Return-Path: jham@concentric.net Errors-To: Date: Fri, 28 Nov 1997 19:56:25 -0500 (EST) X-Sender: jham@pop3.concentric.net To: From: John Hammell Subject: Help Needed on Health Freedom Video: Why We Must Bring Birckhead to USA from Norway >I have some ideas on the informational video you would like to make to >distribute to health food stores. I am very good at marketing through my >business experience. I know how to target the key elements in order to >reach a volume mass audience through a marketing vehicle. If you would like > to do some brainstorming on the video presentation, I would be glad to help >you in that way. Please let me know , > Cheryl- I appreciate your desire to help me brainstorm the video presentation, but there isn't going to be a video unless people out there care enough to assist me in bringing Ron Birckhead over to S.Florida from Bergen, Norway where he lives. Please read on to see why it is crucial that we bring Ron over here to help with this. Because I now have a part time helper, I don't have the cash flow to bring Ron over here myself. I badly need people's help or it won't happen. The reason we so badly need to bring Ron over to be in the video is that Ron has witnessed the complete destruction of health freedom in Norway, and the same pattern that unfolded there is now starting to unfold here, but not enough people see it. Through his Norwegian Health Institute, Ron, an American, did everything humanly possible to stop the takeover, and exhausted his life's savings trying to fight back. Although he did succeed in sueing the Norwegian government so that they wouldn't ban access to vitamin C and E powder, which they wanted to regulate as "drugs", in the end, they destroyed his vitamin distribution business, banned access to high potency vitamins, and NONA, the Norwegian eqivalent to NNFA was completely taken over by pharmaceutical interests (including vitamin companies that sold out). Ron's story needs to be told... The same pattern which occurred in Norway is very slowly unfolding here, but most people don't realize this, not knowing HOW to recognize the PATTERN. We BADLY need to make a video, and to widely distribute it QUICKLY! The Commission on Dietary Supplement Labels just uploaded their final report to the web (http://web.health.gov/dietsupp/ch3.htm#botanical) in which they recommend that a "panel of experts" be formed to assess therapeutic claims "so that herbs can be made OTC drugs." This is how the takeover began in Norway, with herbs, in just this way, and no one paid attention because it seemed, (ahem)... "reasonable"... The other side is trying to make this seem really innocuous in the hope that we won't pay attention... Ron's health freedom organization in Norway was penetrated by a plant who leaked all his key strategies. The plant was sent to him by another plant, a well known individual involved with a fake grass roots organization in the USA called Citizens for Health, which is doing spin control in an effort to further the takeover. The Norwegian plant is also a consultant to NONA, the vitamin trade association there, and he engineered the pharmaceutical takeover by getting the bylaws changed so that instead of having to go to the annual meeting to cast their votes people now vote by mail. This enabled the suppliers to get control away from the retailers. The suppliers then started selling out to pharmaceutical interests, while keeping the retailers in the dark. By the time Ron realized his organization had been penetrated, immense damage had been done to his effort. Recently in the states, NNFA just changed its bylaws to allow for voting by mail... Ron and I don't think its any coincidence that this happened, but is part of a pattern that we're observing unfold world wide. I have been in contact with health freedom fighters in Chile, and the same thing is happening there... The following table from the official Norwegian "Regulation for The Production and Sale of Vitamin and Mineral Supplements" shows the very low potency limits imposed on Norwegian consumers by their government. NORWEGIAN RESTRICTIONS: To illustrate the problem I have excerpted some of the very low allowable potency levels from the Norwegian table: Vitamin C, 200 mg Vitamin B1, 2.4 mg Vitamin B-2, 2.8 mg Vitamin B-6, 4.2 mg Niacin (B-3), 32 mg Although the Life Extension Foundation has no more copies of the April, 1996 issue of Life Extension Magazine which contains Ron Birckhead's Codex Report from Norway: "Update on the Codex Threat", ***** I have SAVED 2 cases of this issue in my garage, and will send copies of it to anyone donating $25. or more to assist in buying a round trip plane ticket to bring Ron over to Florida from Bergen, Norway. Ron has priced the tickets, which run from $1200.- $3500. These tickets are not easy to get at this time of year, because a lot of Norwegians head south to escape winter. The only carrier out of Bergen, Norway to the States is SAS, and after checking with several travel agents I learned that there are no discounted fares on these tickets because the Norwegian government controls everything. Todays New York Times had an Editorial titled "Unregulated Herbal Supplements". The article pushes the idea of encouraging manufacturers that want to make therapeutic claims to "seek approval for their products as OTC drugs" and discusses the fact that the Commission on Dietary Supplement Labels recommended that the FDA form a panel to review botanicals used as medicine... If this doesn't illustrate the need for us to get cosponsors on HR 2868, the Consumer Health Free Speech Act, I don't know what will! HR 2868 changes the current definition of drug in the FD&C Act, by removing the word "food" from the definition. This will allow us to make therapeutic claims on dietary supplements, as we SHOULD be allowed to do RIGHT NOW, without having to jump through FDA's regulatory hoops. Please download the form letter for HR 2868, call your Congressman and ask him to cosponsor it. Getting HR 2868 through won't get us completely out of harms way, but it would sure help to counter the pharmaceutical industries efforts to push our favorite supplements across the line into the DRUG category. FOODS ARE NOT DRUGS! Its high time we took a firm stand on this basic principle. If we fail to do this, in the long run they will wipe out our health freedom. They boil the frog slowly-- in hopes that we won't notice whats happening. Please send a donation TODAY to help bring Ron Birckhead over from Norway so we can shoot a video which explains what is going on in simple terms that any health food store owner can understand. Your donations also will help me keep Jata on full time as a helper here. The video will help us to get people moving on HR 2868, but it won't be made unless you help me bring Ron over here so we can make it as hard hitting as possible. Please forward this to more people, and tell your friends and family about it so that more people will help. Ours is a TRUE grass roots effort. We can't stop now. We have to keep pushing the other side backwards. For Freedom, John ****************************************** Donations Needed- Am One Person Working Alone International Advocates for Health Freedom John C. Hammell, Legislative Advocate 2411 Monroe St.#2 Hollywood, FL 33020 USA 800-333-2553, 954-929-2905, FAX 954-929-0507, FAX ON DEMAND 954-927-8795,jham@concentric.net http://www.pnc.com.au/~cafmr/hammell/index.html