Remove Red Tape

Medicines: Traditional Herbal Medicine

These regulations affect companies who wish to manufacture over-the counter traditional herbal medicines. The purpose of the regulations is to allow consumers to make an informed choice of over-the-counter medicines made to assured standards of quality, safety and patient information.

The new European Traditional Herbal Medicinal Product Directive 2004/24/EC came into effect on 30 April 2004. The aim of this Directive is to remove the differences which create obstacles to the free movement of medicinal products in the European Union, while ensuring protection for public health. This has been done through requiring each EU country to set up a traditional herbal registration scheme for manufactured traditional herbal medicines that are suitable for use without medical supervision.

We want to hear your views on what more we can do to deliver a simpler, less bureaucratic and more effective system, increase choice and opportunity, and maintain necessary safeguards and legal protections.

You can find the regulations that relate to Traditional Herbal Medicines to the left below.

Please note that some regulations in the medicines section also apply to herbal medicines.

Tell us what you think should happen to these regulations and why, being specific where possible:

• Should we scrap them altogether?
• Could their purpose be achieved in a non-regulatory way (eg through a voluntary code?) How?
• Could they be reformed, simplified or merged? How?
• Can we reduce their bureaucracy through better implementation? How?
• Can we make their enforcement less burdensome? How?
• Should they be left as they are?

206 comments on “Medicines: Traditional Herbal Medicine”

1. pat smith on April 3, 2012 at 8:05 pm said:

   SCRAP IT ALL , a creeping eventual total control of our foodstuff.Comment Tags: Scrap it.
2. Anna Krysta on April 3, 2012 at 7:56 pm said:

   To remove the need for clinical trials to be carried out on tried and time tested supplements and that, items such as colloidal silver should not be banned because it has not been pharmecutically trialed. When the government is seeking to save money on the burden on the NHS of prescription medicines, herbal supplements and medication should be allowed to continue but with a statment saying that they are at the users risk, rather like drug companies put on their leaflets about the side effects etc. sadly they do not put what damage their medicines cause in the process of correcting an imbalance.

   I want to have choice as to how I treat my ailments with accurate information of the pro’s and cons this can also be applied to herbal medicine. Cautions should be made as to overdosing on these but that is all.Comment Tags: Making educated choices
3. Catherine Walker on April 3, 2012 at 7:40 pm said:

   I think the government ought to invrstigate the side effects from main stream pharmaceutical drugs and the damage they do, the money wasted by inefficient dangerous prescribing practices where elderly and sick people have medication prescribed on repeat prescriptions that they no longer need, and the amount of pharmaceutical medication being flushed into our water systems. Herbs are natural and have been benefiting our health for thousands of years. It is the prescribed drugs and how they are prescribed and disposed of that should be the focus of legislation/Comment Tags: herbs and new legislation, supplements
4. Steven Illingworth on April 3, 2012 at 7:35 pm said:

   Herbs have been used for thousands of years as medicine safely, without these ludicrous regulations. Scrap the regs. These regs are the thin end of the wedge being used to drive herbs off the shelf for the ordinary person so that they are forced to use pharmaceutical drugs instead. These drugs do far more harm to people than herbs ever have, despite all the so called trials that they are put through.
5. David Lean on April 3, 2012 at 6:56 pm said:

   I think the legislation should be scrapped, and that government attention should be focused on the harm caused by pharmaceutical drugs instead.
6. liz roberts on April 3, 2012 at 6:42 pm said:

   People understand that some herbs can be harmful, but in as much as herbal remedies have been in use for thousands of years, I believe that any danger has been minimised by experience and usage .

   On the other hand, how many people die or develop disease from the use of toxic medications produced by pharmacuetical companies whose raison d’etre is to make profits to keep their shareholders happy.
   Let people take responsibility for their own health with, of course, support from their doctors.Comment Tags: let care and compassion be the rule – not profit
7. Mirjana Foreman on April 3, 2012 at 6:26 pm said:

   IF SOMETHING AIN,T BROKEN DO NOT FIX IT. Old saying, and has never been superseaded by anything else.
8. Peter F Whyte on April 3, 2012 at 6:07 pm said:

   I think it should be scrapped. Remedies that are made from pure ingredients are now becoming unavailable and replaced by ones that have unnecessary, questionable and potentially harmful additives that have EU certification. I would prefer to have the choice of taking remedies with pure ingredients, and am concerned that these new remedies that I am being forced to take against my will will not be as effective as the previous purer ones were.
9. mike king on April 3, 2012 at 6:04 pm said:

   Scientific Fact. How many cases are documented in this country where a herb has been proven to be the cause of serious illness or death. I would like to know what I am being protected from. What facts have caused the necessity for such draconian,costly and unpopular measures in this country? I believe I may no longer state to customers that water would correct dehydration, therefore isnt the public already protected from erroneous advice? Why cant the public be trusted to make their own choices? If they feel that something is unsafe, they won’t buy it, it won’t sell and the the supply and demand economics will collapse.Comment Tags: stop being dictated to by the large pharmicutical companies
10. Helen Edwards on April 3, 2012 at 6:02 pm said:

