The FDA is encroaching on our medical freedoms again. This time they are attacking homeopathy.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has proposed new guidelines for homeopathic remedies that would give it the power to ban properly formulated homeopathic products currently legal under the Food Drug & Cosmetic Act, which governs the FDA.
Homeopathy is a viable healing system discovered by Samuel Hahnemann over 200 years ago. It is "The Peoples' Medicine,"-- inexpensive and easily available, and its track record for quickly resolving acute illnesses is remarkable.
Today, however, homeopathy and our access to this safe and effective healing system is under attack by the FDA and it needs your voice today.
Currently, homeopathic remedies are manufactured under the supervision of the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States (HPUS) and they are classified as inherently safe. The HPUS is a division of the FDA.
The FDA, however, is seeking to change the classification of homeopathic remedies and to place them in the same category as pharmaceutical drugs. If the FDA is successful with this objective, homeopathic remedies would be subject to the same rigorous and extremely expensive testing standards as are new and potentially toxic drugs manufactured by the big pharmaceutical manufacturers. This classification change would force homeopathic manufacturers here in the United States out of business.
Americans for Homeopathy Choice (AHC) is a grassroots organization formed for the purpose of protecting homeopathy in the United States by encouraging the FDA to retain current classification of homeopathy.
AHC notes that "The proposed guidelines would also change the status of homeopathic remedies from a special category of medicine and put them into a group considered 'unapproved.' This means that all homeopathic remedies would become technically illegal and could be banned at any time by order of the FDA."
In addition, "the FDA's proposed guidelines would allow the agency to ban a particular homeopathic remedy simply because an increasing number of people are using it. (Emphasis added.)This is because such remedies 'may cause users to delay or discontinue medical treatments [using pharmaceuticals] that have been found safe and effective.'"
Americans for Homeopathy is seeking 100,000 comments supporting the retention of homeopathy's current classification on the FDA's Public Comment page.
Homeopathy in the United States
To underscore Homeopathy's efficacy, you need only go to your local well-stocked health food store, and there, nestled among the herbs and supplements, you will find the Boiron Homeopathic Remedies display. Dozens of remedies in two potencies are available at a remarkably reasonable cost considering how effective they are for treating the symptoms they address.
The fact that Homeopathy is widely practiced throughout the world is further evidence of its efficacy.
Here in the US, we have around a half dozen remedy manufacturers, the oldest of which, Washington Homeopathics, has been in business since 1873.
With the passage of the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1988, the FDA issued Compliance Policy Guidance (CPG) sec. 400.400 that placed oversight for the manufacture of homeopathic remedies under the governance of the Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States (HPUS). Homeopathic remedies manufactured according to the specific procedures delineated in the HPUS manufacturing guidelines receive HPUS approval and these remedies display HPUS acronym on their labels.
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