PRESENTATION ON CODEX THREAT TO HEALTH FREEDOM
MADE SEPTEMBER 12^th 2004 IN St. Paul Minnesota
At National Coalition for Health Freedom Conference
by John C. Hammell, Legislative Advocate
International Advocates for Health Freedom
556 Boundary Bay Rd. Point Roberts, WA 98281 USA
http://www.iahf.com jham@iahf.com
800-333-2553 N.America 360-945-0352 World

Now at step 7, the scam known as the UN’s Codex Alimentarius Commission's Committee on Nutrition and Foods For Special Dietary Uses, is one step short of generating a global trade standard for vitamins and minerals which ignores biochemical individuality. Unless changed, the long range threat posed by Codex will force vitamin consumers to adhere to the collectivist will of a group of delegates representing the FDA, their international counterparts, and the pharmaceutical interests which control them.

The supplement industry has been deceived by the pharma dominated Council for Responsible Nutrition which has conned people into believing that so called "scientific risk assessment" is a "vast improvement" over establishing potency levels at RDAs. The sad reality however is brought out in Dr.Alan Gaby's expose titled Safe Upper Levels- One Giant Step Backward (1) which explodes any contention that there is anything the least bit "scientific" about the so called "risk assessment" methodology currently being foisted off as "truth" at Codex.

I've been tracking the Codex vitamin issue since '96 when my article in Life Extension Magazine called the issue to global attention. I was on the US delegation in '96 and '98 but was kicked off as a whistleblower prior to the meeting in 2000.

This non transparent process, makes a mockery of every tenet of representative government on which America bases its laws.

While quote "representing" us the FDA is violating a law which Suzanne Harris and I played a major role in shaping called the FDA Modernization Act 1997. (2)

Inserted in this voluminous piece of legislation was language enabling the FDA to take actions intended to set the USA up for the harmonization of the entire Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (including dietary supplements) to emerging international law.

Its almost unheard of to get changes made to legislation by the time it reaches a conference committee- yet we were able to flood the Senate Labor committee with complaints. They actually called me to find out what changes I wanted, and I went to Washington to educate them on the issue.

Kennedy was able to weaken the language of my amendment just enough that the FDA has gotten away with ignoring the will of the American people, and the will of Congress, such that at Codex they're taking actions which aren't the least bit consistent with current US law. My amendment exempted dietary supplements from harmonization language which effects everything ELSE that the FDA regulates, making it ILLEGAL for the FDA to take the actions at Codex which the pharma dominated CRN wants them to take.

In 2001 after 5 years of pushing for Oversight, pharmaceutical interests that dominate our vitamin trade associations were able to whitewash a congressional oversight hearing where all of this could have been exposed.

In this hearing, former US delegate Dr.Beth Yetley of the FDA was wasn't asked any hard questions, or pinned down in any way over her highly questionable actions at Codex despite the fact that they went totally against the expressed will of the American people and Congress.

I had death threats for my trouble, a congressional staffer who attempted to assist me was fired from his job, I had an FBI visit, and was placed on the Watch List of the Washington Capital Police. When I sent a letter to attorney L.Robert Lake, Director of Regulatory Affairs at the FDA demanding to see his legal interpretation of our amendment- he took an artful dodge in which he denied that FDA was being prohibited from participating in harmonization efforts with regards to dietary supplements at Codex.

This incremental agenda is being forced on us so slowly, that most people aren't noticing it, and even when they see it freeze like deer caught in the headlights.

We used to think the most likely vehicle for forcing the US to harmonize its laws to Codex would be a WTO Trade Dispute that would go against our law. Following in depth review, we now take the view that although this remains an outside possibility this is not the most likely route because the triggering mechanism for a trade dispute would have to be the US refusing to allow importation of a European product. While this scenario seems unlikely due to our regulatory climate being far more flexible than the EU's, we're dealing with emerging law- with no case law- so anything could still happen as they're making up the rules as they go along.

I believe that the most likely mechanism for attempting to harmonize our vitamin laws to a restrictive international standard would be via regional harmonization via the

Free Trade Area of the Americas, just as has been occurring in the European Union.

We learn that the architects of the FTAA are the same people who foisted off the scam known as the European Union. The same exact deceptions are being used world wide to con people into accepting this collectivist trap which is designed to crush individual liberties.

We must learn from the horrible experience English vitamin consumers had when the ruling Labour government ignored over a million signatures collected in health food stores against harmonizing English vitamin laws to the EU Food Supplements Directive.

