USFA update

originally posted by Patrick Arnold at bb.com. WE ALL HAVE TO PULL TOGETHER.

Dear USFA members:



We now have the Sweeney-Osborne, Durbin, and Biden bills all taking aim at prohormones and/or the broader dietary supplement market. The efforts of the USFA have been part of the reason these anti-supplement bills -- the first of which was introduced almost one year ago -- have stalled. Our efforts have bought us time. If we squander that time, our cause will be lost. But if we can develop a truly massive grassroots consumer (voter) revolt, we may gather the leverage to go back to the Capitol Hill bargaining table in a different relative position, and with different proposals and lesser concessions.





Today, the USFA is the ONLY organization looking out for prohormones. In fact, the NNFA -- supposedly an industry group -- is SUPPORTING the Biden bill to ban prohormones and criminalize their mere possession by consumers! Sacrificing prohormones in an effort to take the heat off the more mainstream segments of the industry is a misguided strategy. Making prohormones a sacrificial lamb will ultimately hurt the entire industry. The eradication -- and criminalization -- of prohormones is just the first of many steps towards the dismantling of DSHEA, piece by piece. Anyone who thinks that the global winds aren't blowing against ALL dietary supplements is out of touch. Canada and parts of western Europe have already tightened the noose. The U.K. restricts supplements further in 2004, and even further in 2006. The World Health Organization's Codex Alimentarius plans to limit vitamins to no more than the RDA's. Clearly, the global plan is to terminate the over-the-counter supplement market as we know it. The first target is the sports supplement market, because not only are Big Pharmacy, the medical community, the FDA and all the usual anti-supplement forces gunning for it, but the SPORTS industry itself -- goaded by its anti-doping lobby -- is pouring gasoline on the fire. Look at the list of sports supporters of the anti-prohormone group CASPER (http://www.casper207.com/about/whoIsCasper.asp).





That's why we need to get this message out in a BIG way. For example, we must prepare for the Olympia Expo next month, and I could use as much assistance as possible including volunteers to work the booth. We need thousands and thousands of individual voices to be heard. We are preparing an email to go out to 1.2 million health/fitness consumers and planning several other major efforts. We have been doing radio interviews and articles in print. We also need to continue our work in Washington and maintain our presence there (see attached memo from the Dutko Group). Over the last year, I've had the opportunity to see first-hand, close-up, the way Washington works. I'm more convinced now than ever that the only path to victory is by demonstrating a fearsome resistance. We must make our voices heard on an individual level, and through the USFA as the representative for industry and consumers. To succeed, those in this industry must put aside their differences and pull together strongly. There's much to do. The time to act is now.



Please convey this information to everyone you can, including those on the online message boards.



Best,

Rick Collins

General Counsel, USFA

www.usfa.biz