Fight crackdown on natural medicines

I HOPE sincerely that something is going to be done about the minister of health's crackdown on natural health products.

South Africans deserve freedom of choice about the medicine they prefer to take. The new regulations put out by the Medicines Control Council (MCC) will mean that 85% of all natural medicines will disappear from the market place, thousands of people will be out of work and the economy will lose millions.

We will have the most stringent and highly regulated natural health industry in the world. This move by the MCC is unconstitutional, and denies the South African people the right to freedom of choice and access to natural medicines.

People have the right to consume alcohol, which cannot only affect their own health, but drunken driving can and does lead to many road deaths. People can choose to smoke cigarettes which affect their own health, often leading to lung disease and cancer, and also affects those around them from secondhand smoke.

But these people are still allowed to continue their unhealthy habits.

Many people stay healthy as a result of using supplements and therefore are not a burden on their medical aids or their own pockets by having to visit doctors and pay for expensive medication.

I know there are some supplements available in stores and health shops that have not been properly tested and controlled, and it is those that need to be regulated – not those available from companies that have been in business for many years, and are completely ethical in their behaviour and production.

The herbal remedies, as well as some animal products, that are "prescribed" and sold by those who sell "traditional medicine" and others like that, have not been tested, and many suppliers are stripping the countryside of plants and animals. I am not being racist, but how can these be allowed when others that are ethically manufactured, are not?

I have seen herbs and animals parts lying uncovered on streets in KwaZulu-Natal, and yet those are not being regulated.

I will be one of those out of work as a result of the crackdown. I cannot afford medication from chemists/doctors.

My medical aid will not pay for it and there are many others in the same situation.

There are pensioners who receive a measly sum every month and people like me who do not even get a pension. They keep well by using supplements.

I have not been ill for years and I know that it is due to the specific supplements I take.

Margaret Weller, Port Elizabeth