April 2011
Attn: Randy Kamp, Member of Parliament, Mission-Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows
Dear Sir:
As a constituent in your riding, I write to you today to express my concerns upon reading further disturbing news surrounding the ongoing saga of NPN licensing:
http://www.hans.org/magazine/835/Natural-Health-Prod...
Is there not something seriously amiss with the National Health Products Directorate when products such as Red Bull (contains aspartame), Rolaids (full of dyes), and Crest toothpaste (with fluoride) are granted NPNs, while thousands of legitimate natural health products are denied NPNs for lack of "proof of efficacy?"
The original mandate of the Natural Health Products Directorate was, ostensibly, to "protect the public." Yet, the majority of multiherbal/natural products being denied NPNs is not because of their lack of safety, but for an apparent lack of efficacy. Their value (efficacy) has been proven by consumers choosing to use them--why? because they work--yet they may be unable to fulfill the onerous obstacle of drug-model testing that is applied to them. Thus, their availability to the market is removed, and ultimately consumer access.
Ensuring standards of safety for all products that Canadians consume is commendable, and would be believable if it were applied evenly to the many downright dangerous, "approved" prescription and over-the-counter (OTC) drugs readily available, not to mention so-called "foods."
When safety concerns have been assuaged with respect to a natural health product, then consumers should be granted unrestricted access to that product, for is not choice a cornerstone of our democratic rights?
Products such as Red Bull and Rolaids offer nothing redeeming in the way of promoting health or correcting a health condition, and likely even contribute to its decline. Yet they are granted NPNs. What am I missing in this picture?
Given the upcoming election, your government is responsible for unjust rules and regulation which are against the constitution, the bill of rights and the charter of rights and in the process you are destroying our natural health products industry in the wake of our health care system, the former Minister of Health Kevin Falcon of the B.C. government called it a "disease care" system, that is broke and on the brink of collapse! When will you correct this travesty?
Sincerely,
Klaus Ferlow, Constituent, Mission-Maple Ridge