This letter to the Canadian Government protesting the regulation of natural health products (NHP's) may be printed and sent to your member of parliament and to the minister of health.  Simply sign your name and include contact information where indicated.  A stamp is not necessary when sending to MP's in Ottawa

PETITIONS:  You may also print the letter and use it as a petition.  Be sure to get signatures and contact information for each person signing.  An email petition is NOT recognized by law or any governement agency

FAX to : Health Canada 613-941-5366

or MAIL to:  (name of MP)  House of Commons, Ottawa ON  K1A 0A6

To the honourable Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq
 

I am writing to voice my objection to the regulation of natural health products in Canada.  I strongly object to the classification and regulation of natural products as 'drugs' simply because they provide health benefit.  It is an unnecessary cost to taxpayers.  It is also a very short and frightening step to classifying all foods as drugs in the near future.

Since all foods and herbs contain nutrients and inherent health benefits, it seems a rather skewed perspective that specific natural foods and herb should be regulated and controlled, while processed or genetically modified foods that reduce or eliminate nutrient value and are damaging to health continue to be sold widely and enjoy limited or no regulation.  One would think that penalizing products that burden our health care system would be a more sensible approach than penalizing products that provide measurable benefit.  

As a Canadian citizen I have an unalienable right to freedom of choice in lifestyle and in the food and health products I choose.  No one should have the right to deny me access to safe natural health foods or products, or simple inexpensive remedies, just as no one should have the right to force me to have no alternative to ingesting chemicals and pharmaceuticals that jeopardize my health.  Yet, I have seen my rights, and the rights of every other Canadian citizen, increasingly eroded and suspended over the past decade, despite massive public protests. 

Less than half of the natural products that were available six years ago are still available today.  However, the number of chemical and pharmaceutical products approved has grown overwhelmingly. 

None of the banned natural products were rejected because they caused injury to anyone.  They were rejected simply because they did not provide clinical trials on humans to prove efficacy.  Why would each company selling a product such as parsley, have to provide their own clinical studies proving that chlorophyll is safe to use and provides benefit to humans, when that fact has been documented and has been accepted for hundreds of years?  To do this kind of unnecessary research would significantly raise the price of each product and delay availability.  To what end?  Who would benefit?          

We are a country of educated consumers who spend considerable time researching the products and services we choose.  Thanks to globalization, television and the internet, we can learn more than ever before and make educated choices on our own.  We can dictate the marketplace and the success of products by rejecting them or demanding them based on their quality and efficacy by our own standards. 

We do not need the government to suddenly regulate the quality or efficacy of natural herbs and foods that have been freely available to us on this planet since the beginning of time.  We do not need studies to prove health benefits of natural remedies that have been passed down through generations of mothers for thousands of years.  And, since these herbs and foods have passed generations upon generations of safe use without death or health risk, I am entirely skeptical as to why they suddenly need to be regulated. 

To regulate these products by the same standards and measures as dangerous pharmaceuticals and chemicals is ludicrous.  There is an obvious governmental prejudice when patented pharmaceutical products posing significant risk, cause thousands of deaths each year.  Yet, they receive a stamp of approval by Health Canada, and natural products that have never harmed or killed anyone and are not patentable, are suddenly restricted.

While I can understand that you have the responsibility of ensuring public safety, as the elected governing body of our nation, you also have the challenging obligation of ensuring that the wishes and rights of your constituents and citizens are heard and respected and honored.  At present that's not the case. 

By introducing regulation, you have tampered with a system that wasn't broken and did not need fixing.  Moreover, you have clearly demonstrated a disturbing and questionable support for the interests of pharmaceutical companies over the rights and interests of Canadian citizens. 

Several years ago natural health publisher Lori D'Ascenzo interviewed a former minister of health.  She asked why the Canadian government was not acting on numerous government studies that indicated billions of dollars in savings to our health system could be made simply by instituting simple measures such as providing free natural nutritional supplements for seniors.  She was told "The Canadian government is not in the business of saving money.  We are in the business of spending money to keep the economy healthy." 

Clearly our government's priorities are the health of our economy, rather than the health of its citizens.  This recent regulation, which generates billions of dollars in revenues for the government and strengthens the power of pharmaceutical companies, is a prime example of economic health over public health.

The regulation of natural health products needs to be immediately rescinded, or, at the very least amended.  If regulation is inevitable, natural health products should at least have their own separate and distinct classification, without any reference or comparison to drugs.  The very natural of organic and natural products dictates that quality will vary according to climate, soil and location of crops.  Ironically, efforts to standardize this will result in an overall decline in quality of many products and eliminate healthy competition in the marketplace.  

It is pharmaceuticals that need to be more tightly regulated.  The number of people who have died as a direct result of orthodox medical protocols and treatment, more than doubled in Canada in less than a decade.  According to the latest statistics, each person who now seeks medical treatment has a 52% chance of getting worse, instead of better.  Little wonder why Canadians are taking responsibility for their own health and are switching in mass numbers to safer, more natural health practices.  To now limit or restrict that right constitutes endangering our wellbeing, and could well subject the government to a class-action suit in future.   

Clearly Health Canada has placed its focus in the wrong place.  The ministry is not acting in the best interests of Canadians and we have a right to demand and expect change.

I look forward to your reply. 

Sincerely
(sign your name and include address and phone #)

Lori D'Ascenzo