Last summer, Health Canada illegally harmonized Canadian vitamin law to Australia's overly stringent, pharmaceuticalized laws and we support Freedom of Choice in Health Care's lawsuit. Vitamin consumers in New Zealand are also currently in a pitched battle to stave off harmonization to Australian law.

In our opinion, Canada's and New Zealand's acts of harmonization were probably done under the aegis of APEC (Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation)- which we note that over one third of the Earth's population is directly impacted by. We note that APEC members include China, Russia, the USA, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand (among others.)

Given that FTAA is looming over us, American's can't afford to ignore what is going on outside our borders in Canada, South America, Europe, or anywhere else in the world.

IAHF's STRATEGY

1. Continue awakening the supplement industry that it is being led to the cliff from within. No vitamin trade association is currently doing what is necessary

to stop the Codex agenda and to stand up for consumers. We have ably exposed IADSA as a controlled opposition group which is doing the diametric opposite of what they've led the industry to believe they're doing. Ditto for CRN and NNFA.

2. To urge global support from industry, alternative practitioners, and health food stores for the ANH lawsuit. The EU is the blueprint for a global totalitarian state and they dominate Codex. We made two trips to England to help ANH, has had 2 articles published in support of their lawsuit and done many radio shows in support as well.

3. We realize that all the EU needs to force consensus at Codex is to get the support of 6 other countries, and we realize they wield enormous economic influence within the third world with former colonies in Africa, Central and South America, and the carribean.

We saw an example of this at the meeting in Montreal a few months ago at the Codex Committee on Food Labeling when the South African delegation thought they had the support of the other African countries who ended up leaving them in the lurch when they attempted to introduce language that would have allowed truthful health claims to be made.

We are working closely with allies in many countries in a last ditch effort to buy some time at Codex. We're attempting to set their agenda back from step 7 to step 3, and intend to give this our best shot between now and the General Codex meeting in Rome next June.

4. Through our website we're distributing a protest form letter against finalizing the Codex vitamin standard at the upcoming meeting. (http://iahf.com/emergency.html ) We will also be generating web based contact information for consumers to use in communicating with delegates from all countries prior to this meeting, and also before the meeting in Rome in June.

5. We're attempting to accelerate public awareness of the immense threat posed by the EU, FTAA and similar regional trading blocks world wide.

We warn people that the globalists are attempting to accelerate the push to force the US into the FTAA, and that their timetable is to try to bring this shift about by January 2005.(3)

We urge everyone to read this magazine [ HOLD IT UP](4) and we urge all Americans to visit stoptheftaa.org and take the recommended action steps to communicate with congress in opposition to the agenda intended to harmonize all the laws in our hemisphere.

6. At IAHF.com we encourage vitamin consumers to continue to make use of our community Bulletin Board for mutual support, and to sign on to the email distribution list. We also encourage perusal of FreedomForceInternational.org

7. We're moving through diplomatic channels in an attempt to educate third world countries especially to the economic wisdom of promoting wellness via prevention so that the Codex vitamin standard will be rejected and not finalized. If it is finalized despite our efforts we note that they'll be passing a framework, with blanks to be filled in later- and our battle will continue if necessary.

CONCLUSION

Before the Codex meeting next June, will do as many radio shows and public speaking as possible in order to move the public against this threat.

Our battle to defend consumer access to dietary supplements is just the tip of a large iceberg, and we must learn from the experience of those trapped inside the European Union. The FTAA threatens to be a carbon copy of the EU in our hemisphere- and many lies are being told to seduce us into it.

Together, we CAN defend consumer access to dietary supplements, but we're going to have to work very hard to overcome widespread ignorance of the shadow government that is pulling the strings from behind the scenes, largely unseen by the vitamin consuming public.

IAHF has been providing leadership in this area since 1996 and will not stop until orthomolecular medicine becomes a household word. We're in a race against the clock, and must redouble our efforts to awaken a sleeping industry as well as vitamin consumers

to this poorly understood series of interconnected threats.

Footnotes

(1) Safe Upper Levels- One Giant Step Backward Alan Gaby, MD http://www.iahf.com/20040127.html http://www.orthomed.org/jom/jom.htm http://www.orthomed.org/news/TOC.htm

(2) [FDA Modernization Act of 1997 Public Law No. 105-115, 111 Stat. 2296 See section 803 (c), Paragraph c-5 saying "Paragraphs (1) through (4) shall not apply with respect to dietary supplements." (See IAHF's Written Comments to Congress, http://www.iahf.com click on the green spinning disk to view.)

