw health products and information on vitamins and dietary supplements, except those under their direct control. These regulations would supersede domestic laws without the people’s voice or vote in the matter.
According to John Hammell, a legislative advocate and the founder of
International Advocates for Health Freedom (IAHF), here is what we have to look forward to:“If Codex Alimentarius has its way, then herbs, vitamins, minerals, homeopathic remedies, amino acids and other natural remedies you have taken for granted most of your life will be gone. The name of the game for Codex is to shift all remedies into the prescription category so they can be controlled exclusively by the medical monopoly and its bosses, the major pharmaceutical firms. Predictably, this scenario has been denied by both the Canadian Health Food Association and the Health Protection Branch of Canada (HPB).”
The Codex proposals already exist as law in Norway and Germany where the entire health food industry has literally been taken over by the drug companies. In these countries, vitamin C above 200 mg is illegal as is vitamin E above 45 IU, vitamin B1 over 2.4 mg and so on. Shering-Plough, the Norway pharmaceutical giant, now controls an echinacea tincture, which is being sold there as an over the counter drug at grossly inflated prices.
The same is true of ginkgo and many other herbs, and only one government controlled pharmacy has the right to import supplements as medicines which they can sell to health food stores, convenience stores or pharmacies.”
It is now a criminal offence in parts of Europe to sell herbs as foods. An agreement called EEC6565 equates selling herbs as foods to selling other illegal drugs. Action is being taken to accelerate other European countries into ‘harmonization’ as well.
There is some hope.
A couple of days ago there was tremendous news for the millions of people in Europe who choose to use food supplements. Following a landmark challenge in the European Courts of Justice (ECJ) brought by the Alliance for Natural Health and Nutri-Link Ltd to the contentious Food Supplements Directive, which effectively proposed to ban 75% of vitamin and mineral forms, Advocate General Geelhoed, the senior adviser to the ECJ, gave his Opinion in favour of the Alliance’s case.
What does this mean? That the chances of consumers being able to continue using the natural food supplements they believe are beneficial to their health are now greatly increased. There has been uproar about the proposed EU ban, and maybe, against the odds, the consumer is going to come out on top in what is a remarkable modern day case of David and Goliath.
In a statement released in Luxembourg today at 0830 GMT, the Advocate General concluded that:
The Food Supplements Directive infringes the principle of proportionality because basic principles of Community law, such as the requirements of legal protection, of legal certainty and of sound administration have not properly been taken into account.
It is therefore invalid under EU law.
It should be stressed that the Advocate General’s pronouncement is not a ruling. That will come from the ECJ judges, later – probably around June. But typically, in the vast majority of cases, the Court Judgment follows the recommendations of the Advocate General.If the Advocate General’s recommendations are adopted, in effect, the ban on vitamin and mineral forms not included on the EU’s ‘Positive list,’ due to come into effect on 1 August 2005, will be declared illegal. In essence, the positive list of allowable nutrient forms will be deemed to be too narrow, too restrictive, and based on flawed science.
This would avoid the totally irrational situations that the Food Supplements Directive would otherwise create. For example, synthetically produced selenium would have been allowed on the positive list, while the natural source found in Brazil nuts would not; synthetic forms of Vitamin E (often used in ‘adverse’ vitamin studies reported in the media) would be allowed, but the natural, most beneficial food forms would not.
I should note that this ruling in no way effect the upcoming implementation of Codex laws in North America. The news is encouraging but the fight is far from over and we need to do everything we can to persuade our politicians to listen to us and not heed the words of the scummy drug corporations and blindly follow their grandiose plans for world domination.
So, what can be done at this late hour?
Don’t be a mushroom! Get out of the dark. Spread the word as much as possible and inform yourselves fully.
God Bless,
Dr. Darrell L Wolfe, Ac. Ph.D.
<http://www.thewolfeclinic.com>
I also posted this on LeSpeakeasy and on the NET, if you want to copy this diary and posted elsewhere, please feel free to do so. I feel this issue is to important to let it slip and it is important to spread the information.
I have been looking into the topic more deeply and found some interesting sites for more information.
More information here:
http://www4.dr-rath-foundation.org/PHARMACEUTICAL_BUSINESS/health_movement_against_codex/
and here:
http://ahha.org/walterguidelinesoverview05.htm
and here:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/sepp/2003/08/30/meet_codex_alimentarius.htm
