Washington, January 9, 2008 - In this Presidential election year many candidates are clamoring to offer health policies that simply maintain the status quo and enable the pharmaceutical industry to maintain its stranglehold on consumers. These candidates would also allow the FDA to continue to shirk its duty to protect consumers from the often dangerous or lethal drugs big pharma is all too eager to push on the public. It is especially important at this time for our elected representatives to support policy and legislation that puts consumers in control of their own health decisions.
Ron Paul's Health Freedom Protection Act, a bill first introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2005, would give consumers access to truthful, non-misleading health information and end FDA and FTC censorship by making it easier for manufacturers of vitamins, supplements, and other foods to display health claims on product labels.
Take Action - Urge Congress to support the Health Freedom Protection Act
H.R. 2117 was re-introduced in the House for the 110th Congressional session on Wednesday, May 2, 2007, but has not yet attained the level of support it enjoyed in the last Congressional session.
That is why it is critical that you urge your Representative to support the Health Freedom Protection Act, H.R. 2117, by signing on as a cosponsor. With your help we can surpass the level of support the bill enjoyed in the 109th session, and bring it to the floor for a vote.
Background
The Food and Drug Administration prohibits with an absolute prior restraint every claim in the market that a nutrient treats a disease. It is, for example, illegal for you to be told in the market that prune juice treats constipation; that glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate treat osteoarthritis; that omega-3 fatty acids reduce the risk of sudden death heart attack; or that folic acid reduces the risk of alzheimer's disease. Each of those claims is demonstrably true, yet prohibited by the FDA.
Take Action - Urge Congress to support the Health Freedom Protection Act
Why does the FDA ban speech that can heal and save lives?
It reserves to the pharmaceutical industry the right to make claims about therapeutic effects, ensuring that drug companies have a monopoly on the making of such claims and the economic rewards that come from them. The rights violation carries with it loss of health and sometimes life. It also causes consumers who might well find an ailment treatable with inexpensive and non-toxic dietary elements to perceive costly and side effect laden drugs as their only alternative. For example:
- FDA's ban on the claim that folic acid reduces the risk of neural tube defects contributed to 2,500 preventable neural tube defect births in America each year the ban remained in place;
- FDA's ban on the glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate claim contributes to twenty million Americans pain and suffering associated with osteoarthritis;
- FDA's ban on the omega-3/sudden death heart attack claim contributes to approximately 100,000 preventable sudden death heart attacks each year.
It is untruthful to claim that foods and elements in foods lack therapeutic effects. Many dietary ingredients have such effects. Telling the truth about those effects in the market can land you in jail. The Federal Trade Commission prosecutes parties who make advertising claims about the effects of foods and nutrients on the body. It does not limit those prosecutions to parties that actually deceive consumers. It also does not limit those prosecutions to products that fail to perform as advertised. The FTC has refused to define an objective standard of review that would constrain its power to those cases in which ads actually deceive. Instead, it exercises broad, unbridled discretion in charging and condemning parties as deceptive advertisers. Moreover, no one in this country should be held by the government to be a deceptive advertiser unless the government proves that consumers have in fact been deceived. H.R. 2117, the Health Freedom Protection Act, will end FDA and FTC censorship. Public support for the bill is critical. This is your chance to let Congress know you will not sit back while agencies of your federal government take your freedoms away!
Take Action - Urge Congress to support the Health Freedom Protection Act
(Some content taken from Jonathan Emord and the Coalition to End FDA and FTC Censorship, www.emord.com, with permission).
