The UK government may be preparing to break its promise of state regulation for herbal medicine practitioners. Please help us to urge the government not to do a U-turn, and safeguard the practise of herbal medicine for future generations!
Rumours of a reversal
Over the last few days we’ve heard from more than one Member of the UK Parliament (MP) that the UK government may announce a U-turn within 2 weeks on its promise, made over 2 years ago, to regulate herbalists by statute. For the 8 million or so British citizens who have received herbal preparations via a practitioner, a U-turn could be a disaster. Not only because of the loss of a statutory register, but because the UK government may also repeal the herbalist’s exemption to prescribe unregistered medicines, which has been in place continuously since 1968.
So today we have sent an open letter to the UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, copied to senior figures in his government and selected Members of opposition parties, as part of an intensive lobbying campaign to try to avert a U-turn. But we also need your help.
Read Dr Robert Verkerk’s open letter to the Rt Hon David Cameron MP, Prime Minister.
Why is a U-turn on the cards?
None of us know exactly what’s been going on within the highest circles in British government in recent days. However, we do know that the UK government has been very vulnerable to two main pressures, which together may have precipitated a tentative decision to row back on its promise of statutory regulation for herbalists. These two main pressures are:
1. Pressure from the European Union (EU) institutions, in particular the European Commission and the London-based European Medicines Agency (EMA)
The reform of EU medicinal law in 2011 granted ‘authorised health-care professionals’ the ability to prescribe unregistered medicines for patients, an exemption principally designed to allow doctors to prescribe off-label. Ever since, there has been pressure on the UK to reform the herbalist’s exemption in British law that was won following intensive campaigns by herbalists back in the 1960s. While it is down to each EU Member State to determine what constitutes an “authorised health-care professional”, the fact that anyone can currently call themselves a herbalist under UK law does little to instil public confidence in the herbalist profession. This is despite the fact that the vast majority of herbalists are both highly trained and clinically experienced in their respective areas.
2. Media and political pressure by skeptics
There has been a concerted effort by organisations like Sense About Science, especially through its patron and peer, self-confessed skeptic Lord Dick Taverne, to badmouth herbalism. Taverne and others tend to use fallacious information and demonstrate a total disrespect for the extensive literature on medical herbalism and plant medicine (itself the foundation on which the pharmaceutical industry has been built).
Lest we forget, here is investigative writer Martin J Walker's entry on Lord Taverne from his latest book, Dirty Medicine: The Handbook: "A great friend and colleague of David Sainsbury, who became Minister of Science under New Labour in 1997, he and Taverne were partially responsible for the New Labour victory. After 1997 the two of them designed and put into practice the whole lobby structure intended to defend pharmaceutical corporations and corporate GM [genetically modified] science. In the early 2000s, Taverne set up the Science Media Centre and Sense About Science, with his newfound ex-RCP [Revolutionary Communist Party] colleagues". It's a safe bet, then, that Dick Taverne prefers the views of Edzard Ernst to the thousands of papers demonstrating positive health benefits of herbal products, accessible via numerous databases, including the Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database, Natural Standard or PubMed.
The skeptics' key message, which has had considerable airtime in major British newspapers, is essentially as follows: statutory regulation would lend authority and credence to a profession that does not deserve it.
On 24th April 2013, Lord Taverne said in a debate in the House of Lords:
“My view is that the Government should not establish a register for unlicensed herbal medicines. To quote that indefatigable battler against quack science, Professor David Colquhoun, herbal medicine means,
"Giving patients an unknown dose of an ill-defined drug, of unknown effectiveness and unknown safety".
My objection is that licensing will confer on practitioners supplying these medicines a spurious respectability and credibility that can do great harm."
Call to Action – for UK citizens only!
We need to show the UK government that this is one promise that it should keep. If the UK government is concerned about the ‘harm’ that Taverne and others speak about, why leave herbalists completely unregulated - which is effectively what would happen? Self-regulation is great, but we know that opponents of herbal medicine will keep hammering home the potential risks posed by bogus operators or products that are contaminated or spiked with dangerous drugs.
