What do you think of the Harper Government Bill C-51?

Question

It's a bill to make herbs and vitamins only available by prescription in Canada, according to what I heard on the News. I think it's a horrible bill. It might put many Herbal Companies out of business. That includes the Vitamin companies. Also the Pharmacies would triple the cost of these items to make the regular drugs seem cheaper! If the C-51 bill passes in Canada... I might just move to the USA! I need my herbs and vitamins. What do you think about the C-51 bill? If I had known about the protest gathering about it I probably would've been amongst them!

Answer 1

It will fail like in Ghandi's time, marching to the sea to make salt :) Harper might try to break some heads but its idiotic to pursue it. Old fishwife in the custody of the RCMP for drying herbs? Groundswelll will sweep the government out of power, powered by Dracaonian stupidity. Nuckle under to american pharma?  h**l you say.

Edit

Would be a good time to email your MP though. Local too.

Answer 2

it doesn't say that at all.

It does require them to be able to prove safety, not efficacy...which is not the same standard as pharmaceuticals.

"herbal medicine" currently gets a free pass as it marketed as a food supplement, so isn't subject to as stringent regulation...or any regulation really.

Herbal medicine is not benign...people are harmed by it every year.

Answer 3

It's yet another attempt by the powers to expand their power and s***w everyone else over.  Things like that seem to be happening more and more frequently these days.  

To put it very simply, although people like skep doc don't realize it, this law is a dictionary example of facism  (for reference the actual definition of fascism is a government in league with corporate powers which uses its power to support them over their citizens).  The whole basis of this bill is ridiculous.  Pharamacuticals which are given false biased testing routinely kill thousands of people a year since their makers don't really care about the health of their users.  Most of the herbs currently used are completely harmless and have actual proof they do so (thousands of years of use, instead of bs industry funded studies).  However, any alternative to conventional medicine threatens it's iron grip over everyone's health...hence it will be attacked.

If you want to boil it down the arguement, it's essentially the same as "carrots must be banned because no evidence has been put forward they are safe for people."  

I hope it fails, but with things like this, there's a massive citizen protest that eventually overwhelms all the PR and false studies the 'bad people' put out until the measure is eventually defeated, then they just do it again a few years later and win.  Activists have been fighting attempts to regulate herbs, but the pharmaceutical companies are in for the long haul, so sooner or later they will probably succeed in monopolizing the health care market.

hope that matters to you/helps!