Save Medicinal Herbs in the EU

We homeopaths practice within the alternative-complementary medicine sphere. What affects other legitimate practitioners also affects us. At this moment, medicinal herbs in the EU are at immense risk, with the vast majority of them about to become unavailable starting April Fool's Day*. (You have to wonder if that date was chosen as a nasty joke.)

All herbs from traditions not native to the EU, such as Chinese, Ayurvedic, and Korean, will be banned. Most from the Europe-based traditions will also disappear because the hoops that must be jumped through, the costs that must be borne, and a frankly antagonistic system are making it almost impossible for them to achieve approval. Since the directive was initiatied in 2004, only a handful have been able to gain approval.

On the first of April, 2011, the banning will start. Products already on store shelves may be allowed to stay, but no new ones can be added. Herbalists will not have access to them, either. Neither will Chinese and other non-EU based practitioners.

A huge portion of the alternative healthcare system will be gutted.

I started a letter-writing campaign to Members of the European Parliament, and thousands have been sent. However, the responses have generally been pathetic, with the most common one being the claim that no one is trying to take herbs away, that the directive is intended only to provide safety to the public.

Therefore, I've started a petition with the goal of reaching a million signatures, the minimum required to present it to the EU. It is focused on the specific directive involved and written in a style that's intended to be clear and specific. It is not simply a feel-good petition. It's goal-oriented.

Please, read a bit more about it and then sign this petition! After that, please get the word out to everyone you know. We are on the verge of losing our most basic rights. This isn't hyperbole. It isn't fear mongering. It's what's happening as we speak.

Anyone who thinks it isn't happening should realize that it's already happened in some places. Thailand has nearly banned garlic, turmeric, and ginger as dangerous! Only those with huge sums of money - like multinational corporations, like Big Pharma - can jump the hoops required to distribute them. That's where we're headed. Let's stop it!

Here are two links about the issue:

EU Petition | Demand Access to Herbs: EU Members of Parliament Don't Care About Health Freedom.

Big Pharma Scores Big Win | Medicinal Herbs Will Disappear in EU

The first link contains several links to the petition.

This is a matter of health freedom and also of basic rights. Please sign!

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*Please note that the correct date is 30 April 2011. The Directive was produced in a manner that was unclear about the date that it takes full effect. The 1 April date comes from the date the Directive was passed. However, that is not its effective date. The correct date is 30 April because it's calculated as 7 years from the date it was published, rather than the date of passage.

LATEST NEWS:

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Tags: eu, freedom, health, herbs, medicinal, petition

2 members like this

Comment by Gina Tyler DHOM on October 19, 2010 at 2:40pm: this problem is already happening in australia Heidi. I spoke to one of my close friends (classical homeopath) about this in great lenth,its frustrating for her as she not only uses homeopathy but herbs and vitamins in her treatments. The reduction in mlg for most common herbs are useless,more potent mlg are normally needed. PS (by Viktor Kalocsai on 2011 March 3):

Australian authorities wants to outlaw thousands of plants, including their national flower because those plants can be used as drugs (2011 February 28).

Comment by Heidi Stevenson on October 19, 2010 at 2:52pm: It's also happening in the US, though the focus at this moment is not on herbs, but on raw milk, GMOs, and the right to be informed about what's in food and where it comes from.

Yes, this is part of a much bigger problem. But we can't attack it all in one big swoop. We need to address it as it happens where it happens - to be aware of what's going on and refuse to be either silent or apathetic.

This matters, deeply. The same thing is happening everywhere in the world. They're (yes, the big conspiratorial "they") are coming after herbs, vitamins, supplements - even the right to choose the food we eat.

In the US, there are two bills (not just one, as most people think) that will utterly destroy access to the ability to even know what's in our food. The FDA and USDA are not working for the people. Both agencies are working for Big Corporations.

Norway and Germany already suffer under Codex Alimentarius limitations in their supplements. They cannot purchase any supplements at doses worth taking without a doctor's prescription - and good luck getting one, or then getting organic supplements.

Our most basic rights - ones that we would never have thought need to be delineated, such as the right to choose our own food or how to handle our health - are being stripped away right now.

We can be silent and let it go on, or we can act.

That's why this petition has been started. It's timely, it's specific, and it's focused in a way that's designed to be taken seriously. Let's make it happen - and once we see it happening, we can do more.

Comment by Gina Tyler DHOM on October 19, 2010 at 6:12pm: Heidi,From what I can tell is this: in general many classical homeopaths do not use plant medicine herbs/nor vitamins ,so a lack of interest in this subject.
Yes you are correct in saying the problem has already invaded the USA in one manner or another. I notice this more when I am in bali Indonesia where plant medicine is used by about 80% of the population (its called Jamu) traditional herbal medicine going back hundreds of years.They dont blink an eye when you tell them make an herbal tea out of this and that plant-immed response is "OK....will do". Even homeopathy is easily accepted by not only patients but clinical directors/allopaths- no obsticles-no skeptics,just curious want to know more. In the USA big pharma has so much controll over the media+population it's insaine! This is not the case in Indonesia-

Comment by Heidi Stevenson on October 19, 2010 at 6:24pm: Gina, I don't use herbal medicine - am not a fan of it, for the most part.

