SEARCH:
Sign in | Join | Help
search Mercola.com
 
FREE Subscription 
The World’s Most Popular Natural Health Newsletter
The FDA is Running an Extortion Racket

FDA, extortion, spyingThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is running a criminal extortion racket designed to shift money from health supplement companies to the pockets of top FDA contractors. At least three different companies have been targeted for extortion by U.S. Food and Drug Administration employees.

The FDA extortion racket works like this: FDA employees use keyword-scanning software to scan the Web pages of natural health product and supplement companies. They look for terms like cancer, cures, treatment, remedies and other "forbidden" words.

FDA employees then review the discovered pages to determine if they contain any words that might inform consumers of the health benefits of the nutritional products -- or links that point Web users to scientific articles from peer-reviewed medical journals that explain the health benefits of specific foods, supplements or nutrients. Companies are even targeted for simply posting customer testimonials, even when those testimonials make absolutely no health claims.

When offending words or links are found by the FDA, they contact the company and warn them to remove all information and links from their websites. Cherry products, for example, cannot link to scientific articles explaining the simple biological fact that cherries ease inflammation in human beings. Such links are considered "drug claims" by the FDA.

If the company being targeted refuses to fully comply with the FDA's requests, the FDA then threatens the company principals with arrest and seizure unless they agree to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to top FDA contractors and sign a "consent decree" where the company "admits" to committing various crimes.

The FDA employees or contractors receiving the extorted money, it is claimed, are being paid to "review web pages" to make sure they don't contain anything that might inform consumers about the scientifically-validated benefits of the health products being sold.

Sources:

Dr. Mercola''s Comments Dr. Mercola's Comments:

The FDA has been targeting supplement makers for some time, claiming it’s all in the interest of public safety. But it doesn’t take much investigation to realize what’s really going on: the FDA isn’t interested in protecting you -- they’re interested in protecting the pharmaceutical industry.

And in doing so, they are intimidating, censoring and threatening to imprison supplement companies that attempt to explain the health benefits of their products.

Why are they doing this? Because the FDA is financially supported by the drug companies in the form of user fees for drug approval, and they will stop at nothing to protect the hand that feeds it.

Though it may sound incredulous that a public health agency would go so far as to try and bankrupt supplement makers, this practice is already occurring.

Last June the FDA announced new standards for dietary supplements that were intended to improve consumer safety. In reality, the 800-page rule surrounds the dietary supplement industry with regulations and requirements in excess of those imposed on the drug industry, and up to 50 percent of small companies will simply not be able to afford to comply.

Now they are going after the companies that are still around and threatening to arrest them if they don’t sign a tyrannical Consent Decree, which means the company “admits” to various “crimes” and gives the FDA the right to:

• Cease product manufacturing, processing, or distribution
• Recall the product (at the company’s expense)
• Charge the company $100 per hour for travel time and other work of FDA employees (with NO limit)
• Charge the company for FDA employee hotel rooms and storage fees for all products seized by the FDA

So you can see how a small-scale supplement company could easily be run out of business with these types of fees. You may be thinking, well what types of “crimes” did the supplement makers do to deserve this? You’ve got to hear this ….

The Story Gets Even More Outrageous …

One company being targeted by the FDA is the FruitFast company, which was forced to sign an FDA document and admit to “misbranding” their “drug.”

Well, their “drug” is cherry juice concentrate, and their “misbranding” was an entirely true statement that the juice concentrate helps to eliminate gout.

The FDA ruled that this claim made the cherry juice an “unapproved drug” and this is what gave them license to target the company.

The fact that the FDA feels it necessary to take time and money going after a cherry juice company, while continually allowing and defending such known toxic products as bisphenol A, flu shots and aspartame, shows what this fraudulent “bought-and-paid-for” agency has truly come to.

It comes down to basic rights.

Should a company be allowed to state true, factual evidence and scientific research that supports their product, be it cherry juice or a bicycle helmet?

Of course.

And should a government agency have the right to threaten and extort money from companies who do so? Not in a supposedly “just” society. Yet this is going on all over the United States.

There are Ways You Can Help
 
You can help stop the FDA from targeting supplement manufacturers by signing the petition at www.reformFDA.org.

The petition, sponsored by the American Association of Health Freedom, is devoted to ending the FDA’s power and influence over the health of the U.S. population. You can also contact your Congressperson or Senator, and tell them you support Freedom of Speech rights for supplement companies.

You can also tell Congress that you support the Health Freedom Protection Act, a bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Ron Paul that would prevent the FDA from censoring truthful claims about the curative or preventative effect of dietary supplements.

