3 thoughts on “Holy cow”

  1. I’m not clear whether you’re horrified by Bill C-51 or by that website. Just in case it’s the former, I want to say that I am very firmly in favour of this Bill. The groups that get hurt by it are the natural products manufacturers who either have misleading or false claims on their product, or who do not follow GMP – Good Manufacturing Practices – and so would be shut down by any kind of inspection. I would LOVE to be able to trust that what Canadian natural health product labels say is true. Right now I tell people that if they want to be sure they are getting what the label says is inside, to buy German products – because Germany has had this kind of legislation in place for many years, and you can trust their products because of this oversight. Germany’s rich tradition of herbalism and natural health products has thrived under their laws and I’m confident that Canada’s legitimate NHP dealers will find the same. I’d be curious to follow the money on that website – I’m guessing it’s cheaper for fly-by-nights who sell HERBAL VIGORA and WEIGHT LOSS MAGICKKKK SUPER EPHEDRA to fund this kind of shit than to actually do purity testing or take steps to remove heavy metals from their products or suffer the loss of business that being forced to remove illicit ingredients or remove misleading health claims would deal them. As it is I can barely stand to look at that site – so full of bad math and scaremongering. Sigh. My favourite part is where they say “Not “one” person has ever died in Canada because of a Natural Health Product.” – Bullshit, as anyone who reads the Health Canada Adverse Reactions newsletter knows. I have my fingers crossed that C-51 will go through.

  2. As always, she gives with the facts, thank you LMB. Nobody named Allegra is disputing that Canadians should have access to unadulterated drugs and if they want to fly off into wingnuttery, that they have pure baby wingnuts to grind up. But the search and seizure regulations that are part of the legislation are too high a price to pay… half million dollar fines? Being able to kick your door in and seize everything because they THINK you are being a bad phony nostrum dude? Pure drugs yes- war on terror style bullshit, uh, no.

    The Health Canerse Reactions newsletter???? Is it possible to get excerpts? I know that a woman in Toronto came perilously close to dying when the ‘herbal’ tea she drank had …oopsie… belladonna in it. And that was years ago. If it wasn’t for the notion that innocent people always suffer when herbal nostrums go wrong, I’d say it was all part of Darwin’s Winnowing Fan Action. I know for sure people have died from ‘drugs’ ordered on line that were poisonous too.

    Anyway to recap, the intent of the legislation is good, but the reduction in liberty is scary. If the effect is to keep only the legit, properly funded herbal dudes and dudettes in business and drive out the quacks, great, but too much can go wrong in the implementation… the revenge of unintended consequences.

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