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Letter
from New Zealand about Kava Prohibition in UK
From: Ron Law, Beyond Alternative Solutions.
Director of the New Zealand National Nutritional Foods Association
December 21, 2002
Subject: Announcement on the prohibition of Kava-Kava
in the UK
As an observer from the other side of the planet, the action to ban Kava is an action that will only serve to legitimately outrage proponents of
the safe and effective use of complementary healthcare & therapeutic
products.
I was a member of the New Zealand Ministry of Health Sentinel Event
working group that advised on the reporting and management of medical
injury within the health system. I have also worked for the dietary
supplement industry for nearly five years. I'm a clinical biochemist with
a masters degree in international business management. I'm a member of the
Royal Society of New Zealand and the New Zealand Society for Risk
Management.
I recently presented a paper at the New Zealand Society for Risk
Management conference in Wellington New Zealand. Based on a thorough
analysis of over 44 government, quasi government, NGO and a few overseas
papers and reports (see
attached PDF; Get
PDF Reader), it is easy to demonstrate using well established
evidence that Natural healthcare and therapeutic products, including Kava-Kava, are less risky than being struck by lightning, but slightly
riskier than being killed by an errant meteorite. They are some 4-5 orders
of magnitude safer than properly regulated pharmaceutical drugs.
The MCA's decision to ban Kava Kava will create a moral hazard by
forcing people who use Kava as a relaxant/mild anti depressant to go
to their GP with the likelihood that they will be prescribed
benzodiazepines.
This decision, right on the Christmas break, is not rational, not based on
a fair and transparent decision-making process, is not evidence based, is
not proportionate to risk, and is at odds with the MCA's conclusion that
the 7,000+ adverse reaction reports relating to Zyban were only
"suspected" [MCA emphasis] and that the 100 or so deaths
reported around the world were "unproven" [MCA emphasis.]
With all due respect, this decision is not commensurate with Good
Regulatory Practice, is a scientific anomaly, defies the principle of
proportionality and will only add to the rapidly increasing consumer
outrage around the globe at the regulatory creep resulting in
traditionally safe products been regulated by the same mindset as
regulates unsafe pharmaceutical products, yet regulated by much harsher
methods.
The inability of regulators to apply commonsense gives rise to the
perception that regulatory agencies are captured more by the interests of
large corporate manufacturers than the interests of public health.
I sincerely hope that there are no empty seats at your Christmas dinner
table due to dangerous, freely available, drugs such as Aspirin,
Paracetamol, Benzodiazepines, Prozac, Paroxetine and the like. In New
Zealand and Australia, over 40,000 deaths have been attributed to properly
regulated, properly prescribed, properly labeled and properly used
pharmaceutical drugs over the passed decade -- there have been zero deaths
attributed to natural healthcare & therapeutic products in New Zealand
during that time, and only one death attributed to a natural healthcare
& therapeutic product with any degree of certainty in Australia.
Are you aware that the alleged death associated with Kava use in Australia
followed the use of a product that contained a prohibited herb that is
known to cause liver failure? Despite Australia's
internationally-famous-in-Australia GMP, the manufacturer made a mistake
and substituted the herb for another approved herb. TGA have not released
the details so that the reporting doctor can have his moment of glory in
the medical literature.
The risks associated with natural healthcare & therapeutic products
are about 1/42nd of the accepted de minimis risk of getting a cancer from
foods -- and natural healthcare & therapeutic product consumption is a
voluntary action; MRL levels of cancer causing food additives are not
noted on ingredient labeling therefore consumers have no choice regarding
consumption of permitted carcinogens.
As noted, the MCA decision is a farce, and will only antagonize legitimate
consumers and small businesses around the world to ensure that such
regulatory nonsense is not only exposed, but eradicated from current
regulatory practice. Such decisions in themselves are major public health
hazards and are untenable in the modern era.
The MCA can be assured that those who desperately want to access Kava will
-- either via the Internet, or even by growing their own. I'm already
aware of interested parties investigating the marketing of
micro-extraction packages to enable consumers to steep their own herbs and
to concentrate the extract via evaporation under vacuum. As a risk
analyst, it seems that the MCA has not considered either the political or
the public health ramifications of this ill informed decision. It is
another chapter confirming in the minds of many the inappropriateness of
regulating proven safe and effective herbal products with a pharmaceutical
mindset.
Please pass this message on to the decision-makers.
Yours , Ron Law ,
Beyond Alternative Solutions,
Middle Earth aka New Zealand
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