This issue is really about people’s choice. It’s about standing up against bullying not only by the European institutions, but also by the noisy skeptics that represent a tiny minority of the UK population with extreme views.
More importantly, it’s about maintaining the most fundamental healthcare tradition ever known to humanity: using plants, and products derived from plants, to manage our health. This is a fundamental right and freedom that people around the world have had to fight for, many times over, to maintain.
We need Conservative MPs, in particular, to exert pressure at the highest levels to ensure that David Cameron’s government doesn’t backtrack on its promise.
Face-to-face meetings and handwritten and personalised letters are the most powerful when they come from members of a given MP’s constituency. Form letters rarely get read by MPs.
UK citizens – find your Conservative MP in your constituency – enter your postcode and please arrange a meeting and write by the end of this week. Given how imminent we think the announcement is, we need to exert maximum pressure in the coming days – and this pressure must come from the people, people who are passionate about the right to receive herbal medicines from herbal medicine practitioners.
Suggested structure of your letter
You can of course write what you want. But the following are some pointers that might help.
Dear [full name of MP]
I am deeply concerned that there has been no progress with the government’s promise to develop a framework for statutory regulation of herbalists. The promise was made over 2 years ago by Andrew Lansley when he was Secretary of State for Health. Two Department of Health committees and another two public consultations have come out strongly in favour of statutory regulation, yet why such a delay?
I am even more concerned to hear rumours/suggestions/murmurings that the Conservative government may be about to do a U-turn and break its promise.
[Provide 2 or 3 sentences expressing your view as to why receiving herbal medicines from a herbal medicine practitioner is important to you e.g. these products have helped you, members of your family or friends of yours in the past, you believe in maintaining freedom of choice in healthcare, you are concerned that a lack of statutory regulation may expose the public to unacceptable risks from bogus suppliers and unsafe herbal medicines]
I appeal to you to do what you can to prevent the government from breaking its promise and to either move forward to regulate herbalists by statute in the very near future, or provide a guarantee that the existing herbalist’s exemption provided currently by The Human Medicines Regulations 2012, is not repealed.
Given the urgency of this issue, I look forward to receiving your response at your earliest possible convenience.
Yours sincerely
[Name, address including postcode, email address, telephone number]
For our own records, and to gauge MP responses, it would greatly help the effectiveness of our campaign if you could email responses that you receive to [email protected] with the subject ‘MP response to SR’.
Please do what you can to get this message out far and wide, to your own contacts, to your local health store, your practitioner clinic and to any other individual, group or company that you think might share our concerns.
We will be lobbying intensively in Westminster over the next 2 weeks, so we are very grateful to UK citizens for your help and support in our joint attempt to safeguard the future of herbal medicine in the UK. Please remember, a win in the UK, will also set a precedent elsewhere in Europe.
ANH Europe Nurture traditional medicinal cultures campaign page
Comments
your voice counts
Anonymous
09 May 2013 at 12:34 am
It would be really helpful if you made it possible to cut and paste your suggested text. I realise that a personalised approach is best none the less aspects of your suggested text could be helpfully copied over into a letter and save lots of time...
Such an important issue, everything helps to make the process of writing to MPs easy
john taylor
09 May 2013 at 10:37 am
I shall of course write to my MP on this seriously concerning matter. However let us all be in no doubt that the government are under enormous pressure from the massive Pharmaceutical organisations throughout the UK and Europe to impede any real development of herbal medecine providers. These and other corporations in Europe & UK are part of the subjugating tactics to destroy any form of competition or alternatives.
D Whitley
09 May 2013 at 11:30 am
Thank you for raising this very important issue
Anonymous
09 May 2013 at 12:11 pm
Dear MP and others
Please do not confuse the welfare of the people of the UK with the agenda of pharmaceutical companies.
Do not confuse the wishes of a large number of UK habitants with that of the european union.
