Hundreds of Herbal Remedies to be Banned.

Image via Wikipedia

 Because of an EU directive hundreds of herbal medicines will be banned from May 2011 when they will have to be licensed and regulated.  The whole cost of this bureaucratic process will cost about £80,000 to register each herb. This means that whilst some of the more popular products with big markets like echinacea will be worth the cost of registering many of the smaller products will be unobtainable simply because the manufacturers will be unable to meet the cost of registration.

 Now herbal remedies have been around for centuries as in the beginning this was all that mankind had available. The harmful ones have long been weeded out and many provide cures or assist with all kinds of ailments and conditions from bruising through to help with sleeping and stress. I have taken some myself and know the ones that work for me and those that don't. I haven't the faintest idea in May whether those few that I occasionally use will be available to me or not.

 Contrast this with the billion pounds industry that allegedly provide cures for the common cold. None of them work and yet the drug companies will continue to be allowed to peddle this expensive rubbish. In fact I see the hand of the drug companies behind the move to have herbal remedies banned.

 Now, when the founding fathers of the EU came together to form the organisation it was with the laudable aim of preventing the wars that had occurred on our continent for centuries to cease. I'm certain that legislation to stop the provision of herbal remedies never entered their mind and yet now the huge legislature within the EU has to justify itself by poking it's nose into every facet of our lives. Soon we will be taxed for farting.

Related articles

• Europe to ban hundreds of herbal remedies (independent.co.uk)