It takes only about 10 percent of the population to become aware of the injustices going on in the health care arena, and voice their opinions as such, to prompt real change. So if you feel strongly about this issue, please do your part to let your feelings be heard, and encourage those in your circle to do so as well. Together we can make a difference.


Related Links:



Comment on This Article Community Comments (40)
 
 
Posted On Oct 27, 2008
The FDA is corrupt, plain and simple. Just like most government agency are. Everyone reading this should e-mail their Senators (mostly all of them corrupt) and complain. If the American people do not stand up and voice their outrage, they just keep winning. 

 
ruskar
Apprentice User Apprentice User, Joined On 12/2007
ruskar  
Replied

All Under Heaven
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 2/2008
All Under Heaven  
 
Posted On Oct 27, 2008
Like the senators are going to do anything. They are politicians after all, and good politicians are rare to find.

The EPA is just as corrupt and useless.


Rogway
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 6/2006
Rogway  
 
Posted On Oct 27, 2008
A revolution is the solution!


Manna Candace
Novice User Novice User Joined On 10/2008
Manna Candace  
 
Posted On Oct 28, 2008
Having an "that's just the way it is" attitude IS part of the problem.  Way too many citizens don't vote, don't read and don't educate themselves.
They believe the governement AND OR their Doctors have their best interest in mind. WRONG!

The government AND your Doctors AND the Rx companies have their OWN best interests in mind - NOT their consituents, patients and customers (that's YOU !).

Educate yourself, then speak UP !  Tell your Dr. NO! when he hands you a script.  Tell your Senator NO! when they try to sell you a bag of garbage.  If you take the time to read the internet, take a few minutes to write your senator ...

Find a GOOD Dr. - there are a few out there, but you have to LOOK and research.  ASK questions, don't just buy everything they hand out. 


KelleyEidem
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 11/2007
KelleyEidem  
 
Posted On Nov 13, 2008

when I was writing "The Doctor Who Cures Cancer" about Emanuel Revici, M.D., I spoke to a physician whose home was raided by the FDA. His 'crime?' He had developed a way to spot cancer a couple years early. That would have put a crimp in the radiation machine manufacturers' profit picture.

The doctor told me "They stuck a gun six inches from my face, and took everything except the toothpaste."

I think the way we beat these criminal thugs with government badges is to do as Dr. Mercola recommends as a mandatory first step. If we lie down, they will shovel dirt on our face.

Secondly, we need to get stories like Dr. Revici's into the public awareness. Dr. Salk was successful, not through research, but through publicity.

As a result of his story being covered on the nightly news, the FDA was afraid to stand in between mothers and their children. Prior to that, he was gought by the iron lung manufacturers.

My goal has been to get 5 million people aware of Dr. Revici. Maybe Dr. Mercola is right and we'll need 30 million. It's doable. Prior to the nightly news, few knew who Salk was. Overnight his name became a household word.

Revici's work covers much more than cancer. He was successful ending drug addiction in three to seven days, alcoholism, migraines, both osteo- and rheumatoid arthritis, childhood retardation, premature aging, etc.

He lived to be 101-years old and worked full time until he was 95...do you think that was a coincidence? (He would have worked longer, but the State of NY finally succeeded in revoking his license after a 12-year witch hunt.)

The best to you.

Kelley Eidem

Together we can cure cancer - one person at a time!  



Rett
Novice User Novice User Joined On 11/2006
Rett  
 
Posted On Nov 13, 2008

Guess what, Manna.  My insurance company (TriCare) will not cover a GOOD doctor and I don't have the money to afford one.  I do what I can to purchase quality nutritional supplements and that's getting more and more complicated as the prices keep getting higher and higher.  I purchase my milk, eggs and produce at a local family farm.  I sign petitions that I deem vital for society.  I've known for a long time that real doctors and nutritional supplement companies are persecuted daily for just trying to get the word out that Food is our medicine and medicine is our food.  I tell anybody who will listen that drugs are toxins and basically useless on a large scale.  The whole world is becoming evil and corrupt and God's wrath is upon us.  We must repent.  We must submit to submersion baptism and a laying on of hands to receive the Holy Spirit and learn how to let God be God and start keeping His commandments and Holy Days.  Our promised inheritance is eternal life and  co-rulership with King Jesus in His soon coming Kingdom. But we have to repent and we have to be baptized to demonstrate our commitment and faith.   Or you can forfeit that and be one of those of the second resurrection who will face the great white throne judgement.  The God of your Bible is real.  What humans say about Him is far removed from HIS truths.  I am a servant and a witness to His soon coming Kingdom. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.



