[quote]Jo wrote:
Those of you who think that supplements will be freely available in the USA for long may be interested to learn that by 2010 the situation in the US will be no better than in Canada or in Europe. Companies will still be able to sell protein powder but forget about most of the other products.
This video is definitely worth watching:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5266884912495233634&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=en
This site provides an easy and quick overview of what is to come and already has come to many parts of the world:
http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=161
We will not only loose the freedom to choose supplements. We will loose the freedom to choose healthy food. Read, watch and judge for yourself. I have lived in a country where it is easy to buy 500 mg tablets of aspirin but close to impossible to buy 500 mg tablets of vitamin C. I hope the people in the US will manage to avoid this fate but it will take many people’s combined effort.
Sincerely,
Jo[/quote]
things are not as bad in canada as you may think. the government is requiring products to be licenced. the main reason behind it is so that a total recall can be effected quickly if needed as well as removing fly-by-night companies with unscrupulous products from the market.
the real issues currently are the fact that the system is not in place fully until 2010, border inspectors have no clear list of what is allowed (this leads to widely varying standards of what they chose to let in), and 7-keto seems to have accidentally been classified as a steroid even though it does not exhibit hormonal effects and all human studies are highly supportive of its use.
the first two issues will go away with time, the third can be dealt with within the current system. truly a bigger problem in canada is that we have to deal with two more steps (the importer and the distributor) which jacks up the prices.
btw canada’s regulations even provide a tool for rooting out homeopathic vs. naturopathic remedies. the latter will be allowed and the former will be marginalized under the system.
most customers will not notice any difference in canada, except maybe the french who will now be able to read the mandatory bilingual labels. truth is based on current laws which are not enforced, the authorities could shut down just about every supplement vendor due to labelling requirements, so far only a few companies are following the law with respect to this.
the situation in the states seems to be a massive over reaction to what is a problem with the unregulated market. i would not compare it canada where a well thought out process is being enacted that well run companies and consumers will benefit from.