by Connut » Thu Jun 30, 2005 4:21 pm
The plan is to use CAFTA (an acronym for FAtCATs) to take away the availability of herbal supplements and vitamins, unless you have a prescription. Bad enough for us, but for many in South and Central America, that IS their health care. Don't that just beat all? <br><br> Yes, we know, and a few could recite, the opening paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, written 229 years ago by the founding fathers of our nation. <br> The Declaration of Independence <br><br> When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another...<br><br> We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness - That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.<br><br> Our great Nation was built on a foundation of personal freedom. And I'm proud and appreciative of all the opportunities we have been given by our forefathers. But something's been lost in translation.<br><br> A List of Grievances <br> Only a few know that the bulk of the document was a list of complaints against King George's "repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny...." Among them are:<br><br> He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance. <br><br> He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:<br><br> For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:<br><br> Modern-Day "Injuries and Usurpations"<br> I challenge you to sit down and read the entire Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. You will be amazed at how far we have strayed from the principles upon which this country was built. (To read these documents, visit the National Archives website.)<br><br> Were we to make a current list of "repeated injuries and usurpations" of our current government, we could include some of the same complaints listed in the Declaration of Independence. Let's look how this relates to just one area: health freedom. <br><br> The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has 10,000 employees and an annual budget of $1.7 billion. This agency has some legitimate and important duties. Its purpose is to ensure the safety and efficacy of food, drugs, "biologic products," cosmetics, and medical devices. <br><br> "Swarms" of Unelected Bureaucrats That "Harass Our People"<br> However, the sole mission of many FDA bureaucrats appears to be to harass unconventional medicine practitioners and nutritional supplement manufacturers. In recent years, FDA agents have confiscated raw materials from manufacturers' warehouses and pulled supplements off of health food store shelves. They've banned some supplements outright and actually threatened to burn books containing nutritional information. <br><br> These unelected bureaucrats have raided alternative doctors' offices, sometimes at gunpoint. They've instigated court cases with trumped-up charges against physicians for no reason other than they were offering alternative therapies. They also harass patients by denying them safe, effective, sometimes lifesaving therapies. <br><br> Mountains of Regulations ("Pretended Legislation") <br> Americans of all walks of life are choked by rules and regulations that do nothing but create layer upon layer of government agencies and bureaucrats, which cost taxpayers billions of dollars.<br><br> The weight of the regulations imposed by the FDA on nutritional supplement manufacturers is enough to crush many a small business - and perhaps that's the whole idea. These include ridiculous regulations (such as exactly where things must be located on a floor plan) that do nothing to ensure product safety. <br><br> Doctors and patients also feel the heat. The mountain of government-mandated paperwork is the bane of many a physician, conventional and alternative alike. And guess who ultimately pays for the time and manpower required to keep up with all these rules and regulations? Patients, of course. <br><br> Abolition of "Our Most Valuable Laws" <br> Even more abhorrent is the degree to which we've been stripped of our basic liberties. Manufacturers of nutritional supplements are deprived of freedom of speech by the FDA because they are forbidden from printing truthful, nonmisleading health claims on nutritional supplement labels. The true losers here are American citizens, who are denied access to valuable health information.<br><br> We've also lost our freedom to choose the medical therapies that we want for ourselves and our families. At the state level, medical boards trampled upon Constitutional rights by arbitrarily declaring what medical therapies a doctor can or cannot offer. Again, it is patients who suffer the most when safe, alternative therapies are deemed off-limits while drugs and surgical procedures (which kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year) are given carte blanche.<br><br> Where Do We Go From Here?<br> Don't get me wrong. I love America, and one of the things I am most thankful for is that we are able to criticize our government and work to effect change.<br><br> I am doing this through the Whitaker Health Freedom Foundation. To learn more about this nonprofit organization to and to see how you can get involved, visit whitakerhealthfreedom.com.<br><br> Happy Independence Day,<br><br> Julian Whitaker, MD <br> <p></p><i></i>
