New Ron Paul Bill Would Restore Some First Amendment Rights for Supplement Producers

freedom-of-speechIt’s the latest in a series of the candidate’s bills supporting health freedom and our access to natural health remedies. A new Action Alert!


The Testimonial Free Speech Act, HR 2908, is a brief bill that would allow the dissemination of testimonials “containing a consumer’s actual perception of the mitigative, preventive, or curative properties of any food or dietary supplement based on the consumer’s experience with that food or dietary supplement.”

To some extent, the bill addresses the FDA’s contention that only drugs can show real benefit—because, by the agency’s definition, only drugs can cure, mitigate, or treat disease. Any mention of the therapeutic benefits of supplements, whether through personal testimonials, citied scientific literature, etc., is automatically considered “misbranding.”

We applaud Ron Paul for this bill, and for some other closely related free speech in healthcare/health freedom bills he has introduced in the current Congress:

  • HR 2044, the Health Freedom Act: Prohibits FDA from preventing a disease claim unless it is “false and misleading in a material respect.” Amends the FD&C Act to say, “A food or dietary supplement for which a claim is made…is not a drug solely because of such claim.”
  • HR 2045, the Freedom of Health Speech Act: Increases the burden of proof required by the FTC to prove false advertising cases against dietary supplement manufacturers. Excerpted scientific studies will not be considered advertising.


There are many other important Paul bills as well. You may recall our recent Action Alert on HR 1830, Ron Paul’s bill to allow raw milk to be sold across state lines. There is a bill, HR 1101, to repeal the federal healthcare mandate. For a complete list of Paul bills, go here.

Ron Paul also has our sincere thanks for introducing the dangerous HVP vaccine mandate into the Republican presidential candidate debates. For more on this, see our story in this issue.

Action Alert! Please contact your congressional representative today and urge his or her support of Ron Paul’s free speech in healthcare bills.

TO SEND YOUR MESSAGE TO CONGRESS


Click THIS LINK to go to the Action Alert page. Once there, fill out the form with your name and address, etc., and customize your letter. We have a suggested message for you, but please feel free to add your own comments to the letter.
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22 comments

  1. How about having a voting record for each action item bill showing how each Congressperson voted, so we could follow up with our rep with a thank you, or further pressure?

    1. Great idea! Let me suggest that to expose the voting records of people in office is to assure that the good people stay and the bad people leave. Bravo!

    2. All that is needed is a roll-call vote. All that is necessary for that is one Congressman to ask for it.
      Will it be your Congressman? Don’t look for John Boehner to be that person, he knows we want a roll-call vote anytime the debt ceiling is raised but last week he didn’t do it.

  2. While there is every reason to believe that some foods and supplements (natural medicines) do help people, to give free reign to manufacturers of these products, natural or not, would allow them to make hugely misrepresentative claims just because some people have had results. This is the same as saying people are dieing from petunias. Someone I am sure has, but disseminating this in a marketing campaign would make half the country afraid of petunias. There are so many “health” items on the market that have been proven to be fake and are only sold on the basis of free speech marketing, that an extension in the direction of Ron Paul’s bill would be wrong. People don’t know. We are not all smart in all areas. Some think they are but their “free speech” in the form of marketing can lead millions to be misdiagnosed and mistreated. Do not let this happen. It is being done for business only, and not for the safety of the American people.

    1. You may want to look up Hoxsey treatments. That is one of a number of effective treatments for cancer that the FDA has buried – and, in effect, unnecessarily.buried a lot of cancer sufferers without the benefit of them.

    2. I don’t agree, I just red some of the health bills Ron Paul submitted and they are just what we need.
      It’s the latest in a series of the candidate’s bills supporting health freedom and our access to natural health remedies. A new Action Alert!
      The Testimonial Free Speech Act, HR 2908, is a brief bill that would allow the dissemination of testimonials “containing a consumer’s actual perception of the mitigative, preventive, or curative properties of any food or dietary supplement based on the consumer’s experience with that food or dietary supplement.”
      To some extent, the bill addresses the FDA’s contention that only drugs can show real benefit—because, by the agency’s definition, only drugs can cure, mitigate, or treat disease. Any mention of the therapeutic benefits of supplements, whether through personal testimonials, citied scientific literature, etc., is automatically considered “misbranding.”
      We applaud Ron Paul for this bill, and for some other closely related free speech in healthcare/health freedom bills he has introduced in the current Congress:
      HR 2044, the Health Freedom Act: Prohibits FDA from preventing a disease claim unless it is “false and misleading in a material respect.” Amends the FD&C Act to say, “A food or dietary supplement for which a claim is made…is not a drug solely because of such claim.”
      HR 2045, the Freedom of Health Speech Act: Increases the burden of proof required by the FTC to prove false advertising cases against dietary supplement manufacturers. Excerpted scientific studies will not be considered advertising.
      There are many other important Paul bills as well. You may recall our recent Action Alert on HR 1830, Ron Paul’s bill to allow raw milk to be sold across state lines. There is a bill, HR 1101, to repeal the federal healthcare mandate. For a complete list of Paul bills, go here.
      http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billsearch.xpd?PostFormID=billsearch&session=112&q=health&sponsor=400311&cosponsor=&status=&sort=
      Ron Paul also has our sincere thanks for introducing the dangerous HVP vaccine mandate into the Republican presidential candidate debates.

