Firstly I would like to apologise for diverting from the important subject of how to live long and stay healthy, but recent developments in the long saga of the Herbalists’ fight to save their profession made the need to bring this into the public awareness rather urgent!

The current plight of the Herbalists in the UK is not a new problem. For hundreds of years Herbalists, together with any other practitioners who were not part of the mainstream medical profession, were persecuted, harassed and even burned on the stake as witches. Luckily the burning on the stake practice has been stopped but history is full of examples of the establishment, pushed by mainstream medicine, trying to outlaw the so-called alternative medicine practitioners. These attempts to stop everything non-mainstream from being practiced have intensified over the last century with the rise of extremely rich and powerful pharmaceutical companies who obviously see the CAM (complementary alternative medicine) as unwanted competition. Over the last 18 years, since I started as a Chinese medicine practitioner, I have taken part in not less than three campaigns to try and save herbal medicine. The first two were concerning a new piece of legislation brought to Parliament for approval by the medicine control agency (MCA). That legislation meant that all Herbal preparation will have to go through the same procedure as medicines do in order to be licensed for use. If this had been approved by the MP’s it would have meant an immediate death sentence for herbal medicine. None of the herbal medicine companies could even start to afford this process. It costs many tens of millions of pounds to approve one drug. The herbal companies are all small companies that have hundreds of different preparations. The MCA (no doubt controlled themselves by the pharmaceutical companies) understand very well what the consequences of this legislation will be. It was a blatant attempt to destroy herbal medicine in the UK and completely ignoring the fact that around 8million people in the UK use herbal medicine every year. The MCA tried to sneak this legislation quietly through Parliament but luckily the herbalists community found out about it and a quickly organised campaign by the herbalists and their patients restored common sense and Parliament rejected the MCA offer.

The MCA and their accomplices the pharmaceutical companies have not given up. They brought an amended version of the legislation for Parliamentary approval two years later. Again they tried to sneak it through quietly and again we found out about it at the eleventh hour-a quick campaign followed and again we were successful.

This time we are facing a much bigger problem. The legislation has come from Europe and not Westminster. Amazing as it sounds, there was nothing we could do to stop it from happening. It was very frustrating and it makes you think about the whole idea of the European Union but this is another issue. The fact of the matter is that this new European directive for herbal medicine is here to stay. This directive is Draconian, ill thought through and, worst of all, counter productive. The consequences of the implementation of this directive are that the Herbalists and the herbal medicine companies are struggling to carry on. The unsuspecting public that was supposed to be protected by this legislation is being put at much higher risk since it now has to get its herbal medicine from unsafe places like the internet or one of those Chinese places on the High Street. (These network clinics tend to ignore all the rules entirely and have been found to sell some banned materials bought from China.)

I could go on and explain why these legislations are daft to the extreme and why I think it is just another attempt by the medical establishment to destroy herbal medicine but that would be a waste of time. As we said, they are here to stay.

So, what can we do?

Luckily, this directive also states that if a practitioner is Statutory Registered then he/she can carry on and prescribe herbal medicines as before. Great, we all thought, there is a solution! All we have to do is give the herbalists status of Statutory Regulation (SR) and at least some of the problems will be solved. Giving SR to the herbalists is the obvious solution to this problem: it will benefit the herbalists, the herbs companies and, most importantly, the public. It will allow safe practice of herbal medicine and will protect the public from rogue practitioners and dodgy products. It won’t cost the Government a penny. It’s a win win situation with no downside –what they call a no-brainer.

Statutory Regulation for herbalists is not a new concept. In November 2000 a House of Lords Select Committee designated by the Government to find a solution for the fast-growing and poorly regulated market of Complementary Medicine concluded that all types of Complementary Medicine should be Statutory Registered. The Committee divided the therapies into 3 groups. The first group, which included herbal medicine and Acupuncture, was said to be in most urgent need for Statutory Registration. The Committee conclusion particularly singled out herbal medicine as being in most urgent need of SR for the protection of the public. The Government at the time accepted these recommendations and set out to implement them. Amazingly, almost 14 years later, we are not much closer for SR for Herbalists (yes, the most urgent one!). The need for SR became even more essential with the arrival of the EU directive for herbal medicine, as mentioned before.

During these 14 years, successive health ministers used their no doubt impressive political cunning and tricks to drag their feet with this issue. Over this period two more Select Committees and two public consultations overwhelmingly supported SR for Herbalists and yet nothing has been done about it. After the last Elections we thought that there was a breakthrough in attitude. The new elected Government came out with an official announcement saying that Herbalists would be given SR within one year. Yet again, two and a half years later, nothing has happened.

I used to think, how come?, why are the politicians so reluctant to do something which is so obviously the right thing to do, something that will genuinely benefit all sides including the politicians themselves, something that is urgently needed to protect the public and to save herbal medicine in the UK.

The penny dropped with the revelation of the lobbying scandal last year. Of course, how naïve of us! The politicians are obviously in the pocket of the powerful lobbying of the pharmaceutical companies and scientific bodies that just don’t like the idea of herbalists getting any kind of recognition. They also, it seems, see the situation as an opportunity to make life much harder for herbal medicine and by doing so, minimising its existence. How convenient.

This situation is appalling. It is becoming increasingly hard for herbalists to get hold of and to prescribe herbs. This situation is just another stage in the constructed effort of the medical establishment and the pharmaceutical companies to destroy herbal medicine and we should NOT let them get away with it!!

It should be every human’s basic right to be able to go to a herbalist to get herbs for their medical problems. It should be every herbalist’s basic right to be able to work.

The main organisation leading the campaign for SR for herbalists is the ehtpal  (European herbal and traditional medicine practitioners association). Please join in and help us to save herbal medicine. Putting statutory regulation for herbalists in google will reveal ways of campaigning e.g. petitions on line, letter to MP’s etc. .

I will also try to keep you updated on my website facebook and twitter.