Herbal supplements in US commonly have traces of contaminants

Correct. I do not see how less regulation equals more freedom. Nor do I see bureaucracy as a negative.The US is about the only developed nation, if we still have that standing, that does not regulate herbals. They are not even covered under "Truth in Advertising Laws".Since in the US there really is no way to get adequate information about the contents or purity of herbal products, I believe the ONLY reasonable solution is to have some governmental oversight.Of course, the US is also the only developed country without universal health care, an adequate safety net, a way to identify who is a citizen, ubiquitous communications, education standards and so many other things that are just taken for granted in most developed countries.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

I will give a general reply because I think that I generally agree with the points being made. I should mention that I live in Canada where all the drugs are free and the supplementals are pure as the driven snow. /sarc There are alot of differences but there are alot of similarities and the pressures are the same.If I ingest a herb I know what it is, where it came from and what it can and cannot do. More information to help me know these things. If I dont know these things I dont take it. I dont buy Chinese toothpaste or dog food or drywall or cranberry extract. I am equally sceptical about a doctor who prescribes steroids for my kid.My point is that the regulations wont make you safe because the system is seriously flawed and is driven by the wrong interests. Information makes you safe AND free. Why should a start up company have to spend millions on testing to sell mint tea and does this make you safe?Nobody wants viagra mixed in with their dandelions so how about not trading with countries that dont meet the existing standards? Because there is too much money in it and nobody really gives a shit about a few dead folks here and there when there are billions at stake.

You need to realize that the US does not have any controls over what herbals can be sold, what they contain, how they are advertised, whether or not they are even the herbs they are sold as.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

What?!? Thats outrageous. You guys need some kind of regulations.

Still. More information less regulation.

And how do you get the folk selling the herbals to publish accurate information without regulations?AbE:Tune into US based Christian radio sometime. All you hear is crap being sold based on testimony.Edited by jar, : Testify Brother, Testify.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

The free market. Nothing motivates a company like profit and profits come from building a loyal customer base. Cant do that if they keep dropping off.Information. Like what were the products tested in the study cited? You can be sure that their sales would plummet.

I'm sorry but I have very little faith that profits or building a loyal customer base have anything to do with the reality of the product, its contents or claims made about the product.AbE: and I have NO faith whatsoever in the Free Market.Edited by jar, : AbE

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

You missed a biggie, Dogmafood. Add to your list over 700,000 annulal medical malpractice deaths, 150,000 to 200,000 being from prescribed drugs. (Where did you get your so low figure on prescribed drugs? I've seen figures as high as 350,000 but never anywhere near your low figure)Mmm, about your marijuana zero. How about a percentage of suicide deaths attributed to drug use. How about the percentage of auto accidents attributed to wild druggie motorists. Ditto for drug related homicides. Every sizeable city has nearly daily drug homicides). Ditto for firearms.All of the above can't directly be attributed to marijuana, but being maijuana is usually where drug addiction begins, a large percentage can be either directly or indirectly attributed to marijuana.Bottom line: Hundreds of thousands can be either directly or indirectly attributed to marijuana usage.That is not to say that there aren't some beneficial aspects of the drug, but the dangers of it give reason to avoid it.As a matter of fact, many of the deaths in your list other than the prescription drugs should be subtracted from other causes on the list such as suicides, motor accidents, firearms, heart attacks, cancer, liver diseases, anurisms, stroke, insanity, etc AND ADDED TO THE PRESCRIBED PHARMACUTAL DEATHSIn effect the pharms are way under-regulated. What is needed is to rein in the deadly pharms and promote the herbals. What is good for the sheeple is bass akwards, so far as govmn't regulation and scrutiny goes.

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BUZSAW B 4 U 2 C Y BUZ SAW.
The immeasurable present eternally extends the infinite past and infinitely consumes the eternal future.

No, you know what it says on the package. Without regulation there's absolutely no reason to believe that what it says on the package is actually what it is. Maybe it's just oregano - would anybody ever notice? (It's not like herbs work anyway.) Or maybe it's kudzu.Or maybe it's milkweed. How are you going to stop people from trading with those countries, except by regulation?Edited by crashfrog, : No reason given.

First off, herbals are not packaged and sold as medicine. They are sold as natural food suppliments; big, big difference.Now, Omni, let us reason together on this nutty regulation nonsense you sheeple are advocating. Literally millions have died in wars, fought either for defending freedom, retrieving lost freedoms and as victims of oppressive big bloody guvm'ts.Now, what makes more sense? Figuring on a dozen or two deaths from herbals over the decades or law by law, squandering away our freedoms as ongoing wars for freedom rage on? Why should thousands be dying in hot desert wars as home sheeple sit in comfy air conditioned homes typing nonsense that we have? Hmm?

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BUZSAW B 4 U 2 C Y BUZ SAW.
The immeasurable present eternally extends the infinite past and infinitely consumes the eternal future.

No, profits come from buying low and selling high - like, for instance, the fly-by-night companies that, in your unregulated world, pack whatever dried green stuff they can find into pills, call it "St. John's Wort" and "Echinacia" and sell plant refuse for a dollar a pill, then close up shop before they can be sued.Quick - without looking it up, tell me the brand name of the herbal supplements in your medicine cabinet.You can't, can you? If these companies are operating with essentially no brand recognition at all, how are you even going to remember to punish them with your pocketbook?In the real world, we understand that even in actual medicine people don't have the expertise and training to accurately associate health outcomes with interventions. If you take Supplement A, and you pray, and you eat your mother-in-law's chicken soup, and you got some rest and drank plenty of fluids, and then your cold symptoms went away - what worked? Was it the supplement or the rest? The prayer or the soup? Or was it none of it, and you just got better on your own?Plenty of people use Head-On for their headaches and are convinced it works, even though Head-On is nothing but a wax stick. It has literally no active ingredients. The thing about headaches is - they go away on their own. And you rarely time how long it takes, so you're completely unequipped to assess the efficacy of Head-On.Assessing the efficacy of a medical intervention, or a drug, or an herb, isn't something you can do just by taking it and seeing if you get better or feel better. Haven't you heard of the "placebo effect"? It's not magic, or "mind over matter", it's just a function of the fact that your subjective experience of illness is subject to your own expectations, and if you expect to feel better, you'll convince yourself that you really do. The efficacy of treatment, herbal or traditional, has to be assessed on the basis of double-blind trials. That's the only way to know if they really work. Anything else is just quackery.

Shorter Buz - contaiminated herbs have to poison somebody, or the fascists win!

None?The free market requires the regulations that keep it free. A market full of monopolies is no longer a free market.I am saying that the individual should be more responsible for the things they eat and the govt should help them make those decisions by providing them with information. Not by telling them what they should do.

I know of no regulations that tell people what they should do.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!