    3. Mr Goldberg is of the belief that the Federal bureaucrats have our best interests at heart. He obviously has not been reading the ANH articles to the contrary. My vote and hopes are with Dr Paul. He is a true patriot.

      1. Mr Goldberg is also confusing TWO separate issues… Our FREEDOM to choose and the already CURRENT laws protecting consumers from fraudulent claims. Allowing REAL actual case studies to help YOU make a better INFORMED decision, is completely different from believing claims made by the company trying to sell you a product. Being involved in the health industry for almost a decade now, I have seen and watched first hand, how the FDA and others have made the ability to make a WISE and INFORMED decision on health products is now virtually impossible. And something that has HURT MANY families in finding the RIGHT supplements they NEED just to maintain even a small amount of good health and some somewhat normal quality of life. That some, obviously take for granted. While others, such as my Husband and thousands of others we’ve talked to, do NOT have that luxury. Bottom line… Consumers NEED all the information they can get to make the BEST decision for THEIR health!

    4. I have been following Ron Paul’s actions, like this one with great interest and believe that he is on the right side with this one. I have come to trust anecdotal evidence more and more, as I see commercial and political interests gain more and more control. I agree that disclosure of voting records, etc, is a key, but to think that government agencies like the FDA and the USDA are not biased and are not controlled by political interests is just naive. As time goes on, I trust “the folk” more and more and I read all of the studies that I can, while also trying to learn who funded them.

  3. Ron Paul is a true champion of liberty and has been over the long hall. That is why he continues
    to either win or place high in all of the recent GOP Straw polls. He is a champion of The Constitution and his continued efforts to limit the size and influence of the fedral goverment
    should be broadcast far and wide, especially in the halls of all of our State Legislatures where
    the people can more closely watch their elected official and indeed, encourage them to nullify
    all unconstitutional measures including obviously flawed legislation and also to nullify
    the actions FDA where they are action without Constitutional authority.
    This is the mehod our colonists used in refusing The King’s edicts where freedoms were denied and unjust taxes and regulatons had been imposed.
    Federalism means State Rights via the First and other amendments.
    Fred

  4. It is not possible for me to lend my support to a politician that makes the kind of comments that Ron Paul made at the last republican debate. While I agree with the premise of the Paul supplements and raw dairy bills, I won’t support the work of a politician that openly suggests that economically disadvantaged citizens don’t deserve proper medical care and should be left to die, If ANH is a backer of the Paul campaign, I will no longer invest my time and money in this organization. Please share with us any political election motives of the ANH.
    Thank you.

    1. Dr. Paul did not say a patient should be left to die. He said that before federal interference in health care private charities (primarily church run hospitals) took care of the sick who had no means to pay for the care.

    2. Seriously Robert? He actually came out and said openly in those words that “economically disadvantaged citizens don’t deserve proper medical care and should be left die!” If he honestly and truly really did say that, did he go on futher to explain why he has taken that possition on that? That sounds more like the words one would hear from a gustopo nazi!

  5. Imagine the day when free speech has to be specially legislated, in Congress! So we have to basically, apply for the legal right to talk. And if granted, we may. If not granted, we may not. If this is not dictatorship and total control, I just don’t know what is.
    I think on the one hand, the bill is necessary and needed, and to counteract the evils in Congress which prevent free speech about health supplements, would want to sign the action alert.
    On the other hand, it sets a bad precedent to even so much as have to legislate permission to talk freely about any subject of Congress’s own choosing. I don’t want to be involved in such a precedent.
    Don’t get me wrong. I understand the need for this bill. That is what makes it all the more alarming.
    I am going to have to think this dilemma through before signing. I hope my statement here does not discourage anybody else either, I think this does need to go through.
    Good lord, the times we live in! We have to oust 85% of our fascist Congress if we want even one chance of getting our freedoms back.
    Thank you Ron Paul!

    1. PS I read the text of the bill and decided to sign it.
      God what times we live in!!!
      Really, we must work to:
      A) Oust *by legal and peaceful means* any fascists in Congress (which means about 85% of them)
      B) Amend laws so that no corporate contributions may be accepted, and individuals may be limited to $1500 such as in Canada, and every party is limited to a certain dollar number in how much it spends, also in Canada. This is the only way we will weed out the corporate hijacking of America and our freedom…..to eat and take care of our own health, good lord!
      C) Then, and only then, will the FDA stop being so corrupt. Maybe. We may need to replace them too, even if the item B was by some miraculous dream to ever come true and be made law.
      It will take a miracle of God’s…..but we must act. Surely to lie down passively is only to enable to status quo. Not acceptable.

  6. In my opinion there is no one in the GOP who is capable enough to fight off special interests and become a great president.. I’ve heard much about Ron Paul and it sounds as if he could be that person but already (even in his own party) their spreading rumors of old age, a heart attack ready to happen and other smears, so even if there are reps who would wok for the people, their being smeared by secret moles with (corporate) interests of their own who will squash them with their super bowl type ads and smiling faces.. This leaves the carpet baggers and the outright liars to shoot Obama down during open season.. And if America has lost confidence in their hopeful dream (which seems to be the hub-bub) then there will be no one leading the people, rather only HERDING them into bankruptcy and eventual oblivion.

  7. I think that we need to give the supplement industry an equal chance to communicate, given all the lies on primetime commercials about the benefits of pharmaceutical drugs with side effects many many times worse than the problem they cure. Equal opportunity. Supplements actually work.

Comments are closed.