Reverend Alan
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 12/2007
Reverend Alan  
 
Posted On Nov 13, 2008

KellyEidem, The nightly TV news is sponsored mostly by the drug companies. Do you think any "news room" is going to put a story out that will upset the drug companies? I don't think so. One has to find another way to get the truth out to the people and maybe it is this internet we are using right now.



Russ G.
Novice User Novice User Joined On 1/2007
Russ G.  
 
Posted On Nov 13, 2008

I read an article a few months back in my Life Extension magazine that pretty much sums it up - the FDA has admitted its own incompetence.  This is well worth the read:

www.lef.org/magazine/mag2008/jul2008_The-FDA-Indicts-Itself_01.htm

I wonder if anyone can tell me when the last CURE to a disease or condition was discovered by Big Pharma?  I'm thinking it may have been the Polio vaccine, though that was Salk, right, not Big Pharma?  And that was in the 1950s.

Maybe INH therapy for TB?  Whatever or whenever it was, they sure don't make that sort of info public, do they?  As we all know, there is no real profit in a cure.  Rather, they continue to create toxic agents that are entirely synthetic (i.e. artificial), unrecognized by the human (or any) body, and carrying a list of "potential" side effects usually three times longer than the "possible" benefits.

And of course, as stated here many times in the past, the FDA IS unequivocally in bed with Big Pharma.  If they weren't, they would have slapped the crap out of Big Pharma with injunctions, indictments, multiple convictions and company shut-downs well before now.  In truth, many of the main companies that comprise Big Pharma have committed atrocities against humanity worse - far worse - than what occurred during the holocaust.  The problem is, they have conspired with, bribed, blackmailed and just plain threatened (or eliminated altogether) the majority of those public officials who might end their reign of terror.

As I see it, the main problem with Big Pharma is that its main players aren't people who have taken the Hippocratic oath.  Instead, they are researchers, lab rats, and businessmen, who aren't held to such high ethical standards.

What a great world it would be if all business people had to take an oath to "first, do no harm", and then be held to that standard on pain of prosecution.

I'd also like to ban all pharmaceutical ads on TV and radio.  Maybe we can get Obama to do something about it?...



KelleyEidem
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 11/2007
KelleyEidem  
 
Posted On Nov 13, 2008

Reverend Alan,

No, they won't unless it were to smear it and me. But there would be those viewers who would want to discover for themselves anyway, so the smear would help.

Also Oprah would go for it big time. I also have a hubpage she'd "eat up"...hehe... because it's about ending food cravings effortlessly:

hubpages.com/.../How-to-Flatten-Your-Tummy-and-End-Food-Cravings-EFFORTLESSLY

The book would give me the credibility for being on the show.

Imagine...in one hour, millions of women would have the secret they've always been looking for...and so would men. I mean this stuff is so far above anything Dr. Oz has put forth on the show - even though his stuff is generally good.

Imagine one program that ends sinus problems, auto-immune disease, zits, bloating, toenail fungus, vaginal infections, and a gazillion other problems!

Lets do it!

The best to you.

Kelley Eidem

Together we can cure cancer - one person at a time!



Islander
Moderator User Moderator User Joined On 3/2007
Islander  
 
Posted On Nov 13, 2008

AUH says, "Like the senators are going to do anything."

How else are you going to initiate change? Not by griping about it here.

DSHEA was passed because people like you and me spoke out loud and clear in defense of health freedom. We can do it again...but it takes the raised voices of many many indignant people. It's where we begin.



Maria Lt.
Apprentice User Apprentice User Joined On 3/2007
Maria Lt.  
 
Posted On Nov 26, 2008

In response to KelleyEidem's comment on how a "physician whose home was raided by the FDA." in the State of NY.  

When I was attending college, my classmate's father was a Dr. who did a lot of work with alcoholics.  The state paid for medication to keep them from caving in to the alcohol craving.  This Dr. had found another effective treatment without the meds and their side effects as not all qualified for state reimbursement and the medication was not cheap.  I remember my classmate telling me that unless his father resumed prescribing the anti-alcoholism medication, that the state (NY) was going to take his medical license away (sound familiar?) As this Dr. had 6 children to feed and educate, he could not afford to lose his medical license so back to prescribing he went.

