Canada: Sales Halt Ordered for Thousands of Natural Health Products
February 9th, 2010Via: National Post:
Makers of natural-health products say they are bracing for widespread layoffs and millions of dollars in losses after Canada’s pharmacy regulators issued a surprise directive recently urging druggists to stop selling unlicensed natural remedies.
The order affects thousands of herbal treatments, multi-vitamins and other products, most of them waiting for approval from Health Canada under a backlogged, five-year-old program to regulate natural-health goods.
The National Association of Pharmacy Regulatory Authorities (NAPRA) says pharmacists cannot be assured the products are safe until they are granted a government licence, and should not sell them in those circumstances. “Pharmacists are obliged to hold the health and safety of the public or patient as their first and foremost consideration,” said the association’s recently issued position statement.
Representatives of the natural health industry, however, have reacted angrily to the directive issued last month, predicting it will have little impact on patient safety, while triggering an economic “crisis” for their members.
“We are talking about job loss, we are talking about a lot of income loss, we are talking about product stuck in warehouses that cannot be sold,” Jean-Yves Dionne, a spokesman for the Canadian Health Food Association, said in an interview.
A statement issued by the association calls the directive self-serving and contrary to federal government policy.
“It has taken a sledge hammer to a finishing nail,” the group said. “It will create confusion for consumers. It is the wrong thing to do.”
NAPRA is comprised of representatives of the provincial colleges of pharmacy that regulate the profession. It is now up to the individual provinces to implement the statement. The Ontario and Quebec colleges have already done so, with Ontario pressing pharmacists to not buy or order any more of the affected products, and its neighbour pushing for druggists to also remove unlicensed product already on their shelves, Mr. Dionne said.
Pharmacies, as surprised by the directive as anyone, are caught in the middle, said Jeff Poston of the Canadian Pharmacists Association.
“One of the questions that everybody is asking in the pharmacy world is, ‘Why now?’ As far as people can determine, nothing has significantly changed.”
A spokesman for NAPRA was not available for comment.
What the article fails to mention is the Codex Alimentarius and the role it plays in this sort of restriction on alternative and naturopathic products.
I can tell you from firsthand experince that many products which Americans expect to find cheaply and easily in their own country are either expensive or hard to find, or both, in Europe. Melatonin being the product which brought this situation to my attention.
For further information about what the Codex Alimentarius is and what it many mean for you, here are some links.
Official Codex Alimentarius Site
Wikipedia Entry for the Codex Alimentarius – Controversy Section
Codex Alimentarius Video
@Zenc: yep, that’s it. And the ‘beauty’ of it is that it’s been like a tsunami before it makes landfall, just about completely undetectable. “One of the questions that everybody is asking in the pharmacy world is, ‘Why now?’ As far as people can determine, nothing has significantly changed.”
The sociopaths are laughing all the way to… well, wherever it is they want to go.
Shut up and eat your genetically modified food, this natural stuff just hasn’t been proved safe!