How can a country seek to ban herbal medicine, which is civilization’s legacy in all cultures…and promote only man made drug treatment? Is this madness?!
Homeopaths fury over EU ban on generic “herbal medicines”
Saturday, 30 October 2010 09:36 News – Spain
Homeopaths across the EU are banding together in a last ditch effort to prevent the EU from enforcing strict regulatory laws governing the sale of herbal medicines across the EU.
The Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive, 2004/24/EC, was established to provide a regulatory approval process for herbal medicines in the European Union (EU), and came into force on 30 April 2004. Previously, there was no formal EU wide authorisation procedure, so each EU member regulated these products as they wished.
Under the new regulations, herbal medicinal products must now obtain prior authorisation before being sold within the EU. Products on the market before this legislation came into force can continue to sell their products until 30 April 2011. As from the 1st of May, all herbal medicinal products must have regulatory authorisation before being sold in any EU state.
Dounne Alexander MBE, founder of a campaign to overturn this ban, said that this ruling: “if left unchallenged, poses the greatest threat imaginable to our health, (including our children & future generations), animal welfare and the environment – but also the survival of many cultural foods, holistic practices, therapists and ‘small’ health businesses. In addition, centuries of ancient wisdom and spiritual beliefs will be written out of the history books and lost forever. With the European Union and UK Government claiming that these Legislations were created to provide greater consumer protection, however, overwhelming evidence shows their true purpose is to assist global population control, power & wealth.”
Ms Alexander is currently promoting an EU wide campaign to obtain 35 million signatures to hand in a petition to the EU parliament to overturn the ban (http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/joininghandsinhealth/).
However, the EU regulatory commission denies that the new legislation is aiming at a blanket ban on herbal products.
The Committee on Herbal Medicinal Products (HMPC), responsible for the authorisation of these types of medicines, said that “The HMPC’s activities aim at assisting the harmonisation of procedures and provisions concerning herbal medicinal products laid down in EU Member States, and further integrating herbal medicinal products in the European regulatory framework.”
“As part of these objectives, the HMPC provides EU Member States and European institutions its scientific opinion on questions relating to herbal medicinal products. The HMPC is composed of scientific experts in the field of herbal medicinal products. It has one member and one alternate member nominated by each of the 27 EU Member States and by each of the EEA-EFTA states Iceland and Norway. The Chair is elected by serving HMPC members.”
“Herbal medicines must be now manufactured under Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) to ensure the quality of the finished product and also demonstrate safety.” added the HMPC.
Currently, the only herbal medicines that are exempted from the provisions of the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive are those unlicensed remedies that are created for a patient following a consultation with a herbalist.
Under the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive, a company needs to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of the herbal medicine through traditional use within the EU for at least 30 years or 15 years within the EU and 30 years outside the EU. There is concern that some herbal remedies of 30 years ago, which are no longer in widespread use, could still be sold but that valid new herbs which cannot meet the 30 year rule may require to be withdrawn from sale. The rule could also mean that it may not be possible to license some traditional herbal medicines which were in common use more than 30 years ago, but have since fallen into disuse.
