Editor's Comment: Dr James Lunney, MP from Nanaimo, was first to introduce Bill C-420 in an attempt to reclassify vitamins and supplements as foods. Bill C-420 was not passed.

Exerpts from Dr James Lunney, MP letter:
After passing Second Reading in the House of Commons on March 9 with little opposition, the  Health Committee began studying C-420 in May. Industry, health practitioners, academics and consumer advocates provided testimony on C-420 and their opinions on how the new NHP regulations were playing out since coming into force in January 2004. We were particularly delighted to have notables such as Dr. Abram Hoffer and Dr. Carolyn Dean support our initiative.

As the study of C-420 continued, we were surprised to see NDP and Bloc Quebecois support for C-420 waiver. Both parties supported the initiative in the last session of Parliament and this one, but were not prepared to pass C-420 without substantial changes. Apparently, both felt it was acceptable to treat extremely low-risk, non-patentable NHPs as drugs. On May 17, 2005, after the Liberal Party attempted to kill C-420 with procedural rules, a compromise was reached and it was decided that final recommendations would be delayed until fall.

Members of HANS were well-represented at Health Committee by Lorna Hancock and Bayne Boyes on May 12. Both spoke eloquently, detailing consumer concerns regarding the government's decision to treat NHPs as drugs. They rightly pointed out that Canadian products have a long history of safety, and that the number one concern with consumers has always been protecting and expanding access. Canadians were outraged in 1997 when the Minister of Health moved to force all NHPs to go through drug approval; eight years later, it should not surprise the government that consumers are still not buying the line that our vitamins, minerals, herbs and other dietary supplements are drugs.

Unfortunately, the negative emphasis of the NDP and the support for a drug style regulation by those large company representatives in the CHFA, as well as the naturopaths who emphasized dangers of NHPs, has had a negative effect on Committee members. My take is that the 1,100 naturopaths hope to become prescribers of a lesser class of drugs.

I encourage people to continue the effort [] to help MPs understand the importance of removing NHPs from a drug-style directorate.

Further information is at our website at www.jameslunneymp or by contacting our Nanaimo office at 1-866-390-7550.

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