FDA Attempting to Regulate Supplements, Herbs and Juices as "Drugs"

Said1

Hubba Hubba
Apr 18, 2005
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Das Kapital
if you have any sage in your garden you have a powerful hallucenogen. if you have morning glory which produces seeds, you have the precursor to LSD, LSA. There's some pretty nasty herbs out there. i'd advise using them with caution but i'd also tell the powers-that-be to regulate oxygen and CO2 before herbs.

Isnt it true that you can grow opium poppies legally but not cannabis plants? isnt that weird?

How can sage be a hallucinogen? What I mean is, how can it be injested in order to produce the appearance of pink elephants?
 

gc

Electoral Member
May 9, 2006
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I assume the FDA decisions cannot be enforced in Canada, word must have gotten out that cancer (as 1 example) can be 'eliminated ' by keeping your ph level at 7.3.

Can you show me a peer-reviewed article from a respectable journal which says that eating baking soda will eliminate cancer??
 

L Gilbert

Winterized
Nov 30, 2006
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the-brights.net
Isnt it true that you can grow opium poppies legally but not cannabis plants? isnt that weird?
It is in Canada. I don't know about other countries, but it is legal to grow poppies. Um, I might add that one can use just about any poppy to produce opium. I like poppies but prefer to eat the seeds on buns and whatnit rather than smoke the pods or whatever they do to get high. Looking at them is cool, too. Just got a black variety, an apple green variety, and one red with black markings to add to my surroundings. :)
 

tamarin

House Member
Jun 12, 2006
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Self, I can wait. She's about at the end of her rope and anything is worth a try. Do what you can. Any idea would be appreciated.
 

selfactivated

Time Out
Apr 11, 2006
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Its like Saint Johns wart When I first heard it was a natral cure for Bi Polar I went off ALL my meds and bought the stuff..........It wasnt pretty! It IS a anti depressant BUT NOT to REPLCE your meds to help your meds and in severe Bi Polar...........It will send you into MANIA! I cant even take my ecinasia anymore OR B complexes!

Im posting this here too because I dont want anyone saying Im off my rocker and being hypocritical. I know first hand the dangers of messing with the wrong herbals......BUT somethings are quieting like peppermint. If Im nausease I suck or drink peppermint. Now I cant take Valerium it interacts with my meds BUT i gave it to the kids to sooth them after a long day if they had troubles settling. Pediatrician agreed.
 

karrie

OogedyBoogedy
Jan 6, 2007
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i'd advise using them with caution but i'd also tell the powers-that-be to regulate oxygen and CO2 before herbs.

Ack Hermann!!! I can't believe I'm reading this from YOU! Most FDA guidelines are aimed at people who SELL the herbs, not at people growing them for personal use. FDA guidelines surrounding herbals are often aimed at keeping people from doing things like the mangosteen thread you just got angry with. Trying to market herbs as a cureall for a dozen different things under the sun, with no scientific basis.

CO2 and Oxygen have NEVER been marketed to me as a cure for fibromyalgia, yet almost every herb under the sun HAS.
Chronic illnesses are so often targeted by snakeoil salesmen looking to tell you their cure will fix everything. Right now, so long as it's herbs and not true pharmaceuticals, they can tell you just that, with no repercussions. I'm all for seeing desperate protected from that.
It wouldn't stop us from sharing our knowledge on the subject, so long as we're not trying to 'sell the cure'.
 

hermanntrude

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Jun 23, 2006
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my point was that oxygen and co2 can be toxic and dangerous. More so than some herbs. So if they're going to regulate stuff rather than encourage a common-sense approach, they should start with the really nasty stuff.

fair point about the marketing though
 

Dexter Sinister

Unspecified Specialist
Oct 1, 2004
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Regina, SK
I'd agree that regulating food supplements, herbs, and juices as drugs is a little over the top, but according to the FDA's regulations, if you make health-related or medicinal claims about a product, that's the chance you take. If, for instance, you're going to claim that colloidal silver cures over 600 diseases (it doesn't, by the way, there's no good evidence it cures anything) you're claiming in effect that it's a drug as the FDA interprets these things. The same is generally true in Canada: claim therapeutic benefits for your product, you'd better be prepared to prove it.

Regulation in itself isn't such a bad idea though. These are processed products intended for human consumption; wouldn't you like some assurance that what you're getting is what it claims to be, in the amounts indicated on the label, and that it actually works? Without regulation there's no quality control. Stephen Barrett's Quackwatch site reports many instances of herbal products being tested and found to contain much less or much more of the product than the label claims, they're often contaminated with micro-organisms and heavy metals, some of them are known to have adverse drug interactions, and many of them haven't ever been properly tested for their supposed therapeutic effects. There's a lot of quackery out there in the supplements and herbs business, so be careful.

A little common sense is indicated too, though it seems to be lamentably uncommon sometimes. You can turn orange and poison yourself with carrot juice if you drink enough of it. Just because some of something is a good thing doesn't mean huge quantities of it are better.
 

karrie

OogedyBoogedy
Jan 6, 2007
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my point was that oxygen and co2 can be toxic and dangerous. More so than some herbs. So if they're going to regulate stuff rather than encourage a common-sense approach, they should start with the really nasty stuff.

fair point about the marketing though

Well, when the FDA's involved, it usually boils down to marketing. And I'm sure if someone started selling O2 claiming unproven health benefits, they'd be all over it like white on rice. It's their job.