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An Herb Is ...... by Carol Miller

"And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed... to you it shall be for meat." -- Genesis 1 :29

Now, I'm not known for quoting from the Bible, but while reading Terrance McKenna's FOOD OF THE GODS I was driven to looking up passages from Genesis in the bedside Bible I found in the motel room where my husband and I were staying in Portland. I was using McKenna's work as a foundation for the Drug Ed/ Sex Ed class which has come under fire for it's herbal abortion recipe, the same one presented in last month's SCRAP article here in the FREE PRESS.

Local and national media sources dealt with the story with fear, ignorance, and distorted sensationalization. It reminded me of a story my 12 year old daughter told of a camping trip with a neighbor girl where she was stopped from picking blackberries by a panic stricken tourist who screamed at them, " Do your parents know you're picking these berries? They could be poisonous!!" The girls laughed at their ignorance. But this morning it's not so funny. One of the owners of the building our school leases wants to terminate our contract because he believes the herbal recipe presents a liability to him personally, beyond the three million dollars of insurance which we jointly hold.

All of this perfectly exemplifies the alienation of modern humans from their natural world, an alienation which is the focus of McKenna's book ( if you haven't read it, you really should). This alienation, which is both created and exploited by the medical and drug industries to reduce our ancient healing connections to the herbal world, also serves to reduce people's self-sufficiency by severing their historical connections to their natural resources and plant allies. In this light it is easy to see that the marriage of the oil industry and the drug industry (Bush/Quayle) perfectly represent a shift of power, economic as well as spiritual and political, away from the people and to the dominant ruling class.

Is it any wonder that before Bush left office he saw that the NLEA (Nutritional Labelling and Education ACT) was passed, which shifts the regulation of ALL HERBS and Nutritional Supplements under the Food and Drug Administration from a food classification to a drug classification. What this means for you the herb or vitamin consumer is that beginning in January of 1994, all herbs and supplements will have to undergo the same rigorous testing standards as drugs. The usual response to this is "So What-- it may be a little overly cautious, but what are we afraid of, we know that the herbs and vitamins we take are safe at the doses we take them."

But, who will pay for this testing? The Government? Fat chance. Drug industries? No way; they can't get copyrights on herbs that have been in common use. They only finance research on NEW drugs so that they can make fortunes before the limited copyrights run out. How many small herb companies will be able to afford to compete with the drug companies in terms of paying for the kind of testing which the FDA requires?

The Health Food industry via Senator Orin Hatch has presented legislation in Washington which would establish a third category under the FDA. Thus herbs and vitamins would be regulated under this new domain called Herbs and Nutritional Supplements. Although we may prefer that herbs continue to be regulated as foods, that is not one of the present choices. Our two California Senators are not yet committed on this issue, and we need to reach them and let them know that we need them to vote for the lesser evil in this case. The Senate version of this bill is S784 "The Dietary Supplement, Health & Education Act of 1993." Lynn Woolsey has come out in favor of the House versions of the proposal HR 1709. There is a second House bill which I'm told is better, HR 509 "The Health and Freedom Act of 1993."

Those of us who have fought for years to have Marijuana re-legalized, especially for medical use, must realize that as the possibility comes closer to reality, the Drug industry must be licking its lips, poised to pounce and take control of this precious herb. We all feel that medical legalization must be just around the corner. Friday, August 20th the California Assembly voted 47 to 20 in support of SJR 8, the resolution calling for the Clinton Administration to legalize Medical Marijuana. Last month the State Senate voted 22 to 9 on the same resolution. That's 70 and 71% of our very conservative legislature voting for medical legalization. When we have been able to put this question to the people of San Francisco and Santa Cruz, the voters were in favor by closer to 80%.

Clinton's new Surgeon General has admitted that she favors legalization of Marijauna for Medical use. But we have to recognize that our government has not supported the rights of the gereral public on this medical herbs issue and that if we want to be able to grow our own herb for our personal and medical use, we will have to work hard to see that this personal freedom is re-established, just as we must not let the government take from us our access to Black and Blue Cohosh as natural home emenogogues (herbs which bring on menstruation), and just as we should be fighting to regain our rights to trained lay midwives to attend our home births.

Europe is quickly moving toward legalization of marijuana and the City of San Francisco recently voted to endorse the "Frankfurt Resolution" which calls for total decriminalization. Meanwhile California legislature has gotten more and more repressive with stiffer penalties for fewer plants, harsher minimum sentences and more and more cases of property forfeiture even without convictions. We need to urge our state legislators to roll back forfeiture penalties for cultivation of small amounts of Marijuana.

Mendocino County Marijuana activists have been aggressive in their resistance to unmarked helicopter activity, forfeiture, and excessive prison sentences.

Sonoma County activists have scheduled a discussion of Sonoma County Marijuana related issues with the Board of Supervisors. Ernie Carpenter will be submitting a proposal to the Board Tuesday, October 12th. We encourage all of you Hemp lovers to join us at the Sonoma County Administration Center Board of Supervisors hearing room for discussion of this proposal. Hope to see you there!

May 1994

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