It is in the interests of the pharma companies to suppress and ban the use of herbs, alternative medicine and alternative practioners. These big companies are not thinking in the best interests of the uk but of their pockets, they are greedy and will not share. There is room for all, for alternative and conventional medicine and both have their place in the world of medicine.
We as humans have the right to choose which medicine is best for us, nobody not the goverment, nor the Eu have that right. the place of the EU and government is to make sure that everything is above board and done in a safe manner.
I am very concerned with the rumours that the government is about to do a u turn and break its promise to regulate the safety of herbal medicines...to strip us of our right to alternative/herbal medicine and practioners of herbal medicine. I am concerned that you are about to remove/repeal the the human medicines regulations act of 2012.
We need these medicines and their practiconers. If all the different medicines, alternative/herbal and conventional etc came together we would have the most wonderful system for ultimate healthcare. As it is conventional medicine does no have all the answers/cures. It is necessary to allow people the right to choose and take responsibility for their lives and healthcare. Your job as a government is to look after our best interests, to make sure that we are not bullied by the EU or big pharmacuetical companies, to make sure that our health does not suffer because of some trusted people in powerful places are greedy. Skeptics, the EU nor the EMA has the right to decide what is good for everyone, or what every country should do. If somebody is skeptic so what nobody is forcing them to use it.
Personaly I use natural medicin and conventional medicine and will continue to do no no matter what the EU or the goverment decides, you nor they have the right to deny me my health choices.
By repealing this act you are returning the people of the UK to the dark ages, to backstreet herbalists and practiconers, to people trying to do it on their own with little or no knowledge. this is so dangerous and not in the best interests of the UK.
Conventional medicine is not the bee all and I am sure neither is herbal/natural medicine but the one thing I do know is this ....
we must retain the right to choose for ourselves and by retaining this divine right the intergetory, health and best interests of the uk will be served.
Do not allow those with vested interests to destroy the UK.
sincerely
C. Benner
ANH Admin
09 May 2013 at 12:18 pm
We have now italicised the suggested wording for the letter so you should be able to copy and paste it more easily!
Anonymous
09 May 2013 at 12:37 pm
This so needs a well worded AVAAZ e-petition - which ANH and NIMH circulate to their members and their members into their patients.
This also needs coverage in the national press - to put pressure on the government to deny they are doing yet another U turn - and this should be linked to the FACT that the pharmaceutical industry
a) hides adverse reactions and deaths arising from their new unproven drugs from regulators (eg Roche)
b) tricks governments around the world to buy unproven drugs (eg Tamiflu) and fails to provide evidence of their ability to work in advance of selling them
c) knows that 'most of their drugs dont' work on most people most of the time' (Allen Roses Glaxo 2003)
d) that a 'standardised' extract sounds reassuring to a non-informed audience - but defeats the whole objective of herbal medicine and demonstrates the complete problem with pharma taking over the industry and their ignorance of how herbs work holistically
e) that as animals, herbs and natural food are essential to human life and have been used medicinally since prehistoric times - "let food be they medicine" etc
f) it is our Human Right to self medicate - otherwise we have less rights than animals and these proposals may force the industry to go underground - with internet purchases of herbs from dubious foreign sources contaminated with pollution or even the wrong herbs
g)Herbalists have safeguarded the knowledge of herbs for 1000's of years and it is only know, when artificial drugs are no longer working and being proven to be a scam, that 'bio-piracy' of whole plants is arising - and our government is enabling it.
h) that the government could use this as an example to the British Public of how it will stand up for our independent rights (does anyone know anyone on UKIP - maybe they'd like to roll in on this one!?!)
I can not do this. I am not a herbalist. It needs to come from someone with professional credibility. Who ?
Amy S Leslie
09 May 2013 at 1:12 pm
I have spent the last 6 years studying for a biosciience specializing in herbal medicine so that i can treat my patients successfully and more importantly safely. If we don't have regulation it leaves the profession wide open to any one with no training to be free to advise and dangerously treat often vulnerable patients. regulation means safety for patients and peace of mind for practitioners.
