Canada’s C-51 Law To Outlaw 60% of Natural Health Products

[JMDEM]

A new law being pushed in Canada by Big Pharma seeks to outlaw up to 60 percent of natural health products currently sold in Canada, even while criminalizing parents who give herbs or supplements to their children. The law, known as C-51, was introduced by the Canadian Minister of Health on April 8th, 2008, and it proposes sweeping changes to Canada’s Food and Drugs Act that could have devastating consequences on the health products industry.

Among the changes proposed by the bill are radical alterations to key terminology, including replacing the word “drug” with “therapeutic product” throughout the Act, thereby giving the Canadian government broad-reaching powers to regulate the sale of all herbs, vitamins, supplements and other items. With this single language change, anything that is “therapeutic” automatically falls under the Food and Drug Act. This would include bottled water, blueberries, dandelion greens and essentially all plant-derived substances.

The Act also changes the definition of the word “sell” to include anyone who gives such therapeutic products to someone else. So a mother giving an herb to her child, under the proposed new language, could be arrested for engaging in the sale of unregulated, unapproved “therapeutic substances.” Learn about more of these freedom-squashing changes to the law at the Stop51.com website: http://www.stopc51.com

New enforcement powers allow Canadian government to seize your home or business

At the same time that C-51 is outlawing herbs, supplements and vitamins, it would grant alarming new “enforcement” powers to the thugs enforcement agents who claim to be “protecting” the public from dangerous unapproved “therapeutic agents” like, say, dandelion greens. As explained on the http://www.Educate-Yourself.orgwebsite ((http://educate-yourself.org/cn/canadian...), the C-51 law would allow the Canadian government’s thugsenforcement agents to:

• Raid your home or business without a warrant
• Seize your bank accounts
• Levy fines up to $5 million and a jail terms up to 2 years for merely selling an herb
• Confiscate your property, then charge you storage fees for the expense involved in storing all the products they stole from you

C-51 would even criminalize the simple drying of herbs in your kitchen to be used in an herbal product, by the way. That would now be categorized as a “controlled activity,” and anyone caught engaging in such “controlled activities” would be arrested, fined and potentially jailed. Other “controlled activities” include labeling bottles, harvesting plants on a farm, collecting herbs from your back yard, or even testing herbal products on yourself! (Yes, virtually every activity involving herbs or supplements would be criminalized...)

http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=8850

[HowHasItComeToThis]

1. HOPE IT PUTS THE QUAKES OUT OF BUSINESS

[JMDEM]

13. I don't understand what you mean... nt.

[nemo137]

34. I'm guessing he meant quacks. nt.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

44. YES....... QUACKS

[tabatha]

2. That is abolutely frightening.

How can Candaians support that?

Dandelion greens, amongst others, are a good food.

[JMDEM]

3. I would say that 99% of Canadians are completely unaware of this bill. nt

[Darth_Kitten]

46. I'm unaware of it until now.....

this is sad.

Hands off my vitamins and herbal remedies. :mad:

[Night_Nurse]

5. Omg... I agree...

and it's a very slippery slope from there.

[Solon]

4. I guess that includes all skin products and shampoos as well...

I think this law is going to fail, for the simple reason that the drug companies are overreaching here. Though I would like to see a text of the actual law, without second hand reporting, do you have a link?

[JMDEM]

7. Here you go

http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=3398126

[Solon]

18. Delete, I jumped the gun on this one...

That only applies if the tampering was injurious to human health, as in poisons and whatnot.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. The nation state is dead and the corporate order is alive and well

this is more proof, and expect this to come to a "country" near you

[cliffordu]

10. As Mr. Pynchon so eloquently illustrated in "Gravity's Rainbow"

[Fox Mulder]

8. Jebus Christ.

And I thought the US was bad.

In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if they did something like that here as well. :grr:

[JMDEM]

12. They tried to!!! Very hard

But it resulted in the SECOND LARGEST set of complaints to Congress in history. Second largest.

What was the largest set of complaints? Sadly... it was a bill to deregulate cable TV companies, which would have driven up cable TV rates. Sigh...

[Fox Mulder]

14. They did?

Geez.

[JMDEM]

19. Oh, the FDA has been trying to do in the health industry for years and years. NT

[galledgoblin]

35. heehee, don't mess with Americans and our TV!!

yeah, it's sad that something so silly would raise the ire of citizens to historic levels, but it's still nice that another deregulation bill was quashed.

[dkf]

9. Goodness...what in the world happened to Canada?

Sounds like a power grab. Scary.

[JMDEM]

11. Steven Harper happened to Canada

The same way Bush happened to the US.

They are good buddies.

[sharesunited]

25. You are SO right! Wake up Canucks! Can't you no confidence ANYTIME?

The beauty of a parliamentary system.

[TaffyMoon]

16. Effing Right Wing Nuts is What Happened Here.

[LeftyMom]

15. No, it's just a stronger law to encourage enforcement of existing consumer protections.

The company that runs the stop c51 website has tangled with the law before for selling overpriced vitamins and making unproven and unacceptable claims for their ability to treat serious mental illness. Naturally, they're trying to scare people to death about a law that would make it possible to put blatant frauds such as theirs out of business. It's much easier to sell $C 75 bottles of multivitamins to the mentally ill than to run a legitimate ethical business.

Further, the broad interpretation of the law you're suggesting is nonsense. Nobody cares if you boil a whole lawn's worth of dandelion greens for tea, the point of the law is to keep frauds from making unsupported health claims for products that are unresearched, mislabeled, useless or outright harmful.

