CHF Legislative Update
This is an update on the status of our legislation in the General Assembly: House Bill 1358 - The Consumer Health Freedom Act - was introduced earlier this year in the 2007-2008 session. The bill has not come to the floor for a vote yet and the legislature has adjourned for this year, but the legislation may be considered in the short session, which begins May 2008. This is an important piece of legislation for consumers interested in unrestricted access to alternative healthcare and natural healing therapies.
The primary reason we have not been able to move this bill forward is because we haven’t had the financial resources or the “large numbers” of people involved at the grassroots level to make this issue a “priority issue” with our NC legislators. In order to achieve our goal of passing a North Carolina Health Freedom Act - or simply put, to ensure access to alternative healthcare practitioners, we need to get more people involved in CHF and raise the funds to carry out our legislative and association efforts over the coming months and years.
Without CHF working in support of alternative healthcare in NC, the opponents of alternative would no doubt put the entire scope of anything related to “natural health,” “alternative healthcare” or “complementary healthcare” totally under the jurisdiction of the NC Medical Society. Stated in dollar terms, it takes $25,000 to $30,000 per year to fund a minimal lobbying effort. A major lobbying effort can cost well in excess of $100,000 per year. Some groups, such as the Medical Society (MD’s) spend millions on lobbying efforts. We can’t even think about what is spent by some groups opposed to natural health access, but we can achieve great success if we can raise enough money to cover our legislative lobbying expenses. This has to be a priority for us!
Also, we need to get as many signatures on our petition for HB 1358 as we can as soon as we can to demonstrate a grassroots interest in allowing for healthcare freedoms for all our citizens.
The FDA (no friend of the natural health community) has long fought the use of the natural herb stevia rebaudiana in foods and beverages. Most industry watchers believe that this is due to the fact that the sugar and artificial sweetener lobbyists hold sway in the halls of the government. After all, stevia is a natural herb that has been used for thousands of years with no ill effects by hundreds of thousands, in fact, probably millions of people, with no ill effects. In fact, stevia can strengthen teeth, supports the heart muscle, and has no glycemic, or caloric value… yet it is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar… it would seem to be an answer to prayer for many facing obesity! Yet, the FDA will not allow it to be used as a sweetener. It can only be used as a “supplement.” And, many companies have, in fact, re-labeled their products as “supplements” to get around this conspiracy to keep a safe herbal alternative from consumers. Hain Celestial Teas recently applied to the FDA to allow them to use stevia as a sweetener in their beverages, however, the FDA has responded by “firing a new volley” in the war to prevent the use of this alternative from being used! This, in spite of the fact that in other countries, such as Japan, stevia is a common sweetener in foods. In fact, stevia makes up 40% of the sweetener market in Japan!