However, my own lack of interest isn't the point. Homeopathists need to understand that this is as much their issue as it is the issue of herbalists. How can any homeopathist expect support for this modality, if they can't support other alternatives? This is an issue of freedom.

"United we stand, divided we fall" is a true statement.

Even Indonesians are going to be affected. Thailand has already taken steps to keep anyone but doctors and pharmaceutical corporations from accessing the most basic of herbs - ones routinely used in cooking, ginger, turmeric, and garlic. Where does it end?

Indonesia is heavily impacted by what happens in the US and EU and Australia and so forth. This is a worldwide issue - but they're picking us off one by one.

When they come after homeopathy - and they will - who will stand for us? The herbalists who are going to lose their practices? The people who rely on herbs for their health, whom we haven't stood up for?

Why on earth can't homeopathists take the lead in this?

Comment by Gina Tyler DHOM on October 19, 2010 at 6:32pm: Heidi said:"Why on earth can't homeopathists take the lead in this? ....." My reply; Sorry to say this Heidi,but you already know the answer- Most homeopaths think using herbs/vitamins is=to allopathics and refuse to intergrate the two modalities as part of a full healing treatment.
Placing this on the backburner gives the option of "ignorance is bliss"......attitude. Or am I jumping to conclusions? Yes I should prob keep my mouth shut,but Hey Since when have I ever done that! Leave it to me to open Pandora's Box of trouble-

Comment by Heidi Stevenson on October 19, 2010 at 6:46pm: I'm glad you said it, Gina. Ignorance is not bliss - it wasn't in Germany when Jews and intellectuals and gays and gypsies, and anyone else who was different was incinerated. It won't be for this issue, either.

There are a lot of modalities that I've absolutely no use for - but I would never presume to tell someone else that they've no right to them.

The issue is one of human rights - and this is a challenge to people to get together to fight a battle. If we do, each one of us needs to do only a small bit. If enough people sign this petition, it must be addressed by the EU.

If there aren't enough signatures, then herbal medicine will soon become a thing of the past - and homeopathy will soon follow, along with acupuncture (which, by the way, will be severely affected by this directive, because acupuncture is merely part of Chinese medicine), osteopathy, chiropractic, even nutrition (yes, quite literally, it will go too).

Comment by Christine Eleanor Jahnig on October 19, 2010 at 10:54pm: I have signed the petition and hope that my signature will help and that there will be many others, all that are needed. I don't know anything about herbal medicine and haven't used it but believe strongly that those who do have the right to use it as they wish.

Comment by Christine Eleanor Jahnig on October 19, 2010 at 11:25pm: From all that I have read over the past two years, I have to think that there is only one motive behind this--an attempt to eliminate natural systems of medicine because they're seen as competition for companies selling chemicals. It certainly isn't an attempt to improve medicine and thereby health and quality of life. If that were true, based on the comments of people I've heard of who have used herbal medicine, herbal treatment would be a welcomed addition in the field of medicine. (An artist who worked in our studio applied cadmium paint with her bare fingers. The result was that she became very sick and lost her hair. She went to an herbalist who was able to help her. A friend's brother was treated by an herbalist who was able to lower his creatinine levels.)

Yes, I agree that homeopathy is an obvious target right now today. "Skeptic" comments make that very apparent. Rather than falling separately we can help ourselves by working together.

Comment by Dr Muhammed Rafeeque on October 20, 2010 at 12:20am: Thanks for the information. I have not seen this information in our local news papers, may be due to strong pressure from some vested interests. When Ayurvedic medicines were getting popularity in western countries, some agencies made a propaganda that Ayurvedic medicines contain toxic chemicals like Arsenic and mercury. I really feel sympathy towards the policy makers for making rules ONLY for the sake of money offered by the pharmaceutical lobby!

This is the time to react. I repeat the words of Dr. Robert Bruck posted in his last blog, "If not you- who? If not now- when?"

Comment by Debby Bruck on October 20, 2010 at 8:30pm: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?” ~ Rabbi Hillel quotes

Hillel (הלל) (born Babylon traditionally c.110BCE-10CE [1] in Jerusalem) was a famous Jewish religious leader, one of the most important figures in Jewish history. He is associated with the development of the Mishnah and the Talmud. Renowned within Judaism as a sage and scholar, he was the founder of the House of Hillel school for Tannaïm (Sages of the Mishnah) and the founder of a dynasty of Sages who stood at the head of the Jews living in the land of Israel until roughly the fifth century of the Christian Era.

He is popularly known as the author of two sayings: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And when I am for myself, what am 'I'? And if not now, when?" [2] and the expression of the ethic of reciprocity, or "Golden Rule": "That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is the explanation; go and learn."[3]
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