I'll be on Gary Franchi's news program today at 5 PM and 10 PM Eastern, here: http://nnn.is/on-WHDT
I prepared some notes for Gary for the program, and since only a small portion of what was said can be on air, I thought I'd post the notes here:
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Ralph Fucetola JD practiced law for 35 years, gaining a reputation as The Vitamin Lawyer. Today he consults with natural products companies and is a trustee of Natural Solutions Foundation and the Institute for Health Research. Ralph says he was a Youth for Goldwater in '64 and became a libertarian "in Murray Rothbard's living room..." He's been active as an advocate for freedom, starting with the Tax Revolt of the '70s, and continuing with the Ron Paul rEVOLution and health freedom movement.
He says "the Natural Solutions Foundation, established in 2004 by Maj Gen Bert Stubblebein (US Army, retired) and Rima E. Laibow MD has given me a wonderful opportunity to have an 'encore career' advocating for health freedom. Right now we are focused on CBD hemp and on preparing major litigation to stop FDA and FTC censorship of free speech about health and foods."
You can reach Ralph through his web site, www.VitaminConsultancy.com.
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1. Ralph, you've been an advocate for freedom for over a half century. Today, with terror attacks on journalists and mass government spying on dissidents, what is the status of individual freedom?
[Precarious, but hopeful. Buckminster Fuller, before he passed, told his students that the new communications technologies would make the "secret government" impossible; today, with the social media, that is becoming a reality.]
2. Tell us a bit about your CBD project. What is it?
[Cannabidol, CBD, is powerful nutrition from hemp. As Dr. Rima says, "CBD is the Holy Grail of natural health - all help; no high." While THC, the part of hemp that gets you high, is not native to our bodies, it has been discovered that CBDs are made by our bodies and are part of the Endo-cannabidiol System that mediates immune system and pain response as well as neurological balance. So supplementing with CBD from hemp will support normal structure and function.]
3. What is the Foundation doing about CBDs?
[We're educating people about the health benefits and we are doing what we always do: demonstrating what we believe. Our mission is to "Discover, Develop, Demonstrate, Document and Disseminate natural solutions. One way we did that was to take over an abandoned coffee farm in Panama -- the owner could not borrow enough to buy enough pesticides and fungicides to get a crop. We showed that it was not just possible to get a crop, without poisons, but that the cofee was spectacular. Today our organic coffee is used as part of our fund raising, and the family that runs the farm tells us our Valley of the Moon Coffee Finca is the first place they worked where they were not "sick all spraying season..." www.ValleyoftheMoonCoffee.com
We've applied our knowledge of organic growing to partner Agrofutoro, holder of the first, and only, CBD Hemp Growing Permit in Chile. We got the final permit yesterday! Soon we will have the world's first truly organic commercial supply of CBD hemp.
People can join in the Hemp Health Revolution by going to www.GoFundMe.com/CBDhemp -- we have a great reward program and crowdfunding CBD hemp will change the world!]
4. That's what I like about Gen. Bert, Dr. Rima and you... you walk your talk! Tell us about the health freedom litigation in which you're involved.
[The Foundation has sought to confront the government to protect health freedom many times. In 2007 mass public response stopped the FDA's infamous "CAM Guidance" document that would have made nearly all alternatives illegal. In 2009 our Stop the Shot Mandated Swine Flu Vaccine litigation played a role in stopping the pandemic that never was, when millions refused to take the shot.
Just in the past several months, the FDA and FTC have issued against us warning letters, regarding CBDs and other nutrients. We welcome this. It gives us the opportunity to assert Health Freedom of Speech in the courts.
The government agencies are wrong when they try to censor speech about the relationship between foods (including supplements) and health.
Understanding why takes us on a little trip through free speech case law.
In 1905 Congress established the FDA's power. In 1911 the Supreme Court heard a challenge to the FDA's power and Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote for the majority that there was no First Amendment issue because nothing in the law allowed FDA to control opinion speech.
In 1912 Congress amended the law and the agency thinks that gave it power to censure speech. No one ever took that issue back to the Supreme Court.
In 1933 Congress again enlarged FDA power. And remember what Dr. Ron Paul said about that: giving FDA power is giving it "power to abuse." Well, in 1933 the Compounding Pharmacies complained that the new law would stop them from compounding medications. Congress provided the industry with a loophole: they could continue to compound without prior FDA approval and could call themselves "Compounding Pharmacy" but could not tell the public what they compounded. And so this censoship law remained for decades.
In 1994 Congress adopted DSHEA, the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, which allowed us to make some statements about supplements. I supported the law, to stop the raids on doctors and health food stores, but knew it was flawed. The major flaw was Congress compelling us to make an opinion statement on each bottle of vitamins: "Not intended to prescribe, treat, mitigate or cure..."
That was exactly the compelled opinion that the Supreme Court says is not within FDA's power.
Then in 2002 the Supreme Court heard Thompson vs Western States, which finally challenged the 75 year old Compounding Pharmacy censorship rule. The Court ruled, in the words of Sandra Day O'Connor, that the Court has long held the government has no interest in stopping people from making bad decisions with truthful information. The censorship was overturned.
Now it's our turn. As one retired Judge (and media commentator) of my aquaintance put it, "The sine qua non of compelled speech is truth." If Congress has the power to compel speech, it can only compel factually true speech; it cannot compel expressing an opinion!
And, once the DSHEA compelled speech clause falls, so with it falls the whole structure of censorship of speech about health and food.]
5. Any last words for our audience?
[Yes. You really should go to www.GoFundMe.com/CBDhemp and join the Hemp Health Revolution!]
