CFI calls on our supporters to help defeat a pro-homeopathy amendment being proposed for the federal appropriations bill H.R. 4368. The homeopathy lobby is pushing hard for this amendment, and we need CFI supporters to voice their opposition to their members of Congress.
Homeopathy groups such as Americans For Homeopathy Choice (AFHC) are lobbying strenuously for Appropriations Amendment #4. This amendment would bar FDA enforcement of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act against new homeopathic drug products as long as a product complies with “standards for strength, quality, and purity set forth in the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States.” In other words, it would replace much-needed federal regulation with the industry’s own standards.
CFI has consistently pointed out that homeopathy is bunk science that does not work beyond the placebo effect. Homeopathic products are typically diluted to the point that no active ingredients remain. It is quack medicine and consumer fraud.
The Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia’s standards of quality are not medically valid. Yet the amendment would exempt homeopathic products from FDA regulation and oversight if they comport with those standards. This amounts to an argument of “No need for federal regulation, we can regulate ourselves with our own standards even if they constitute medical fraud” – or, more succinctly, “Let the fox guard the henhouse, please.” (Indeed, CFI has tussled with the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia before.)
At the moment, AFHC and the homeopathy lobby are seeking additional co-sponsors in the House of Representatives for their amendment. This is where CFI’s supporters come in.
We need our supporters to mobilize and contact their members in the House of Representatives immediately. Please let them know, in no uncertain terms, that homeopathy cannot and must not escape federal regulation. It is crucial to keep Appropriations Amendment #4 out of the federal appropriations bill.
What does it say about their products that they want to bar them from being regulated for quality and safety?
Eat your heart out, Upton Sinclair. They’ve made milk that costs more with paint in, and it will sell.
Could this bill be the first step in downgrading homeopathic bs into dietary supplements so they are no longer considered medicine?
We need to go in the other direction. Supplements need to be regulated more like medicine too.
Supplements can have legitimate value for people who are deficient for one reason or another, and they deserve to know what they’re actually getting when they purchase a supplement prescribed by a doctor.
Even if homeopathy is less legitimate, it should still be regulated so that people know it actually contains what it claims to contain (and more importantly doesn’t contain anything extra).
