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WHAT CODEX MEANS TO US

The war for health and survival has begun. The Codex Alimentarius Commission, run by the United Nations, is empowered to set standards of operation for the health industry. Created jointly by the World Health Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Codex is a set of standards internationally applied, so that health consumables such as vitamins, food supplements, minerals, herbs and herbal products could be shipped from country to country, reducing the problems posed by having different standards in every nation. Codex is working to control such things as the sale of dietary supplements for preventative or therapeutic reasons and the potency of natural remedies. It also seeks to convert the definitions of many supplements to drugs and to make its rules binding on every UN member nation.  Consisting of delegates from 163 member nations, the Codex Alimentarius Commission represents 97 percent of the world's population. It meets every two years, either in Rome or Geneva. Ninety percent of CODEX representatives are from multinational pharmaceutical corporations. Moreover, the food supplement industry and the public are barred from attending its meetings.  

The Codex Alimentarius Commission's reach is much broader than dietary supplements. Its committees are also working on standards for pesticide residue, labeling of all kinds of foods, food additives and nutrients, veterinary medicine and drugs, as well as standards and methods for analysis. The function of this organization is to establish standards for all food worldwide and to enforce those standards through the power of the World Trade Organization. However, the directive in its present form will dramatically limit future innovation in the food supplements industry and will seriously impact retail outlets, traditional practitioners and consumers who choose to take responsibility for their own health and let food be their medicine.  

The Food and Drug Act defines a "drug" as including any substance "for use in the diagnosis, treatment, mitigation or prevention of a disease, disorder, abnormal physical state, or the symptoms thereof, in man or animal." This broad definition can be interpreted to include vitamins like Vitamin C, used to treat and prevent the disorder of scurvy; plants and herbs with therapeutic uses like garlic, ginger and peppermint; and even ordinary food and water since these act to prevent the abnormal physical states of dehydration and starvation.

Therefore, once someone claims that a vitamin or herb can have a therapeutic benefit, it becomes a drug. This means that peppermint and ginger tea can be considered a drug, if the brand name or label suggests that it could be used as digestive aid. It is not even necessary for the person selling the herb to make a health claim for the product. As long as someone, somewhere has claimed that the herb or vitamin can have a health benefit, it is considered a drug. In fact, some herbs are banned from sale simply because their names indicate a possible therapeutic use. Eyebright, cramp bark and feverfew (lemon grass) can all be prohibited for sale, simply because their names denote their traditional medicinal use. The regulations are not watertight, however. There is still a grey area around herbs sold as food supplements. By not making medicinal claims the makers can avoid regulation.

The banning of herbal supplements is following the same path that the banning of cannabis did in the thirties.  The contemporary worldwide sanctions against cannabis had their genesis in the United States ' Marijuana Tax Act, passed in 1937, which made the sale of cannabis prohibitively expensive, punishable by law. This eventually developed into full-scale prohibition, with international treaties enacted through the United Nations forcing other member countries to comply. International pressure is one of the main reasons cannabis is illegal in most countries today. A pharmaceutical (synthesized) version of THC as a drug for multiple sclerosis is now being sold in Canada.  THC, (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol ), is the active ingredient in cannabis.

Now, however, the Codex Alimentarius Commission is teaming up with the World Trade Organization to bring international enforcement to the dietary-supplement battle.  International treaties, like the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), can coerce countries to conform to worldwide bans on herbal supplements. If countries fail to comply with Codex, it will be isolated from trade with other "family" countries of GATT and NAFTA, until it agrees to ban and restrict the availability of all dietary supplements, including herbs and vitamins. This accounts for virtually every country on the planet. Traditionally, the threat of trade barriers is reserved for countries lenient drug policies, so the interdependence of most countries on international trade can be used effectively to negate a country's internal powers of democracy. Although Codex is meant only as a recommended standard, both GATT and NAFTA include sections that refer back to it, making it enforceable by trade sanctions.

If vitamins, herbs, and other dietary supplements are to be banned or restricted to protect public health, then it would make sense that health foods must pose an equal or greater health risk than the patented pharmaceutical drugs, which are created to replace them.  Yet vitamins and herbs are the most risk-free treatments in the world. When released to the general population, herbal treatments for particular diseases have demonstrated their safety and effectiveness more, than their synthetically-produced pharmaceutical counterparts. Examples of the safety and effectiveness of herbs over dietary supplements include marijuana as a treatment for glaucoma, horsetail as a treatment for osteoporosis, and saw palmetto as a treatment for benign prostate enlargement. Pharmaceutical drug treatments for glaucoma can cause headaches, drug allergy, metabolic acidosis, rashes, cataracts, hypotension, blood dyscrasia, kidney stones, and ulcers. Similarly, pharmaceutical solutions to benign prostate enlargement are approximately 60% less effective than saw palmetto, and conventional treatments for osteoporosis increase the patient's risk of developing cancer. A US government study, in 1990, found that of 198 approved pharmaceutical drugs released for sale to the public from 1976-1985, 102 had serious side effects and had to be either taken off the market or labeled as dangerous.

The Codex Alimentarius will also restrict traditionally proven remedies by subjecting them to the same ineffective and expensive testing procedures as new pharmaceutical drugs. The proposal also includes an amendment to ban health food, vitamins, and herbs from being sold for therapeutic uses. In summary, it states:

 1. No dietary supplement is sold for preventative or therapeutic use. Any product making a health claim becomes a registered drug, controlled by the pharmaceutical industry.

