“I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to share my knowledge and passion about the Amazon rainforest, and its wealth of beneficial medicinal plants, within these do pages. I truly do believe that providing knowledge about these plants will help teach people how to use them effectively, and thus, create profitable markets for them, which makes the rainforest more valuable than harvesting timber, grazing cows, or growing soybeans. I would also feel remiss in not warning readers that there may come a time in the near future when medicinal plants like those found in this book might be out of their reach and simply unavailable to them. This possibility will not necessarily stem from the continued destruction of our tropical rainforests, rather, the erosion and destruction of our health freedom rights to choose alternative therapies. The complimentary and alternative health care (CAM) industry has been growing at an unprecedented rate. This is largely due to the failure of our current medical system and model to provide anything other than expensive long term treatment of diseases and conditions, rather than any effective cures. Our current health care expenditures are approximately 1.4 trillion dollars annually with an estimated one-third of that spent on drugs. Americans are actively seeking alternative and effectively ways to prevent and solve their health issues rather than to just treat them-and at the benefit of the very profitable world drug industry. Americans have spent more out-of-pocket expenses for CAM treatments in the last five years than they have spent out of pocket for conventional health services. And it's rocking some boats in the world. The international drug industry, which stands to lose billions of dollars if cheaper and more effective alternatives are more widely available, has beefed up its political ties and contributions on federal, state, and international levels in an effort to stymie the access to such alternatives. These efforts to suppress access to these alternatives have not escaped notice, however. A Harris Poll survey in July 2004 reported that only 13 percent of Americans believe that the pharmaceutical companies are "generally honest and trustworthy," putting the drug industry on par with tobacco, oil, and managed care companies. The survey indicated that public confidence in drug companies has plunged harder and faster than for any other industry.Throughout this book I've warned readers that they must educate themselves about available natural products and the effective use of them for their own health and wellness. I now must also warn readers that they need to take the time and effort to research the legal and political issues surrounding their continued availability and regulation. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." We must always be on guard to ensure our health freedoms are not taken away. For example, some will be shocked to learn that effective August 2005, no one living in any country in the European Union will be able to buy any medicinal plant featured in this book unless they obtain a prescription from a doctor. None of these plants can be harvested in South America and imported into Europe unless they are sold to pharmaceutical companies for their manufacture of drugs.Everything in Europe is about to change due to the EU Food Supplements Directive (FSD), which will soon go into full effect. As a result, around 5,000 safe formulas and nutrients that have been on the market for decades will be banned in fifteen European countries. This directive regulates that if a plant or herb is medicinal or effects physiological function in any way, it is a medicine and it is to be sold as drug. This new regulation adversely effects all nutritional supplements, not just herbs. Banned items will include natural vitamins such as mixed tocopherols (natural vitamin E), carotenoids (natural vitamin A) and B-12; all forms of sulphur, boron, vanadium, silicon and most trace elements; the most readily absorbed and safest forms of calcium, magnesium, zinc, selenium, chromium and molybdenum; and other popular supplements such as CoQ-10, MSM, fatty acids, amino acids, and enzymes. It will severely limit the doses of vitamins and will remove all "high-dose" (in excess of recommended daily allowances [RDA]) products from the market. The directive will dramatically limit future innovation in the supplements industry, and seriously impact retail outlets, complementary practitioners, and consumers who choose to take responsibility for their own health and let food be their medicine. It will also greatly contribute to the profit margins of the European drug industry who will now be the only companies that can manufacture these products.Why should you be worried about this new European legislation? Simply put, this new directive was the European Union's methodology of accepting and adopting a global harmonization of guidelines effecting nutritional supplements worldwide called "CODEX" which the U.S. is taking part in and is in the process of determining how it will be adopted and implemented here. The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CODEX) was set up in 1962 as a joint body of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO) under the heavy influence of the European drug industry. The United States signed up for CODEX in the 1990s, when we became members of the World Trade Organization (WTO).According to the Congressional Research Service: “As a member of the World Trade Organization, the United States does commit to act in accordance with the rules of the multilateral body. The United States is legally obligated to ensure national laws do not conflict with World Trade Organization rules” including laws such as these new ones being adopted in the EU regulating our freedom to nutritional supplements. Therefore, as a member of the WTO, the U.S. will be bound by any finalized standards put forth in the EU directive. If we choose to ignore the regulations that this affiliation binds us to, we could face severe trade sanctions with other WTO countries, and damage part of our economy in our ability to export our goods overseas. Already U.S.