>*** Forwarded message, originally written by Jennifer Ruby on 13-Aug-97   
>
>We are facing a huge new threat to our health freedoms.  This one makes the
>FDA's attempts to regulate us into submission look like a church picnic.
>It's called CODEX, short for Codex Alimentarius, the United Nation's WHO
>commission on regulation of health services and products. The German
>delegation to the commission has put forward a proposal which requires the
>following:
>
>1.  No dietary supplement can be sold for prophylactic (therapeutic or
>preventive) use.    
>
>2.  No dietary supplement sold as a food can exceed potency (dosage) levels
>set by the commission.
>
>3.  Codex regulations for dietary supplements would become BINDING ON ALL
>SIGNATORIES TO THE GATT (       General Agreement on Trade and Tariff)
>TREATY, and the U.S. is one of them.  There is no escape clause that allows
>a nation to set its own standards.
>
>4.  All new dietary supplements would automatically be BANNED unless they
>go through the Codex approval process, which would be very expensive and
>only slightly less comprehensive than the current FDA approval process
>(typically 10 years and $250 million dollars).
>
>Germany, the Scandinavian countries, and now Canada have rolled over and
>submitted to Codex.  In Germany, you cannot buy supplements except in a
>drug store and at prices 3-20 times what they cost here in the U.S. In
>Canada, possession of DHEA without a prescription is punishable by the same
>penalties as the possession of crack cocaine.
>
>The weapon of choice is creeping regulation, redefinition of supplements as
>OTC (over the counter) products, which will require licensing fees so
>exorbitant that a small health food store may need over a million dollars
>just to pay for the right to sell its products.  This will put most stores
>out of business.  Businesses will have to be well-capitalized enough to
>survive this regulatory onslaught.
>
>CODEX is being pushed through by the largest pharmaceutical companies in
>the world, who are looking to mop up after the bloodbath and take over the
>supplement industry.  You will only be able to buy patented, regulated,
>extremely costly products , and not in sufficient quantity to do you much
>good.  Many, many herbs and supplements now available will disappear, to be
>found only on the black market while companies such as PharmaPrint Inc. of
>Irvine, CA move ahead with their efforts to patent phytomolecules of
>favorite herbal products such as saw palmetto, echinacaea, and many others.
>These would become pharmaceuticals, available only by prescription.  And,
>no surprise, PharmaPrint is backed by the World Health Organization, of
>which the Codex Commission is a part. PharmaPrint is currently licensing
>its technologies to other pharmaceutical companies to sell its products.
>
>Now, here's the scary part.  Large pharmaceuticals have been planning this
>for years, and while we thought we were winning one for the Gipper by
>passing DSHEA, embedded in that act were clauses that could spell doom for
>the industry, primarily labeling and regulatory clauses.  Large
>pharmaceuticals are currently buying up American and Canadian health food
>companies (Nature's Way), positioning themselves to move in as early as
>September next year, when the Codex Commission meets for a final vote on
>the German proposal. Large pharmaceuticals are licking their chops at the
>prospect of taking over the multi-billion dollar supplement industry and
>for the next century.
>
>Don't let them do it.  This is an 11th hour stand, but we can turn them
>back.  Contact your legislators now and tell them they must defeat Codex.
>The FDA's webpage already states its intention to "harmonize" with CODEX,
>but with legislative help and public outcry, we can defeat these
>bureaucrats.  Your elected representatives voted for the GATT treaty but
>they neglected to read the fine print that allows the pharmaceutical
>companies this much power over you.  If you work in the health food
>industry, your job or your business is on the line.  If you work in health
>care, you will have to make some choices about who you stand with - health
>freedom or smothering regulation and submission to the dictates of a
>foreign and domestic consortium of big businesses that seek to control you.
>
>John Hammell, founder of International Advocates for Health Freedom (IAHF)
>can be reached at (800)333-2553, fax (954) 929-0507.  He and others
>prevented the German delegation from vaulting from step 2 to step 6 in the
>8-step approval process in June.  By September next year, though, without
>huge resistance from the world community, this proposal could become
>binding on the US Govt and you personally.  John is organizing this
>resistance as we speak, and others like those on this email queue must help
>too.  John needs financial support very badly, as he is doing this
>virtually alone and unfunded.  Call him and ask how you can help.  We are
>in dire need of your assistance, whatever it is you can do or give at this
>time.
>
>You MUST call your legislators and educate them.  There is no time to lose.
>At the moment, call Dr. Kenneth Fisher, Director of the Commission on
>Dietary Supplement Labeling and tell him you demand that he extend the
>period for public comment on the 77-page draft proposal through October.
>
>Call him at (202) 401-5811, fax (202) 205-0463, email cdsl@birchdavis.com.
>Do it now!  This commission is holding final hearings WITHOUT PUBLIC
>COMMENT on Thursday of this week, August 14.  The implications of this
>draft proposal are mind-boggling, because they recommend ways for all
>supplements to be redefined as OTC products, thus blurring the distinction
>between drugs and foods and subjecting all products so defined to licensing
>fees that will put just about everybody out of business so the
>pharmaceutical companies can move in!  This could destroy a huge industry,
>putting tens of thousands of people out of work and co-opting your
>freedoms.  Contact me and I'll fax you a form letter you can send to Dr.
>Fisher protesting his bureaucratic indiscretions.
>
>Don't be in denial.  This is really happening.  This is the greatest threat
>to health freedom the world has ever known.  Who will you stand with?  What
>will you stand for?  How much do you care about your children's world
>twenty years from now?
>
>If you need literature, call me at (541) 488-2711, email me at
>susumago@mind.net or fax me a note at (541) 488-8685. Then, take that
>literature and make copies.  Hand it out to everyone.   FORWARD THIS
>MESSAGE TO EVERYBODY YOU CAN THINK OF.  CALL JOHN HAMMELL AND CHAT TO GET
>THE CLEAREST PICTURE OF WHAT IS HAPPENING.  SEND JOHN HAMMEL DONATIONS TO
>HIRE ASSISTANTS.
>
>Contact your newspaper, talk shows, television producers, magazines,
>congresspeople, get email mailing lists and send this message on.  Talk to
>health practitioners and get them to speak up.  The worst thing you can do
>is to be silent while this is happening.