2. No dietary supplement, sold as a food, can exceed dosage or potency levels set by the commission. This means that consumer access to dietary supplements will be limited to the Recommended Daily Amount (RDA) as a maximum limit for vitamins. Supplements without an RDA would be illegal to sell because they are considered drugs.

3. Codex standards for dietary supplements would become the reference international standard under GATT, and NAFTA.

4. All new supplements would be banned automatically, unless they go through the Codex approval process, which calls for Good Manufacturing Practices and Inspections (GMP) such as those used for the pharmaceutical industry.

Traditional medicines will also have to carry specific warnings about interactions with other medicines as well as statements on whether their effectiveness has been demonstrated in clinical trials. This allows makers of effective traditional products to continue their legitimate trade while making it difficult for unscrupulous companies to launch new "wonder cures" without conducting full-scale trials. This approach tries to make quality control for herbal products the same as it is for other medicines. Those practising herbal medicine also face tighter regulation. They will be brought under control using a system of professional self-regulation. 

In Europe, herbal remedies can only be licensed once it is shown to be safe and produced to high standards. This puts them through the same regulatory tests as pharmaceutical drugs, at estimated costs for licenses ranging from £10,000 to millions of pounds. It would deter all but the largest companies from producing well-used herbal remedies such as St Johns Wort, Ginkgo Biloba, Red Clover and Oil of Evening Primrose. To qualify, products must have been on the global market since 1973 and in Europe for 15 years, thus discriminating against development of any new herbal discoveries. At a time when our search for alternatives to antibiotic-resistant pathogens is likely to focus on natural anti-microbials, restrictions on traditional medicine could prove hazardous.

Disease and dependence continue to be the tools by which multinational corporations enslave the world's populace. When the Europeans set out to conquer North America , their arsenal included disease and dependence. The Amerindian tribes were less resistant to European disease, and they died by  the millions. Having become dependent on goods brought to the New World , the Amerindians forgot their traditional ways of life, and were forced into trading skins for guns, metal kettles and knives. It was the fur trade that really opened up North America to European settlers.

Backed by the pharmaceutical industry, the Codex Alimentarius legislation will effectively " pharmaceuticalise" the dietary supplement industry. It will force most manufacturers out of business and allow a pharmaceutical takeover of the industry. The multinational pharmaceutical companies, by placing themselves between us and the traditional healing arts, ensure that their hold over us remains strong. With a monopoly on health, the pharmaceutical companies will have the power to extort the last penny from ailing seniors and sick children, while those who cannot pay are left to die.

What does Codex mean to Afrikan people?

According to the World Health Organization, traditional medicine refers to such systems as traditional Chinese medicine, Indian ayurveda, and Arabic unani medicine, and to various forms of indigenous medicine in Africa. Therapies can also include acupuncture, acupressure and spiritual exercises. In Afrika, traditional healers and herbal remedies made from plants play an important role in the health of millions of people. Afrika has a long and impressive list of medicinal plants based on local knowledge. In addition, our melanated biochemistry requires a type of nutritional support (Afrikan Dietetics) that is not readily available in Western cultures or though western pharmaceutical medicines, which includes race-based drugs. The incompatibility of western pharmaceuticals with our biological makeup and melanin is what makes the Codex very threatening to people of Afrikan descent.

The science of Afrikan biochemistry is based on the biochemical molecule melanin, the molecule that gives Afrikans their characteristic colours. Melanin is found in the skin, hair, and eyes, but it is also contained in many vital organs of the body as well, such as in the nervous system, the spinal cord, the glands, the brain, the DNA, the muscles, intestines, heart and liver.  Its presence is found throughout nature and in many of our foods, such as plants, seeds, fruits, and vegetables. It is  also found in animals, the soil, the bark of trees, in rivers, streams, and seas. For most of us, a lack of melanin-sustaining herbs and foods, such as those found in plant phytonutrients, is one of the contributing causes for our nutritional deficiencies and illnesses. The Afrikan diet is a nutrient-base system. A lack of access to medicinal herbs and our dietary supplements will have a tremendous consequences on the health and welfare of people of Afrikan descent.

Cost and availability are also factors that favor traditional healing. For example, in Uganda there is one doctor for every 18,000 people, but there is one traditional healer for every 150. Some people live too far from the closest conventional clinic; others simply cannot afford chemical drugs. There is a comfort level Ugandans have with their traditional healers, who are members of the community and live next door to the people they treat. Eighty percent of sub-Saharan Africans use traditional healing methods. 

In September 2004, the Ugandan government brought traditional medicine, herbs, animal parts, and minerals out of the bush and began to integrate it into its health system. Uganda has also established a commission to develop standards and determine which practices should be sanctioned. The East African nation became among the first on the continent to add traditional healing studies to its university curriculum. This move underscores the important role that traditional methods and herbs play in African healthcare, reflecting their effectiveness, affordability, and the skepticism that many people here have toward modern medicine. Government officials concede that traditional medicine greatly influences the lives of most Africans. All over the continent, governments have given official status to traditions that were pushed underground when white colonists imported their own medicine. South Africa's parliament passed a bill recognizing traditional healers as healthcare professionals. Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria, and Mali have already mainstreamed traditional health practitioners.

When the medicinally beneficial hemp plant was outlawed, we lost a versatile medicine, as well as an efficient means to produce paper, fabric, and many other items. This resulted in the unchecked cutting of our forests and the massive use of pesticides to grow less hardy cotton. If all herbs and medicinal plants are outlawed, from where will our traditional medicine come?