Next Meeting Tuesday, 20 July 2010

Under the ambiguous title of "Codex Alimentarius" (meaning "food code") – a set of international regulations aim to outlaw any health information in connection with vitamins, herbs and other health supplements. They would limit free access to natural therapies on a worldwide scale. 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. 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. 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 United States domestic laws without the American people's voice or vote in the matter.

Here are some important points:

• Dietary supplements could not be sold for preventive or therapeutic use.
• Potencies would be limited to extremely low dosages. Only the drug companies and the big pharmaceutical companies would have the right to produce and sell the higher potency products (at inflated prices).
• Prescriptions would be required for anything above the extremely low doses allowed (such as 35 mg. on niacin). And BTW, have you ever heard of an M.D. recommending a vitamin or herb?
• Common foods such as garlic and peppermint would be classified as drugs or a third category (neither food nor drugs) that only big pharmaceutical companies could regulate and sell. Any food with any therapeutic effect can be considered a drug,
• All new dietary supplements would be banned unless they go through Codex testing and approval.
• Genetically altered food would be sold worldwide without labeling.

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 Alimentarius is to shift all remedies into the prescription category so they can be controlled exclusively by the major pharmaceutical firms.

The Codex Alimentarius 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. It is now a criminal offense in parts of Europe to sell beneficial herbs, which are now the equivalent to illegal drugs. Here in the United States, a bill introduced by John McCain (!) is currently moving through congress called the Dietary Supplement Safety Act, (S 3002) which would move America in this direction. We will discuss this, and what you might to do oppose it.

We will show a 40 minute video, followed by discussion. Admission if free, and the public is welcome to socialize at 6:30pm on Tuesday, July 20th in the Children's Room at the rear of the Montgomery County South Regional Library (next door to Woodlands Pavilion) at 2101 Lake Robbins Drive in the Woodlands.

"We encourage questions and civil discourse - it builds character."