[JMDEM]

17. You know a lot about this bill?

Or is that just speculation on your part?

Seriously -- I'm not trying to insult. Do you know a lot about this bill? I took a peak at your profile and it says you are from Sacramento, not Canada. How would you know about the Stop51 people?

[LeftyMom]

21. Because I'm well read.

I was just reading about this whole flap earlier this week.

Some Americans actually care about stuff that happens in other countries. Shocking, I know. ;)

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. ZOMG

:-)

[tabatha]

20. So they want to regulate what consumers consume.

But I bet they're against regulations of corporations.

[LeftyMom]

22. Yes, they want to make sure consumers aren't being sold things that are dangerous.

Without effective regulation of the marketing of drugs and supplements, there's nothing to stop modern patent medicine hucksters from selling all kinds of worthless or outright dangerous crap.

[emilyg]

24. Good for them.

[newmajority]

28. Right... just like the FDA does here

But it's the pharmaceutical drugs that are killing people. And turning them into psycho killing machines on occasion. Or literal zombies who walk around and even drive sometimes in an Ambien induced comatose state.

It's the pharmaceutical industry that is pushing this in Canada, just as they're the ones who pushed to keep US citizens from buying Canadian drugs. It's not a matter of safety, it's a matter of profit.

[LeftyMom]

33. The company pushind misinformation on this bill is risking people's lives.

Their particular scam is selling vitamins as treatment for mental illness, persuading people with bipolar, schizophrenia and other serious mental illness to discontinue conventional treatment in favor of vitamin therapy. There is, of course, absolutely no evidence that multivitamins, however overpriced, have any ability to treat these debilitating diseases of the mind. Untreated mental illness is a danger to both the sufferer and to society at large.

[tabatha]

31. Consumers can many things that are dangerous that are not regulated.

Cigarettes, alchohol, over-the-counter prescription medicines used improperly on children; cough medicines that can be inhaled by kids; paint thinners, bleach, harmful rodent and pest exterminators - drinking water with MTBE.

Wake up!

[LeftyMom]

32. Every single one of those things is subject to regulation.

So I'm not sure what your point is. :spock eyebrow:

[tabatha]

40. Really?

MTBE?

[Posteritatis]

42. Do you have more info on said company?

Folks have been ranting at me about this one for some days. I can tell from the bill itself that it's Just Not That Big A Deal, and could tell from the tone that the people screaming about it are somewhat sketchy and histrionic themselves. I'd love to be better equipped to deal with folks who are more openly propagandistic about this thing.

[tkmorris]

26. This is fearmongering, Nothing more

The way this bill is being depicted by those who are opposed to it is nothing short of propaganda. The bill does nothing more than propose to regulate health products that are not classified as drugs or food.

Anyone who sells a food product has to meet certain standards. You can't sell spoiled meat for example, nor add ingredients that aren't listed on the label. Should those who sell natural health supplements be held to a lesser standard? No one is proposing that selling dandelion greens be illegal, merely that if you are going to sell that than that is what it had better be, and we will be checking to make sure.

[JMDEM]

29. "Anyone who sells a food product has to meet certain standards"

Exactly. And that may be where the catch is. From talking to health food store owners, I get the impression that they will start by saying ALL supplements have not met the standards yet, then each supplement from each company must prove itself.

Hence -- an immediate shutdown of all health food stores, vitamins, herbs, and supplements.

[Speck Tater]

27. My reading of the bill ...

... leads me to believe they will regulate supplements that make health claims. If a bottle of Vitamin C makes no health claims on the bottle, it will not be regulated.

That seems reasonable.

As of yet, Snopes has nothing on this issue, but it may be a case of over-reaction on the part of the anti-bill people as a result of their mis-interpretation of the bill.

I've just seen to many of these overblown fear-mongering scare tactics to take any of them very seriously.

But then again, I might be wrong.

Read and research both sides of the issue before jumping on any band wagons. Otherwise, you risk looking like chicken little.

[Spouting Horn]

39. Health foods make claims

that they improve health.

[conspirator]

30. BIG PHARMA FILTHY PIGS AT WORK n/t

[galledgoblin]

36. Orrin Hatch and DSHEA

I'm no expert on this, but it sounds like C-51 is pretty much the opposite of what DSHEA did to the natural supplement industry- which I think is a good thing.

http://www.quackwatch.org/02ConsumerProtection/dshea.html
http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/dietsupp.html
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2001/0109.mencimer2.html

I would like to cut Big Pharma out of my system. I hate the medications I have had to take through the years and am disturbed to think about the long term effects they will have on my system- but without FDA testing and proper study, I will not switch to natural alternatives, because I have no idea if they are effective!

[Wizard777]

37. There is movement here in America trying to do much the same thing.

They are lobbying for a concept called Nutriceuticals. If these people get their way. You will not be able to take a One-A-Day vitamin without it being prescribed by a doctor. I've even heard that having all meals prescribed by a dietitian is also on the agenda. Then parent would have to tell their children. If you don't eat your broccoli. You will be arrested and put in jail where they will force feed it to you.

[varkam]

38. Sorry, but this sounds a little hysterical. eom

[ogsbee]

41. Sure, stay asleep sheeples

Nothing to see here. Move on citizens.

[varkam]

45. Yawn.

[FourScore]

43. Canada???

Really? Canada???That's...AWFUL!!!