FDA Seeking to Ban More Vitamins

My Response to a Question about FDA Banning More Forms of Vitamin B6.

Yes, K, this is ridiculous, and violates the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, DSHEA, which has three grandfathering clauses in it, and which was crafted by Health Freedom's friends in Congress to protect our existing dietary supplements from FDA attack. One of the three clauses addresses the question of when a dietary ingredient, also used for medical purposes, is grandfathered. If a dietary ingredient is approved as part of a drug, to be grandfathered, it need only to have been sold to supplement the diet prior to the start of the approval process, so the power the FDA has taken to itself, to ban the interstate commerce in any food, including dietary supplement, ever studied for medical use, is contrary to that law.

However, Teddy Kennedy, in his dying gift to Big Pharma, included a provision in the 2007 FDA enabling act giving the agency the power to ban interstate commerce for any food ever studied for medical use. Why does Congress think it has authority to grant such power to FDA? Where in the Constitution does it give Congress power over our food supply? Congress is allowed to "regulate" interstate commerce, but correctly understood, that power was only to make commerce among the states "regular" - to prevent state barriers to commerce, not to ban food! Misapplying the Interstate Commerce clause is at the root of many of the problems facing those who seek to preserve our right to access food. This is also the legal "justification" for the FDA's collapsing ban on interstate commerce in raw milk.

Natural Solutions Foundation fought hard to keep another clause in that 2007 law that exempted DSHEA products from the ban authority. We were told by some not to bother, since DSHEA was not even mentioned in the new law; we knew better, knowing just how lawless Federal agencies will behave when given a chance. We succeeded in keeping the clause in the law, generating over 150,000 emails to Congress over one memorable weekend, but now FDA has created such a high barrier to "proving" the ingredient is grandfathered, that the agency has gotten away with first banning the highly bioavailable form of B6, pyradoximine and now they are after P5P, another useful form of the vitamin.

Outrageous indeed... and totally Congress' fault for adopting that bad, unconstitutional bill in 2007!

Here is where you can send a message to your congress-critters complaining about the bills, regulations and executive orders that are shredding the Constitution: http://tinyurl.com/PushBackFree.

Tell Congress here: http://tinyurl.com/SaveOurSupplements

What are we going to do? We are going to push back as hard and for as long as it takes to preserve our right to access wholesome nutrition. That is the reality we are going to create!

------ Original Message ------
Received: Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:25:41 PM EDT
From: K
Subject: Fw: New Vit B6 ban by FDA

 This is getting ridiculous!  What are we going to do? K

 A thought is matter, you create your own reality.
 I Can, I AM, I Have, I Will, I Love, I Choose, I Create, I Enjoy...

 ----- Forwarded Message -----
 From: RA
 To: K
 Sent: Monday, September 24, 2012 9:08 AM
 Subject: Vit B6 ban by FDA

 FDA Looking to Ban B6 Supplements, Give Boost to Big Pharma Elizabeth Renter
 NaturalSociety - September 22, 2012 

 Vitamin B6, naturally present in a variety of foods, is necessary for proper nerve function, protein synthesis, regulating blood sugar, and producing antibodies and hemoglobin. In other words, it’s pretty important stuff. But, while many people get their B6 through supplements, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is looking to make things a lot more difficult — by slowly taking all forms of B6 supplements off the market so Big Pharma can make millions off of prescriptions instead... [FDA already] removed Pyridoxamine (a natural form of B6) supplements from the market at the request of BioStratum, a pharmaceutical company. Why? Because BioStratum thinks it might be nice to use Pyrdoxamine in a prescription drug. They haven’t developed the drug, we don’t know what it is, and who knows when it will come to fruition, but the FDA honored a request from the big corporation to protect the company’s interest. 

 Now, the FDA is poised to pull another B6 product: P5P. You see, the human body must convert B6 to P5P to make it usable  within the body. Fortunately, some supplement companies have created P5P and it is currently available as a natural supplement. But, another  pharmaceutical giant has petitioned the FDA to “protect its interests”. Medicure Pharma would like all P5P removed from the supplement market so they can begin to work on a drug containing the crucial form of B6.  In their petition, they state:

  Pharmaceutical companies developing new drugs must be protected from companies that may seek to market the ingredients in those drugs as dietary supplements. The marketing of such products has the potential to undermine the incentive for the development of new drugs because many people may choose to purchase the supplements rather than the drugs.”

So, that basically sums it up. In order to protect the money-grabbing interests of this company, at whatever risk to the health of the general public, the federal government should step in and take the supplements out.

http://naturalsociety.com/fda-ban-b6-supplements-boost-big-pharma/#ixzz27P71Yx7O

I must agree with the author of the above note. The agency is acting as a surrogate for the crony corporatists and failing to uphold the primary obligation of any government: to protect the People from the Powerful. Government will only do so if the People demand redress loudly. That is where PUSH BACK comes in. We have shown repeatedly that when millions petition for redress, politicians have no choice but to listen.

Here is where we can push back hard: http://tinyurl.com/SaveOurSupplements -- do it every day!