    I think the legislation should be scrapped, and that government attention should be focused on the harm caused by pharmaceutical drugs instead.
11. Keith Devlin on April 3, 2012 at 5:59 pm said:

    SCRAPPING IT would be the biggest improvement but failing that, instead of restricting sales of certain herbs etc, where there are interactions with drugs (St Johns Wort for instance) then appropriate warnings should be on the labels. Let’s face it, had asprin been a recent discovery it probably would never have made it to the market yet herbs, which have been used for centuries, are under threat, it’s stupid to say the least.Comment Tags: are under threat, herbs, it’s stupid to say the least., which have been used for centuries
12. David Emeny on April 3, 2012 at 5:54 pm said:

    Scrap the act as it is unnecessary and a bar to free trade.
13. Mr B Chapman on April 3, 2012 at 5:08 pm said:

    I believe the law is misguided and should be thought out in a balanced and informed manner. It is attempting to take away our right to take responsibility for our own health, and it will dramatically affect jobs.

    I am very disappointed in the authoritarian stance of the EU lawmakers. It is attempting to control & take away choice from people to take comparatively harmless & health giving natural herbs that have been traditionally used throughout the world.
    The unreasonable levies for THMPD registration are anti competitive giving large companies carte blanche whilst smaller companies will have to stop trading as they could not afford the swinging charges.
    Where is the logic that allows a potential poison, for example such as paracetamol to be readily available, and yet beneficial herbs are to be controlled in such a heavy handed way.
    Highly undesirable tobacco, proven carcinogens in cold meats & gas guzzling polluting automobiles are allowed though saw palmetto & gingko biloba is not, George Orwell could not have written a more bizarre storyComment Tags: Our right to choice and freedom to take responsibility for our own health
    • Mirjana Foreman on April 3, 2012 at 6:36 pm said:

      Please just leave the system as it is. It served us well for many years. This is just something to satisfy pharmaceuticals and beauracrats.
      We have enaugh of goverments telling us what to do
14. Miss M.D.Smith on April 3, 2012 at 5:01 pm said:

    The legislation is totally unnecessary and contrived in order that the large pharaceutical companies can make more money. It is not to protect our health. NATURAL MEDICINE IS BETTER AND CHEAPER.Comment Tags: Let us keep our freedom of choice.
15. David Hadfield on April 3, 2012 at 4:15 pm said:

    The legslation should be scrapped. People should be allowed to consume whatever herbs, vitamins and supplements they like. The State Busy Bodies & Quango Apparatchiks should find other things to do.
16. Jennifer on April 3, 2012 at 3:50 pm said:

    I think we should scrap the regulations altogether and allow us, as grown up human beings with brains, to make up our own minds as to what we believe in, and ingest what we believe, are highly effective complementary solutions to our health regimes.Comment Tags: STOP THE RED TAPE AND MARCH OF THE NANNY STATES
17. Mrs Moore on April 3, 2012 at 3:42 pm said:

    Get RID of the RED TAPE the EU give us. We do not need it. WIthout the herbal supplements in the format they are in I would NOT be here. As they have given me back my health. I know I speak for many. We apparently have our human rights along with iledged our rights – what about our right to choose what we buy and in what format regarding herbal mediciene.Comment Tags: STOP READ ACT NOW AND LISTEN TO US PLEASE
18. Francesco Savastano on April 3, 2012 at 3:04 pm said:

    The legislation should be dropped entirely. We do not need someone to tell us whether we can use a certain herb or vitamin supplement. We are responsible for our own life in front of our Creator. An unelected government in the EU wants to dictate what we need to eat and buy. Everything what God gave us to eat is good to eat, now they come and they tell us that God’s given food must be subjected to big pharmaceutical companies diktats and billionaire procedures, for increasing their revenues by limiting the health choice available for every individual. Hundreds thousands people die because of pharmaceutical drugs side effect, none ever died by using traditionally consumed herbs and supplements.
    I would propose a different legislation, every food available in nature should be considered SAFE for the general public until proven the contrary by a multibillion dollars study. Not the other way around. On the opposite, every synthetic food (partially or totally synthesized in a chemical plant) must be considered UNSAFE until proven safe by a multibillion dollars studyComment Tags: Freedom of choice, health right, supplements
19. Rosemary Weedon on April 3, 2012 at 3:04 pm said:

    I would just like to say that i do not wish to be dictated to by the government as to the products i choose to take for whatever reason! I f they can dish out toxic chemicals in the form of drugs via the NHS, i wish to be free to choose safer alternatives.
20. Jimmie on April 3, 2012 at 2:49 pm said:

    It’s legal to fill our foods with synthetic chemicals and additives but not eat pure natural foods that have health benefits because one person might react bad and die? Ban peanuts then…

    I’ve given up voting as what’s the point when we’re ruled by world quangos.