From: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Subject: [talk.politics.drugs] The Health Freedom Act of 1992
Reply-To: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 23:53:59 GMT

A repost from talk.politics.drugs:

From: bill@kean.ucs.mun.ca
Subject: The Health Freedom Act of 1992
Organization: Memorial University. St.John's Nfld, Canada
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 22:26:40 GMT

Considering the War on Drugs as an assault on the US Constitution,
as discussed in several threads, and the general theme of how
the Germans got sucked in by Hitler, and the "First they came for the
Jews, but I did not object, .... Then they came for me..." thingy that
is in somebody's signature (and was discussed in a thread in some 
group??? a few months ago - sorry, but I do not know the name of the
person whose quote that is) , I am afraid to say to my American friends :

YOU AIN'T SEEN NOTHIN' YET !!

In my opinion, one of the worst bureaucratic nightmare agencies of the
US government, besides the DEA, CIA, IRS, and others, is the FDA.
I believe you should abolish the FDA, for various reasons, which could
be discussed later in life, but right now what you have to worry about
is the upcoming  tightening of the powers of the FDA. Remember that 
thread a while back about the attack on a health clinic in Tacoma?
I couldn't find any back-news-items on that incident and forget the
essential details, but a doctor's clinic was raided by gun-toting 
g-men who took everything etc etc....   Anyway, this type of thing
will soon become commonplace.

Two bills designed to greatly increase the enforcement powers of the 
FDA have passed committee this summer and are awaiting approval by the 
full Senate and House of Representatives. S.2135 and HR.3642 would
both allow the FDA to make search and seizure raids on health food 
companies, without requiring the agency to first obtain a search 
warrant. In addition, the FDA could levy fines of up to $1 Million
_repeat_ $1 Million - for violations -- according to THEIR definition 
of an offense. [ Whew. Talk about arbitrary control of the population
by civil servants! Just wait until they are allowed to keep in their
own pockets the proceeds of their raids, a la WOD seizures!]

These bills, along with other measures already enacted, are 
threatening to make the health food industry a thing of the past,
not to mention wiping out yet more components of the Constitution.

There is still hope. It is not too late to protect your own right
to chose what you (Americans) want to eat. Utah Senator Orrin Hatch
has introduced the Health Freedom Act, designed to save the health 
food industry from FDA excesses and allow you to make your own 
decisions regarding sound nutrition. This bill would exempt dietary 
supplements, including food concentrates, from being classified as 
(da da, drum roll pls) DRUGS by the FDA. Once classified as (dd) 
DRUGS, the lengthy and costly drug approval process would effectively 
remove most supplements from the market. In addition, the bill would 
allow health food manufacturers to use information linking nutrients 
with disease prevention, if that information is supported by 
scientific evidence. The truth about nutrition could finally be told.
[ I make no comment about just what this TRUTH is, for that is beside 
the point...]

The Health Freedom Act will not pass without your help. Any health-
conscious consumers out there, and those people of t.p.d who object
to the way the govt tells you how to live your lives, need to pack
congressional mailboxes with letters in support of this important
piece of legislation. Write today. Tell them about losing your right
to chose which health products you include in your daily diet. Call
your reps. Make this an election issue. Be persistent. The vote on
the Health Freedom Act  is coming up this fall.

For more information on what you can do to ensure the passage of the
Health Freedom Act, you can order a Health Freedom Kit by calling
1-800-226-4NHA . Each kit contains valuable information explaining
the Health Freedom Act and steps you can take to convince your 
representative it is a bill they can support.

Unfortunately I cannot vote in the USA, although we in Canada
(an no doubt throughout the rest of the entire known Universe,)
often suffer from the shortsightedness of many of the FDA policies,
as well as other US govt policies, as they are parroted (is that 
the right word? (Is that a word at all?) ) by our political lackeys.

Not only do they want to control what recreational drugs you can
or cannot take, NOW they want to control what FOOD you can and cannot
eat!  Wow. Heavy shit, man.... 

Aside :
  Funny how, after all these years of having it on my must-read list, I 
have only last month (August) begun reading Atlas Shrugged. While this
is not the time or place to discuss Objectivism, it sure seems to me,
an innocent bystander looking in from the Far East Coast of North
America, like the Reagan/Bush era in US politics is getting to be more 
and more like that bunch of "looters" who ran the government in that book... 
(or perhaps even worse (considering Noriega, Hussein, Columbia, 
legalized extra-territorial kidnapping, and a very very big ETC.)
--
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