I happen to live in NY and am annoyed that we have higher health care premiums partly due to the lack of medical malpractice reform.  Practically everyone that I know with a sick family member is really dissatisfied with our health care system.  I live in Long Island and sometimes its hard to get an appoinment with some Dr.s because they're not accepting new patients.  When will this get straightened out?


 
 
 
Posted On Oct 29, 2008
  I am new at this web-site but we all know that FDA and the Gov. have always tried to control our lives one way or another this include the CCS, CDC or a lot more other Gov. Agency that claim to help us in proving with the supposely against certain heath risk but in really it is totally the opposite.  We shall all united to speak the truth of all and each one that HAD HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE OR HAVE ENCOUNTER WRONGFUL DOING WITH THEM.

 
Sea Angel
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 10/2008
Sea Angel  
 
 
 
Posted On Nov 13, 2008

The simplest way to fix the FDA is to have legislation splitting it into two different agencies, one to handle drugs and medical devices and the other under completely different legislation and management to handle foods and food supplements.


 
georgeeby
Users with negative points NoviceUser, Joined On 3/2008
georgeeby  
 
 
 
Posted On Nov 13, 2008

In response to Rett, I agree. We cannot look to mankind, doctors, drug companies to keep us healthy. They are only interested in one thing--$$$$$$$$$. The Great Physician made our bodies and He knows how to keep them healthy. Jesus is the Great Physician. I agree to make our voices heard in the political arena, but ultimately, every person is responsible for the well being of their own body. Feed it properly, rest it properly, don't harbor anger, bitterness, resentments, stress, etc. and you body will serve you very well for many years. I am 64 years young. Jesus is my physician. He makes house calls and doesn't charge a dime. In fact, He paid the ultimate price for all of us. I take no medication, have perfect blood pressure, and am in perfect health, walk 5 miles a day--enjoy life to the fullest. Blessings, grace and peace to all. Remember: A merry heart doeth good like a medicine.


 
truthrevival
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 11/2008
truthrevival  
 
 
 
Posted On Nov 13, 2008

The food supplement industry isn't regulated. That is why we can buy supplements that say natural, and if they have something natural in them, that's okay. Too many have tested out to be lower in some claimed ingredient, or negligible. None are made to test for purity of raw materials, nor the finished product, or have scientific clinical studies back up their product's efficacy. Here is a list of prenatal, children's and women's vitamins for example, on an FDA site that have lead in them. Just look at the names on there. Kirkland, Puritan's Pride, Flintstones, etc. www.cfsan.fdagov/.../pbvitami.html

Our freedoms have already been removed for healthcare. Think about New Jersey toddlers not able to go to preschool or day care without a flu shot whose mercury amount wouldn't be safe unless they weighed 550 lbs. My own 86 yr. old father on the other end of the scale, has somehow been able to stay alive, despite the 25 medications he is on at the Oregon State Hospital. Any abuses there are only given lip service. OSH filed a Guardianship case to remove me totally from the picture, after I stopped paying his $460 Social Security because they  continue to harm him like removing him from Seroquel for 24 hours. Seroquel, like the manuf. says, has caused multiple cases of aspiration pneumonia, as it makes the muscles in the esophagus rigid. Seroquel is an antipsychotic that causes seizures and psychotic breaks, and users should not miss a single dose, and have to be tapered slowly off.

Readers of Mercola's site are right to express how they feel. What this country needs is organization of citizens. Sounding off on websites that may be shut down in the future isn't going to resolve the problems. Is there a list of legislators that actually care, and have not been paid off? Will Obama care, or will his wife be the champion of healthcare reform? The list of vitamins with lead does not include men's vitamins. Why not? Are they only good to send to war? Outrage is boring?


 
leangreencafe
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 7/2008
leangreencafe  
Replied

curious7
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 3/2007
curious7  
 
Posted On Nov 14, 2008

Leangreencafe:

These types of pratices will continue as long as there is no one, and no group to complain.  Judges on follow the junk science, submitted by people who are no more than educated fools.  People who follow the norm, rather than make waves.  We have Doctors publicly stating nutrition has very little to do with the treatment of illness, or the prevention thereof.  This is wildly ridiculous.  The real problem is that they have so many of us brainwashed into thinking they (Doctors) have our best interests in mind when they make these statements, begin these treatments.


 
 
 
 
© Copyright 2009 Dr. Joseph Mercola. All Rights Reserved. If you want to use this article on your site please click here. This content may be copied in full, with copyright, contact, creation and information intact, without specific permission, when used only in a not-for-profit format. If any other use is desired, permission in writing from Dr. Mercola is required.
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your physician before using this product.