-based nutritional manufacturers’ ability to export their vitamin, mineral, and herbal products to countries in the European Union has disappeared. Other countries have already adopted either full or partial CODEX regulations concerning nutritional supplements. The results? In Germany, until 1996, one could freely purchase 500 mg vitamin-C tablets, the way you can here. Now the highest dosage available to Germans is 200 mg; anything higher is sold through pharmacists at extremely high prices and only with prescription. All herbs are regulated as drugs and manufactured only by German pharmaceutical companies, available to consumers only by prescription. In Norway, all vitamin and mineral supplements that exceed RDA levels are considered drugs. Many natural substances are available in Norway only through very costly prescriptions, if they’re available at all. A black market for supplements has emerged in Norway as a result. Closer to home, in Canada, herbs with medicinal effects (any herb for which claims are made that it improves health) are now classified as drugs. The supplements tryptophan and L-carnitine were once available in Canadian health food stores for $14 per 100 capsules. Now they are available only by prescription for about $120-$190 per 100 capsules. Surely not in America, you say! Think again. Some form of CODEX can and will become part of our law and order regulations here. Do some research, do your homework, and educate yourself on the issues. It is much too involved and complex an issue to handle efficiently here in the conclusion of this book, but one which all Americans need to be aware of. I have provided some information and internet websites in the Rainforest Resource section, where you can begin your research. Once you have a grasp on the issue, take action! Call, write, or email your state’s senators and congress people, and tell them of your opinions and how you want them to represent you and your freedom to health care and nutritional supplements. As I said in the introduction to this book - you, as a consumer have power and can use it effectively to help preserve the rainforest through your consumer dollars. As a voter, you also have power to protect your freedom to choose the right health care services and products - use it effectively by getting informed and participating in the political process!There’s one more thing to do politically as well. (My, isn’t it hard being a responsible consumer and participating American!) Before calling your local politicians about CODEX, do some additional research on how your state regulates the access and delivery of complimentary and alternative health care services; you may have even more to discuss with your local political representatives. Many people are simply unaware that the provision of health care services related to naturopathy, herbalism, nutrition, and many other effective CAM disciplines are actually illegal in their states. Many licensed practitioners, such as doctors, nurses, and others, desire to offer alternative health care approaches and CAM services to their patients. However, these healing methods are not the “acceptable and prevailing” conventional standards of care. As a result, practitioners who use CAM therapies may be disciplined by their state medical licensing boards, even if there has been no consumer harm. Licensed providers of alternative therapies nationwide has suffered loss of license, or been forced out of the state to practice, or incurred great legal expenses. As a result, many practitioners who would like to offer their patients CAM services choose to not do so. Others offer the services but do not advertise to that effect. Many consumers are therefore not aware of alternative options. In reaction to the growing and profitable CAM industry, many state health departments have increased their harassment of licensed health providers practicing CAM in their states. It still has not reduced the popularity of CAM or the number of persons seeking CAM health services. As a result, patients’ grassroots campaigns have mobilized to protect freedom of treatment choice and to offset pervasive health department tactics. And they have been effective after all, these voters making demands to politicians. Since 1990, thirteen states have passed new laws that protect medical doctors’ use of alternative therapies, and three others have promulgated regulations to the same end. These new laws were designed to protect already licensed medical practitioners (medical doctors, osteopaths, etc.) from harassment from aggressive State health departments.Is it working to protect the delivery of CAM therapy by doctors? Sometimes. Today, about fifty doctors in the U.S. are being investigated and persecuted for using effective alternative approaches to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Lyme disease, allergies, diabetes, cancer, and other complex syndromes causing pain and misery. While many of these physicians-good reputable doctors- are struggling to rescue their reputations, incomes, and professional lives, their very public ordeals erode the status and practice of alternative medicine. These public cases go a long way in promoting fear and avoidance of doctors regarding the adoption of CAM into their existing practices. It usually depends on the state health department’s view, policy, and motivation in administering these laws. For example, in the state of New York, complementary and alternative physicians remain targets for harassing investigations, despite the 1994 law passed by legislators in response to voter’s demands. At least nine New York physicians are currently facing charges of misconduct (and subsequent loss of medical license) simply for using non-conventional therapies like herbs, have been subjected to questionable tactics employed by the health department. In response, state legislators introduced a new bill to specifically reform and strengthen the language of the original bill and to address the health department’s ongoing prosecution of doctors for providing CAM services. This new health care reform bill was aimed directly at reforming the practices and prosecution authority of the New York health department (OPMC), and passed the Senate in July 2004 by unanimous vote. While inroads are being made on the state level to allow doctors and physicians the ability to offer CAM services to their patients, many professions are not addressed by any state licensing program. Most of these practitioners (naturopaths, herbalists, aroma therapists, nutritionists, and the like) are considered by most state governments as “unlicensed health practitioners” and still subject to civil and criminal prosecution for practicing medicine without a license. The state of Minnesota is a perfect example of how grassroots organizations of regular citizens are changing laws in regard to demanding free access to CAM services and the lawful provision of these services by unlicensed health practitioners. In 1996, a St. Paul naturopath, Helen Healy, was issued an injunction by the Minnesota Attorney General’s office to close her practice; the charge was “practicing medicine without a license.” Despite her educational degree (a doctorate in naturopathy) and national board certification, no medical licensing board existed in the state of Minnesota for the licensing of naturopaths). The news of the injunction spread quickly throughout the Minnesota natural health community, and they rose with one voice to protest what seemed to be an arbitrary action by the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice to shut down a natural health practitioner. Helen Healy, a graduate of National College of Naturopathic Medicine, had a successful practice in St. Paul for twelve years with no patient complaints or allegations of harm or misconduct. The state departments backed off from Dr. Healy only after thousands of citizens led marches through the streets and conducted phone campaigns to their government representatives. The realization that all unlicensed CAM practitioners were still subject to legal prosecution at any time fueled the ongoing movement in Minnesota, despite the fact the authorities had backed down from closing Healy’s practice. The health freedom campaign gained momentum (and became incorporated as the Minnesota Natural Health Coalition Action Network) and continued to apply a great deal of pressure on state politicians to address the legal problems and issues of unlicensed health practitioners providing much needed and much wanted services. The result? In direct response to voter’s demands, the local politicians drafted and passed The Minnesota Complementary Health Practitioner Bill on May 11, 2000. This landmark health freedom law is the first kind in the U.S. and grants a virtually unlimited right of practice for unlicensed complementary health care providers without removing consequences for untoward outcomes. Its purpose was stated: “To protect the freedom of the individual to choose and receive the healing treatment that the individual desires and deems to correspond with his/her own view of health and disease, and which the individual deems to be effective in securing his/her own wellness; and to encourage and promote the practice of all healing methods; and to protect the right of health practitioners to practice complementary and alternative health care.”Where does your state and your state’s politicians stand on keeping CAM products and services available to you? Find out! Many health codes on the books today were adopted in the 1950s and are very similar and rather standardized, especially within accepted definitions used in these health codes. The medical statute in Minnesota (which allowed the state to act against Helen Healy) is much like that found in every state health code. It states that a person is engaged in the practice of medicine (which requires a license from a state health department and / or state medical board) if she / he does the following: “offers or undertakes to prevent, diagnose, correct, or treat in any manner or by any means, methods, devices, or instrumentalities, any disease, illness, pain, wound, fracture, infirmity, deformity or defect of any person.” This is the standard language found in most state health laws and that which is normally used by health departments to censure, regulate, and prosecute CAM practitioners.What does this mean for CAM practitioners who do not have a state sanctioned medical license? It means that they are clearly guilty of practicing medicine without a license, and could be prosecuted at any time. Again, it was evidenced in the Healy case that when a state government agency chooses to prosecute an unlicensed practitioner, the practitioner could not introduce evidence of the effectiveness of therapy / modality, the testimony of grateful clients attesting to efficacious and beneficial service, or the fact that no one had been injured. All of these things would be legally irrelevant and inadmissible, and the only point to be considered in a court of law is this: did this person actually practice medicine, as defined by the statute? Absolutely. Case closed. And in most state’s health codes it is a criminal offense to proactive medicine without a license, therefore the delivery of most standard CAM services in the majority of states in this country is illegal and subjects the practitioner to civil and criminal penalties.So far, only four states have written new legislation or amended their health code to correct these technical violations to old codes. In this, California joins Wisconsin, Idaho, and Rhode Island, as the fourth state in the country to pass such legislation liberalizing and decriminalizing alternative and complementary medicine. A grassroots organization in North Carolina is lobbying for a similar bill. Is there a grassroots organization in your state trying to preserve your freedom to complementary health care and medicinal plants like those found in this book? Take the time to find out, and if so-join! If not, at least take the time to talk to your local politicians and tell them what you want them to do. Try faxing or mailing them the landmark Minnesota legislation that effectively protected the rights of residents in that state and suggest the need for the same type of legislation.My favorite quote of all time comes from Margaret Mead. Years ago she said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” I know from experience the value and truth in those words. Whether I am a member of citizens fighting for the preservation of the rainforest, the protection of indigenous peoples’ land rights or intellectual property rights, or the preservation of my health freedom choices - I know I have to be an active member and join the fight with others. For together, we truly can change the world."