ANH Admin
09 May 2013 at 5:17 pm
We agree that petitions can be effective, but they are easy to ignore. For example, Greenpeace and Avaaz collected a million signatures on a petition a couple of years ago (http://www.greenpeace.org/eu-unit/en/News/2010/europeans-call-for-gm-freeze-06-10-10/) and, although the European Commission are obliged to consider policy changes based on that petition when there are that many signatures, the petition was ignored. One of the dangers of petitions is that they make people feel like they are doing something positive by signing them, but this incident proved them largely ineffective at anything other than proving strength of feeling. We would prefer to encourage our supporters to take the route of writing to their MPs to get their concerns heard. Particularly on this occasion, since we hear the government will make a decision in the next 2 weeks, so an immediate avalanche of letters will be the most effective campaigning tool.
Getting the issue of herbal medicine into the mainstream media isn't easy, but we and the likes of Michael McIntyre of the EHTPA have been working in this area for many years getting it into the public domain, and are continuing to encourage the most effective means of action. Don't forget that mass mobilisation of herbalists and supportive citizens has been highly effective at preventing government restrictions on herbal medicine in the past, regardless of media coverage.
Jane Mathew-Byrne
09 May 2013 at 8:25 pm
To be really honest I don't know where I would be without the support and prescribing of natural medicine. Am really sensitive to medication prescribed by our NHS specialists and even then, it doesn't work!
Sheena Hoppenot
09 May 2013 at 10:57 pm
Please do not be swayed by the lobbying of the Big Biotech companies whose only interest is financial.
People have every right to choose their own form of "medicine". Please remember that Hippocrates said : Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease". Nature is man's best friend when it comes to healing.
Victoria Ford
10 May 2013 at 9:20 pm
I am deeply concerned that there has been no progress with the government’s promise to develop a framework for statutory regulation of herbalists. The promise was made over 2 years ago by Andrew Lansley when he was Secretary of State for Health. Two Department of Health committees and another two public consultations have come out strongly in favour of statutory regulation, yet why such a delay?
I am even more concerned to hear rumours/suggestions/murmurings that the Conservative government may be about to do a U-turn and break its promise.
I have lived with a diagnosis of incurable Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer since January 2008 and have made an informed decision to use Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine as part of my treatment programme. I am one of only about a third of those with Stage IV Metastatic Breast Cancer to be alive after 5 years and TCHM has been a vital part of that success. I wish to maintain the freedom of choice in healthcare which is paid for by myself and not supplied by the NHS. Lack of statutory regulation may expose the public to unacceptable risks from bogus suppliers and unsafe herbal medicines.
I appeal to you to do what you can to prevent the government from breaking its promise and to either move forward to regulate herbalists by statute in the very near future, or provide a guarantee that the existing herbalist’s exemption provided currently by The Human Medicines Regulations 2012, is not repealed.
Given the urgency of this issue, I look forward to receiving your response at your earliest possible convenience.
Anonymous
16 May 2013 at 11:38 am
and if your MP is not a Conservative? what is the best way to make your feelings know in that instance please?
ANH Admin
17 May 2013 at 6:05 pm
Hi there, there are two main things you can do:
1) Getting the word out to everyone you know, via Facebook, Twitter, other social networks, email and word of mouth
2) Asking your local independent health store to get involved. We have two flyers available for download - a campaign flyer that they can display in their windows or in the shop, and a 'sign & send' flyer for customers to send to their MPs. You can access the flyers here: http://anhinternational.org/node/4017
Many thanks for all your help with this important campaign!
karen lawton and Fiona Heckels la
18 May 2013 at 3:53 pm
I as a herbalist don;t want to be regulated by this government thank you very much -it will mean a lot less freedoms in prescriptions and i won't be able to grow and make my own remedies????
So why would I want this?
Please don't write to any MP's about this -write to them about Health freedom and the Cancer Act!
