Bill C-51? (Canada)

[jgoreham]

I'm surprised that I haven't seen anybody talk about Bill C-51 in here.  I was listening to CBC's Best of The Current Podcast, and they were talking about Bill C-51.  From the podcast's description:

"Natural health products have been largely unregulated in Canada. The federal government aims to change that with Bill C-51, which calls for natural

Comments

[alien_zero]

I think it's bad. Sure, some regulation of natural products would be fine, but putting it in the hands of Big Pharma? No thanks. And the parts about losing your rights, and having people search your shit without a warrant and whatnot? Not cool.

[the_questess]

Cool! Now they need to do that in the US.

Tag added :-)

[prettyhowtown_]

wait...what? how's it cool?

[lapsedmodernist]

I think it would be pretty cool if there were standards in place to ensure that vitamins and supplements I buy actually contained the stuff that is supposed to be in them, and that they were manufactured and packaged in sanitary conditions, etc.

[the_questess]

I didn't read the link, but didn't you say they're wanting to regulate things like nutritional supplements in the same way they do pharmaceuticals?
Supplements need that kind of regulation... there's no saying what's in them or how much of things without regulation... plus they don't get testing.

[prettyhowtown_]

i think it's godawful, myself.

[bedsidesaucers]

why?

[prettyhowtown_]

eventually people will need a prescription to legally get multivitamins, and probably pay large amounts of money. i'm afraid of how far this will be taken...

[alien_zero]

Especially since the guy rushing to have this bill passed, our Minister of Health, had a 25% share in a pharmaceutical company until a couple of years ago, when people started shouting "conflict of interest".

[lapsedmodernist]

I am all for it. I think a lot of people aren't aware that some vitamins are already regulated, and nothing terrible has come of that. Right now a lot of things are unregulated because they are sold as food supplements, and as a result there are issues of quality control, unfounded claims, etc.

Regulation for supplements would mean that they would have to actually contain what the label says, and not, like, rat dung, and conditions of manufacturing would have to meet baseline standards of sanitation, etc.

Now, I have every doubt in the world about THIS government and THIS FDA (in the US), but I think this could and should be a valid and important process in a country where the government infrastructure isn't the abyss of horror that is the White House and the Big Pharma lobby today.

[heavenlyevil]

I agree with you about most things, but I wouldn't say the government here is much better.

[lapsedmodernist]

I know Canada has had issues with conservatives in the government in recent years, but I really think that THIS White House is in a class of its own, as the people who run it aren't your standard conservatives, they are radical reactionaries in the worst sense of the word. The UK, Canada, and, for that matter, the last few Republican US presidencies have got nothin' on it. Reagan came close maybe.

[the_questess]

Then again, who's to know what our Whitehouse is going to be like in 6 months.

[alien_zero]

This is what www.stopc51.com says about it