British Health Stores Face Closure

Saturday, November 16th 2002

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Representatives of Britain's 2000 health shops have been told there is now no chance of stopping an EU directive which will close most of them down.

This is because it is part of an avalanche of EU legislation which is being "fast-tracked" to give Eastern European countries a chance to comply with it before they join an enlarged Union.

There are several odd features about this "Herbal Medicines Products" directive. It seeks to apply to herbal remedies the principal of Continental law, that things can only be allowed when they are specifically authorised, reversing the British tradition that everything is allowed unless specifically prohibited.

Under the directive, many herbal remedies can only be sold if they had been through prohibitively expensive licensing procedures.

Thousands of herbal products will thus have to be removed from the market. Which is why many health shops will be forced to close.

What makes this even odder is that British health authorities tried it on before; in 1994 they proposed a statutory instrument which is claimed was necessary to implement a 1965 Brussels directive, passed three years before Britain's Medicines Act specifically exempted herbal medicines from licensing requirements.

There are no genuine health reasons for banning the 3000 herbal preparations currently on sale in Britain. Almost all adverse reactions linked to herbal remedies, (infinitely fewer than those due to synthetic drugs made by pharmaceutical firms), are caused by preparations made up by Chinese practitioners. Curiously, these are specifically exempted from the directive.

Source The New Zealand Charter of Health Practioners Inc. Journal , Spring 2002

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