John Hammell- In the IAHF Office

IAHF List:

Please read Byron Richard's update on S.1082, the Prescription Drug User Fee Act of 2007 http://www.newswithviews.com/Richards/byron24.htm (scroll to bottom of article for Monday's update). We're monitoring the Senate floor right now on CSpan2 http://www.c-span.org/watch/index.asp?Cat=TV&Code=CS2 waiting to hear Senator Durbin's statement about an anticipated amendment regarding Food Safety that we're very concerned about given Durbin's long standing opposition to dietary supplements (he is a senator from Illinois where AMA HQ is and pharmaceutical interests exert enormous pressure on him.)

With the recent contaminated pet food issue thats all over the news right now, and the latest news that melamine contaminated pet food has found its way into human food via chicken feed on 38 poultry farms in Indiana and into hog feed http://www.forbes.com/forbeslife/health/feeds/hscout/2007/05/01/hscout604205.html we've got a challenging political situation but we CAN'T give up because language currently in S.1082 guts DSHEA according to respected attorney Jonathan Emord who has suggested an amendment to protect us!

Senator Mike Enzi from Wyoming is up for reelection next year. That makes him politically vulnerable and we MUST CAPITALIZE on this! Fortunately, he is from Wyoming, a small state population wise- which for our purposes right now is PERFECT because its EASIEST to get the JUNGLE TELEGRAPH cranked in a small state and we can RAPIDLY sound the alarm to health food stores, alternative practitioners, MLMers, and consumers. Clint Miller is going to sound the alarm to Nature's Sunshine distributors there, and Byron Richards and I are working to urge as many vitamin companies as possible to alert their customers in Wyoming. We need all of your help RIGHT NOW to get word out to ANYONE who can help in the state of Wyoming and we ALL need to call and fax Enzi's DC Office at the very least!

ENZI's CONTACT INFO

DC: 202-224-3424
Fax 202-228-0359

Gillette: 307-682-6268
Cody: 307-527-9444
Jackson:307-739-9507
Cheyenne:307-772-2477
Casper:307-261-6572

PHONE SCRIPT:

I am calling to request Senator Enzi amend S.1082, the Prescription Drug User Fee Act of 2007 to delete all reference to the terms "Foods" and "Food Ingredients".

As one of 150 million Americans that rely on dietary supplements to keep myself and my family well, I am especially concerned that this legislation broadens FDA regulatory power to harass functional foods and dietary supplements- which has nothing whatsoever to do with drug safety- (the alleged PURPOSE for this bill.) 

The so called HELP Committee has failed to prepare a Committee Report for Staff and Senators to study, so they don't know what lurks within this 262 page bill.

I am OUTRAGED that the bill creates the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA, a pharmaceutical drug development company located literally INSIDE the FDA. This is a total conflict of interest and will WORSEN, not IMPROVE the safety of pharmaceutical drugs- totally contradicting the alleged "PURPOSE" of this legislation.

Although I would like this bill to be KILLED, at a BARE MINIMUM, I INSIST that the following amendment, which was strongly recommended by respected attorney Jonathan Emord of Emord and Associates be included in the bill: This change is necessary so that no confusion is created between drug regulation and food regulation.

Amendment to Bill S1082

Purpose of the amendment: (See pp. 106-107)
The bill, S1082: The Prescription Drug User Fee Act, is hereby amended to eliminate any reference to the terms food or food ingredients, such that food and food ingredients will not be subject to any jurisdiction or control by the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the Food and Drug Administration.

Intent of amendment:
To eliminate from the bill any possibility that food or food ingredients would be treated like drugs either for safety review purposes or for assessment of their efficacy. It is a fundamental tenet of food and drug law that foods and food ingredients are presumed to be safe and have to be established to be adulterated only if they present a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury.

I have read Byron Richard's article on this issue on NewsWithViews.com and am calling it to the attention of every health food store, every alternative medical practitioner, chiropractor, naturopath, massage therapist and vitamin consumer I know both in and outside the state of Wyoming.

Following is a form letter to fax in:


Please Amend S.1082 to Protect Dietary Supplements

May 1, 2007
 
The Honorable Mike Enzi
400 S. Kendrick Avenue, Suite 303
Gillette, WY 82716

Phone DC (202) 224-3424
Fax DC (202) 228-0359
Phone Wyoming (307) 682-6268
Fax Wyoming (307) 682-6501


Dear Senator Enzi;
 
The issue of drug safety is of the utmost importance to myself and all Americans.  I am concerned, however, that bill S.1082, as currently written, opens the door for considerable regulatory confusion. 

There must be no confusing the safety of drugs and the safety of food and food ingredients ? which are governed by different laws.   This bill authorizes, on pages 106-107, the creation of a new regulatory category that enables the FDA and the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA to attack dietary supplements and functional foods.

I am sure you were not intending to create such confusion, and this matter is easily corrected with a simple amendment.  Please support the following amendment to S1082:

 The Amendment:

The bill, S1082, is hereby amended to eliminate any reference to the terms food or food ingredients, such that food and food ingredients will not be subject to any jurisdiction or control by the Regan-Udall Foundation for the Food and Drug Administration.  

Intent of amendment: 

To eliminate from the bill any possibility that food or food ingredients would be treated like drugs either for safety review purposes or for assessment of their efficacy.  It is a fundamental tenet of food and drug law that foods and food ingredients are presumed to be safe and have to be established to be adulterated only if they present a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury

Sincerely,


------------------------Additional Note:

We'll have an additional chance to kill and amend this legislation in the House and I will need to make an emergency trip to DC. This situation is very much like what we faced back in 1989 when the Nutrition Labelling and Education Act was a stealth bill that was fast tracked through the House and was on its way to the Senate like a guided missile aimed straight for the heart of the supplement industry. When I first noticed it, it was July, and I was hard at work on a book I was writing which I was forced to stop work on as I jumped in with both feet to try to kill the NLEA. July and August are the hardest months to try to move the grass roots to action because so many people are on vacation. I have never lobbied for health freedom before and did not know what to do, so I sought guidance from Clinton Ray Miller.

He advised me to make a list of every health food store within a 50 mile radius of my house and to take a form letter to them all to urge them to bagstuff them and to get their customers into motion contacting congress. I said to Clint, "But that takes in Manhatten island Clint, we're talking about THOUSANDS of stores in NYC and North Jersey!" His response still echoes down through the years in my memory banks "How badly do you REALLY WANT your HEALTH FREEDOM?"

My back is to the WALL. I have a GENETIC NEED for the supplements I use. With no one helping me, I made a list on a legal yellow pad of every health food store in my area, got directions to them, kept a log of the names of owners, managers and went to as many as I could with form letters. The vast majority told me to GET LOST, CAN'T YOU SEE WE'RE BUSY?
For a long time I was baffled, but eventually learned that NNFA (Now NPA) was FOR the bad bill. Over MONTHS of outraged grass roots pressure they eventually did a 180 and turned AGAINST the bad bill.

We didn't kill it, but we DID CURB some of its worst excesses- but most IMPORTANTLY, we ALERTED THE PUBLIC and started the movement of the huge AVALANCHE of letters that helped us pass DSHEA in '94 to protect ourselves. Today, ALL of that HARD WORK is being threatened by what is unfolding between S.1082 and the FDA's Trilateral Cooperation Charter and we ALL must WORK TOGETHER to ONCE AGAIN Awaken the Sleeping Giant: The American People. This is HARD work, but its work we MUST DO because OUR LIVES and the lives of future generations depend on us right now.

IAHF 556 Boundary Bay Rd.
Point Roberts WA 98281 USA
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