Re: How do you eat an elephant?

here's what NSF (Natural Solutions Foundation) said in its comments submitted (along with tens of thousands of ppl who endorsed their position and commented) --- see red below, esp. #3.  this is the crucial language that does make a difference:

The petition to extend the deadline

The April 22nd petition letter to extend the FDA deadline is reprinted, in part, below:

April 22, 2007

Re: FDA Docket No. 2006D-0480
Request to Extend Time Period for Comments

Reference is made to the Federal Register, February 27, 2007 (Volume 72, Number 38, Page 8756-8757), http://www.fda.gov/OHRMS/DOCKETS/98fr/E7-3259.htm, entitled: Draft Guidance for Industry on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Products and Their Regulation by the Food and Drug Administration.

In the filed comments NSF submitted to the FDA, the organization emphasized what we see as the important distinction between "treatment of disease" and its non-medical alternative, under AMA Ethics Code Opinion 3.04, "therapies that may benefit." The comments raised three demands:

1. That FDA hold public hearings before finalization of the draft guidance.

2. That FDA change the title of the guidance to use the phrase "Complementary and Alternative Modalities" and not the prejudicial "Complementary and Alternative Medicine" as in the draft.

3. That FDA recognize "therapies that may benefit" as not the same as "treatment of disease" and therefore not to be regulated as "medicine."

The organization also alerted its supporters, in keeping with its educational purposes. Many of theses individuals filed their own or supporting comments. As of the date of this request, over 108,822 have done so, by one count. This does not include about 267,063 people who tried to post comments but did not succeed, yet. Many of these remaining people may still want to submit comments, but may not be able to do so by April 30, 2007, a stated deadline for comments. While the Federal Register Notice states such a time limit for the filing of comments, there is other indication of a 90 day comment period, after the date of publication in the Register. This would extend to period until May 28, 2007.

Therefore, we are unsure of the effective end of comment period date, and as many more people want to comment, we must now request a clarification of the final date for the filing of comments and, if that date is April 30, 2007, Natural Solutions Foundation and the undersigned hereby request a 180 day extension of the period to comment, or such other extension as the Agency may consider reasonable. This issue is of such evident concern and importance to so many Americans that a substantial extension is required.

Kindly inform me by return email or facsimile of the Agency’s decision in this regard. The Foundation reserves all rights.

Thank you,
Ralph Fucetola JD, Trustee

Assert your right to health freedom, or you'll lose it

Understand that we, the members of the natural health community, are at war with the FDA. Even though we are peaceful people who would not initiate such a war, that war has been declared upon us. We must fight this effort to regulate our natural medicines out of existence, and we must do so through every peaceful means at our disposal: Signing petitions, writing letters, even perhaps marching in the streets with protest signs if it comes to that.

Do not stand by idly and let the Food and Drug Administration turn America into a medical police state, funded by Big Pharma and enforced by armed FDA agents. (See the true history of armed FDA raids here.) Preserving your access to alternative medicine products is something worth fighting for. We must meet the FDA's attempts at medical tyranny head on, with overwhelming public outrage, and we must keep at it until we restore the freedoms we have been promised by the founding father of our nation.

Today, America is neither a free democracy, nor a totalitarian police state. But it could go either way. And the direction it heads from this day forward is up to people like you. Will you demand your freedom? Or will you let it be slowly, secretly slipped away, one federal document at a time, until you wake up one day and find yourself standing alone in a world or medical tyranny where all the healers have been imprisoned, the herbs have all been banned and the public is chemically controlled under a system of lifetime medical treatment that keeps the drug corporations wealthy?

Think about where this is all headed. The CAM Guidelines spell out the path the FDA wants to take us down. It's up to people like you to stop that effort and help restore genuine health freedom in our world.

About the author: Mike Adams is a holistic nutritionist with a strong interest in personal health, the environment and the power of nature to help us all heal He has authored and published thousands of articles, interviews, consumers guies, and books on topics like health and the environment, impacting the lives of millions of readers around the world who are experiencing phenomenal health benefits from reading his articles. Adams is an honest, independent journalist and accepts no money or commissions on the third-party products he writes about or the companies he promotes. He's also the CEO of a highly successful email newsletter software company that develops software used to send permission email campaigns to subscribers. Adams is currently the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit, and pursues hobbies such as Pilates, Capoeira, nature macrophotography and organic gardening. He's also author of numerous health books published by Truth Publishing and is the creator of several consumer-oriented grassroots campaigns, including the Spam. Don't Buy It! campaign, and the free downloadable Honest Food Guide. He also created the free reference sites HerbReference.com and HealingFoodReference.com. Adams believes in free speech, free access to nutritional supplements and the ending of corporate control over medicines, genes and seeds. Known on the 'net as 'the Health Ranger,' Adams shares his ethics, mission statements and personal health statistics at www.HealthRanger.org