[SFX]

and one pill makes you small
and the ones that mother gives you
don't do anything at all

I suspect that may of you are unaware about the imminent wide scale ban on herbal remedies in the EU which is basically a move sponsored by the big pharmaceutical companies to destroy the alternative herbal remedies market and drive people towards their profit rich and highly toxic "safe cures". We are being blinded with fears of eastern terrorism and the like while bit by bit the "powers that be" are destroying our civil liberties and removing our will to question their motives lest we in turn are labelled terrorists.

Within the next 50 years we will either all become docile sheep or civil unrest will ignite across the west, in the case of the latter i think the "powers that be" have planned for this and are putting laws in place to strangle any opposition at birth.


"First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me."




Consumers across Europe will be denied the right to use the majority of herbal remedies currently available in health food stores and on the Internet when a new European law is fully implemented on 1st May 2011, according to data published today by the Alliance for Natural Health International (ANH-Intl).

ANH-Intl has collated and released a list of the 79 herbal products registered for use in the UK by its medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). The list, which is based on data taken from the MHRA's website, shows that only 34 plant species are included out of a total of more than 1000 that are commonly used as medicinal herbs. The ban applies to any herbal product that is not registered by 1st May, and is a result of the full implementation of the EU Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD).

Non-European herbal products will be hardest hit: so far, not a single herbal remedy used in the two biggest traditions, Ayurveda (from India) and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), has been approved.

Nutritional supplements that include any non-approved medicinal herbs will also be banned.

Robert Verkerk PhD, Executive and Scientific Director of ANH-Intl, said, "We believe consumers have the right to see which products have so far been registered, what they have in them, what their intended uses are and who has registered them. We have therefore collated the data into a single list while also releasing other lists that show the extensive range of Indian, Chinese, Tibetan and even western herbs that will be subject to the ban."

The new legislation claims to put consumer safety first making it mandatory to indicate possible side effects and interactions with other drugs on the labelling of approved herbal products. But health-conscious consumers are likely to be surprised to find a wide complement (over 100) of additive 'nasties' in most (but not all) of the registered products. These include the detergent sodium lauryl sulphate, the controversial sweeteners aspartame and sodium cyclamate, artificial preservatives, such as E215, E217 and E219, and various polymers, such as butylated methacrylate copolymer, polyvinylpyrrolidone and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The latter is recognised by government authorities to cause cancer in laboratory animals.

Other key findings are:

•Twenty-seven of the 79 registrations are for just two herbs, Valerian (15) and Echinacea (12).
•Around one-third of UK registrations are from pharmaceutical companies whose core interests lie with conventional drugs rather than herbal products.
•The 79 registered herbal products are licensed to just 26 companies, mainly of UK, German or Swiss origin.
•Not one of the licensees is a supplier of Chinese or Indian (Ayurvedic) herbal products, these being the two most well-established herbal traditions in the world.
•Eighty percent of registrations are for products containing single herbs, rather than herbal combinations, which are common to the non-European herbal traditions.
•Only eight of the registrations (10%) are for products containing whole plant material; the majority of the remainder are alcoholic extracts stabilised in a chemical base, including various combinations of over 100 excipients.
•Smaller traditional herbal providers are notable by their absence.
Herbs that are popular with consumers that are among the thousands to be banned in May, unless registrations are granted within the coming 75 days, include:

Western herb examples

•Herbal combinations for premenstrual tension using Red Clover and Chasteberry.
•Hawthorn for cardiovascular health.
•Meadowsweet for arthritic inflammation.
Ayurvedic herb examples

•Bibitaki one of the three key ingredients in Triphala, among Ayurveda's most widely used herbal products (for digestive health).
•Ashwagandha (sometimes referred to as Indian Ginseng) that is an 'adaptogen' used to balance the body.
•Arjuna for heart and circulatory health.
Chinese herb examples

•Baikal skullcap used as an anti-inflammatory.
•Chinese foxglove (Rehmannia) as an immunosuppressant for those with autoimmune diseases.
•Chinese goldthread (Coptis) used for detoxification.
Amazonian herb examples

•Cat's claw as an anti-inflammatory.
•Pau d'Arco to help strengthen the immune system.
•Graviola used as an anti-inflammatory, especially with cancer patients.
One possible explanation given by ANH-Intl for the lack of licences granted to smaller traditional herbal companies on the THMP list is the "obstacle course" that they face in what is a very expensive, complicated and time-consuming registration process not suited to complex herbal combinations. Estimates for the registration range from £80,000 to well over £150,000 per product. Many in the natural products industry believe the costs are prohibitive and effectively result in selective discrimination.

Verkerk says: "We are planning to initiate judicial review proceedings of the EU Directive, starting in the High Court in London. We hope then to get a reference to the European Court of Justice. We are challenging on the grounds that the law is disproportionate, non-transparent and discriminatory, especially to the non-European traditions. We have already raised about £60,000 of our £90,000 target to fund legal fees for this initial phase.


"A major flaw in the legalisation is that, unlike pharmaceuticals, herbal products are made from biological sources, and as such do not react in the same way that conventional pharmaceuticals do in a laboratory environment. Trying to push these ancient traditions into a European straitjacket based around synthetic drug manufacture is like to trying to push a square peg into a round hole."