Anonymous
20 May 2013 at 10:37 pm
Hi, think this campaign is great. Could another option be to circulate a link to an online petition which people can circulate via their e-mail contacts asking friends, families and colleagues to click for their agreement and share? May be a quick way to get a lot of people on board. Thanks
ANH Admin
23 May 2013 at 6:07 pm
Hi, please see our comment below, dated Thu, 09/05/2013 - 15:17.
kirstin Hart
08 June 2013 at 9:57 pm
Support herbal medicine!
Jacques Ransley
10 June 2013 at 8:37 pm
Has this government not made enough of a mess with everything else.
My message is: DO NOT INTERVENE IN SOMETHING YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT. THE NHS CANNOT COPE NOW WITH YOUR MESS. WHAT HOPE HAS IT GOT IF YOU STOP PEOPLE HAVING HERBAL REMEDIES THAT HAVE BENEFITED SO MANY FOR CENTURIES?
CONCENTRATE ON MAKING THIS COUNTRY A BETTER PLACE TO LIVE IN.
IS IT THE PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY THAT IS FEATHERING YOU NEST SO THAT THEY CAN CONTINUE TO PUMP PEOPLE WITH THEIR POISON?
USE YOUR COMMON SENSE AND SHOW YOU HAVE SOME MORALS
KIM
10 June 2013 at 8:40 pm
Dear MP and others
Please do not confuse the welfare of the people of the UK with the agenda of pharmaceutical companies.
Do not confuse the wishes of a large number of UK habitants with that of the european union.
It is in the interests of the pharma companies to suppress and ban the use of herbs, alternative medicine and alternative practioners. These big companies are not thinking in the best interests of the uk but of their pockets, they are greedy and will not share. There is room for all, for alternative and conventional medicine and both have their place in the world of medicine.
We as humans have the right to choose which medicine is best for us, nobody not the goverment, nor the Eu have that right. the place of the EU and government is to make sure that everything is above board and done in a safe manner.
I am very concerned with the rumours that the government is about to do a u turn and break its promise to regulate the safety of herbal medicines...to strip us of our right to alternative/herbal medicine and practioners of herbal medicine. I am concerned that you are about to remove/repeal the the human medicines regulations act of 2012.
We need these medicines and their practiconers. If all the different medicines, alternative/herbal and conventional etc came together we would have the most wonderful system for ultimate healthcare. As it is conventional medicine does no have all the answers/cures. It is necessary to allow people the right to choose and take responsibility for their lives and healthcare. Your job as a government is to look after our best interests, to make sure that we are not bullied by the EU or big pharmacuetical companies, to make sure that our health does not suffer because of some trusted people in powerful places are greedy. Skeptics, the EU nor the EMA has the right to decide what is good for everyone, or what every country should do. If somebody is skeptic so what nobody is forcing them to use it.
Personaly I use natural medicin and conventional medicine and will continue to do no no matter what the EU or the goverment decides, you nor they have the right to deny me my health choices.
By repealing this act you are returning the people of the UK to the dark ages, to backstreet herbalists and practiconers, to people trying to do it on their own with little or no knowledge. this is so dangerous and not in the best interests of the UK.
Conventional medicine is not the bee all and I am sure neither is herbal/natural medicine but the one thing I do know is this ....
we must retain the right to choose for ourselves and by retaining this divine right the intergetory, health and best interests of the uk will be served.
Do not allow those with vested interests to destroy the UK.
Anonymous
10 June 2013 at 8:42 pm
Herbal medicine are safer remedies than NHS drugs. Also the process of making them pollutes less. Why continuing producing something that isn't healthy to the citizens?
Please, do not discard the herbal medicine from the market, please!
Maria UK
10 June 2013 at 8:49 pm
Please don't do a u-turn on this. Both myself, and many of my friends use herbal products from well qualified practioners - we have a right to choose.
Anonymous
10 June 2013 at 9:08 pm
Herbal medicine has been a life-saver for me. I am well and thriving largely due to the effects of herbal medicines taken over protracted periods as it works with the body's natural rhythms and not immediately, it takes time.
I have always gone to see qualified, respectable and responsible practitioners.