In a letter to me responding to legal questions about FDA's actions at Codex wherein they clearly ignored the will of the people as expressed through this amendment to the harmonization language of FDAMA, L.Robert Lake, Director of the Office of Regulatory Affairs at CFSAN, FDA stated:

"Paragraph (c)(5) operates solely to release FDA from the affirmative obligation established by paragraph (C)(3) of participating in harmonization efforts with regard to dietary supplements. It does not prohibit FDA from participating in these efforts. Indeed, for many years prior to the enactment of FDAMA, FDA participated in the work of Codex, including meetings of the Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses. Based on authority that in part predated FDAMA, FDA may continue to participate in international harmonization efforts in CODEX relating to dietary supplements. However FDA's harmonization activities may not change the requirements of the FDCA with regard to dietary supplements."

IAHF would like the Congressional Research Service to comment on what Lake is saying, especially in light of the fact that the amendment to the harmonization language of FDAMA, intended to protect consumers from the harmonization of our dietary supplement laws to restrictive Codex standards, was clearly the expressed will of the people and the will of Congress:

FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION MODERNIZATION ACT OF 1997--CONFERENCE REPORT
(Senate - November 09, 1997)
(See the sentence in all CAPS below, you only need to skim the rest)

[How I located this on the web: 1. http://thomas.loc.gov 2. Underneath Congressional Record click on "Text Search" Select 105th Congress ('97-'98) 3. Use "dietary supplements" as search word 4. Select Senator Hatch 5. Date search from 11/09/97-11/09/97 6. Select 5th listing: FDAMA Conference Report Nov.9, '97 Scroll down to Hatch p.S12246

Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I wanted to take this brief opportunity to commend Chairman Jeffords for a job well done--for producing a bill which will dramatically improve the way the Food and Drug Administration does business as we move into the 21st century.

That has been one of my top priorities during my service in the Senate. I am proud that we are having the opportunity today to vote on this historic legislation which will have so many benefits for my State of Utah.

Utah is the home to over 100 medical device manufacturers, and several pharmaceutical manufacturers as well. We also are the Nation's leading producer of dietary supplements .

The Utah Life Sciences Industries Association, the leading trade association for Utah device and drug manufacturers, has worked closely with the Congress in formulating this legislation, which will have many positive effects for Utah.

On behalf of our Utah drug and device manufacturers, let me thank you Chairman Jeffords, and our colleague in the House, Chairman Tom Bliley, for producing a bill which has encouraged the FDA to work in a more collaborative manner and to get the job done, to get it done professionally and expeditiously, without all the bureaucratic hassles we have experienced in the past.

AND ON BEHALF OF ALL DIETARY SUPPLEMENT MANUFACTURERS AND MOST IMPORTANTLY THE 100 MILLION OR SO CONSUMERS- MOST OF WHOM SEEMED TO HAVE CALLED OUR OFFICES IN THE LAST FEW WEEKS- LET ME THANK YOU FOR MAKING SURE THAT THE BILL DOES NOT UNDO THE DIETARY SUPPLEMENT HEALTH AND EDUCATION ACT IN ANY WAY AND THAT DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS WILL REMAIN WHAT THEY ARE, FOOD PRODUCTS AND NOT DRUGS.

Finally, I wish to thank all of the staff who worked literally through the night to make today's passage of the conference report for S. 830 possible. You can be proud of your work." ]

(3)The New American Vol. 18 #9 May 6, 2002

Erasing Our Borders by William A. Jasper

"We're working to build a Free Trade Area of the Americas, and we're determined to complete those negotiations by January of 2005," President George W. Bush declared in his January 16^th 2002 speech to the Organization of American States and the World Affairs Council in Washington DC. "We plan to complete a free trade agreement with Chile early this year. And once we conclude the agreement, I urge Congress to take it up quickly. And I ask the Senate to schedule a vote, as soon as it returns, on renewing and expanding the Andean Trade Preference Act. Today I announce that the United States will explore a Free Trade Area with the countries of Central America (CAFTA)…. Our purpose is to strengthen the economic ties we already have with these nations…. And to take another step toward completing the Free Trade Area of the Americas."

(4) The New American Vol. 20 # 18 September 6, 2004 ERASING AMERICA

http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2004/09-06-2004/index.htm