Last year, the FDA tried to take control of Complimentary and Alternative Medicine products. They literally wanted to label them all as drugs. Which would mean something like a bottle of probiotics would have to undergo the million dollar approval process. An expense no one would be willing to put out for a natural product that can not be patented. The results, of course, would have been the elimination of natural herbs and supplements from the market place.
And, if my sources are correct, they were trying to ban something as innocent as mint tea, if it dared claim to soothe and upset stomach (they’d rather you pour thick, pink, syrup down your throat)..
I thought nothing like that
would ever happen in Canada.
First mistake.
And if it did happen I’d be the first to hear.
Second mistake.
April 8, some 34 days ago, the Minister of Health, up on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, introduced Bill C-51. It involves heavy regulation of any product meant to have a “therapeutic benefit.”
I understand some of the logic in this. I realize that many people are over-dosing on vitamins and other natural products. I doubt this causes much harm. Certainly not even a fraction of what properly prescribed pharmaceuticals cause. Personally, I’m not into regulation. I feel people should have the freedom to decide whether they want to seek out the advice of a qualified professional or to experiment at their own risk.
But here’s where bill C-51
goes too far…
It suggests that extreme penalties will be handed out to anybody who recommends unapproved alternative therapy. E.g., if you have an ebook that suggests garlic capsules to help with indigestion, you could end up with your office raided by armed agents who hauled off your your computer and files and then send you a bill for shipping costs..
This sounds to me like a complete violation of our freedom of speech: Freedom to the consumer to research and discover for themselves what will work best for them.
Obviously, of course, it’s a tactic to divert even more money towards big-pharma. Far too much is already going their way, here, in the “true north strong and free” via our government health care program.
My concern is that this bill has a better chance of being passed up here than it did in the States. Why? Because alternative treatment costs money, conventional treatments only require you show your Health Card. If they keeping going this way, they should rename it your Disease Management Membership Card.
As providers of alternative health information, I think you should give this your serious attention. If you’re Canadian, I recommend you head over to www.healthcanadaexposed.com where you can get links to the actual bill, plus guidance on contacting your local MP and various petitions to the stop this bill.
The House of Commons are trying to pass this bill without too much public attention. Imagine waking up in a world where your information products contain illegal content. You’ll have to rewrite them or suffer the consequences.
I trust it won’t get that bad. But only if we don’t let it.
Let me know your thoughts.
P.S. Last Friday, I said I’d share with you what you can do to help out those who TRULY cannot afford to buy your products for justifiable reasons (e.g. they live in a slum in India or suffer from some debilitating health problem). Bill C-51 was more important, but I’ll follow up on this other issue tomorrow.
Topics: Information Product Development |
May 12th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
That is truly frightening. Canada is one country I wouldn’t have guessed this to be likely, of all countries.
One thing is for certain, if these kinds of things come to the US in such heavy-handed ways, I may very well leave the country permanently.
It’s times like this when I wish Ron Paul was still in the running. But hey, there’s always write-in votes, right?
May 12th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
John,
Will someone have to “prescribe” me some red wine when I come to Canada, since it has healthy properties?
If so, I’ll just have to smuggle some across the border