I am very concerned to hear that the Conservative Government may be about to do a u-turn on its promise to develop a strategy for regulation of herbal medicine and I am at a loss to understand who benefits from this policy.
I thrive on a mixture of health support. The wonderful NHS, as well as using alternative therapies which I pay for especially herbal medicine.
I would feel devastated if I was no longer able to do so.
Anonymous
10 June 2013 at 9:33 pm
whats up with this goverment they promis 1 thing then renage on it if its in there manifesto the have a right to implement it
Lizzy mcCann
10 June 2013 at 9:43 pm
please keep to your word and recognise that this age old natural
medicne has a real and valuable place in british medicine .
WE have a right to choose what we take to help us heal ,keep your word and support herbalists continue to do good work.
Anonymous
10 June 2013 at 9:58 pm
wrong
Anonymous
10 June 2013 at 10:02 pm
This will put many people into unemployment and deprive countless others of very effective healthcare. Regulation is appropriate to a point but destroying something entirely is unacceptable. When we take into consideration the risks we take with conventional medicine and treatments on a daily basis they are effectively equal and should be considered so.
Anonymous
11 June 2013 at 11:37 am
Our bodies are created by our Creator, God. Only if we live in accordance with His ways can we remain healthy.
It is God, who grows herbs for our healing. Pharmaceuticals are toxic substances, man's inventions - foreign to the body - they CANNOT restore us to good health, and in this sense, they are NO medicines, but cause further ill health and suffering.
IF we have the right to health and happiness, we should have the right to herbal medicines; in this polluted world, it is hard enough to stay well - take away the right to herbal medication, the medication which our Creator, in His great love provides us with, and you do away with the human right to health and healing.
The Bible tells us that we cannot serve God and mammon - Luke 16:13 - Jesus said, "Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out". John 12:31
Jesus said, "Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."
Jonathan
11 June 2013 at 12:18 pm
We have a right to natural remedies
Anonymous
13 June 2013 at 9:32 am
The funny thing about Politics is that it is meant to be from the people to the people, For All of Us, To all of us have a better life future; though, politicians and their campaigns play it so bad... it is always the same : they talk before elections, non-stop, saying things they think we want to hear and then, who is elected, does not talk so much to us. Parties altogether change and make Laws without us knowing and then OH! It's too late, we are being controlled!! Instead of living as ONE, as we are, and no MAN can definitely change this. This is a passage temporary and we know better that this is stopping!! But meanwhile spread and share as most of us, who are not in contact with NAtural remedies, is not aware of this!! Due to the non-communication of the Government!!
Anonymous
01 July 2013 at 7:53 pm
as a long time user of herbal supplements'
all mine come fro Health span (trustworthy)
I find this depressing!
I think this is all EU driven!!
the EU* have been trying to ban herbal-product's for years now
and Kameron(lap-dog)
that he is*
just rolls over and says yes of-course*
it's worthwhile checking up on human-rights!
because as a disabled-person,
I have checked on mine and the UNCHRDP*
has articles that give disabled-people the right to freedom of choice!
and as the UK* ratified the treaty in 2007
it would be against the law to refuse me the choice to buy herbal if I want!
hope this helps someone?
fight for your rights!
or vote UKIP* in 2015
Lin H
18 December 2014 at 7:00 pm
Herbal medicine has been a life-saver for me & thousands alike. I am well and thriving due to the effects of herbal medicines taken over periods as it works with the body's natural rhythms.
I have always seen a qualified and responsible practitioner.
I am very concerned to hear that the Conservative Government may be about to do a u-turn on its promise to develop a strategy for regulation of herbal medicine and I am at a loss to understand who benefits from this policy.
I thrive on a mixture of health support. The NHS has its place and does some amazing things, but we (the public) should be able to make our own choice of health care. For those of us that choose herbalist practiontioners, it is after all our own decision. Afterall I pay for this alternative care and I should be able to make my own choice. I personally have improved health since seeing a herbalist practiontioner. And I should be able to decide for myself which route I choose.
Your voice counts
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