CKNW's Audio Vault is up now, and will be on their site until November 11th. The link above is for the show marked Sunday 1:00 p.m. The show start right after the news and weather. It runs for one hour. The quality is very good. So tape it for a momento.
On November 4, 2001, Peter Warren invited Jim Strauss and myself to take part in a balanced debate about his now infamous Strauss Heart Drops.
During the discussion Jim Strauss read a piece from a web site that reprinted Tim Bolen's wild rants about me. I found this about par for the course for the natural health industry and its minions. These quacks attack the messenger, even if the messenger isn't guilty of a thing.
As far as Tim Bolen's rants and their reprints are concerned, there is not one word of truth in them. Jim Strauss should know as a business person that you don't win arguments with a lion, when you throw cow paddies at them.
When I get a few hours, I'll try to transcribe the best parts of this show for this web site. We hope the government will be annoyed enough to do something. But, we aren't holding our breath.
The best, and perhaps the most humorous part of the show was when Strauss started giving out his marketing telephone number, and the ever vigilant host, Peter Warren, stopped him in his herbal tracks. Then when asked what was in his heart drops, he didn't even know. He said his son remembers. So, with a start like that, I can't wait until the rest of the story comes out. You might really be surprised. So here's a few early highlights.
The Transcript
PW: Peter Warren - host of the show on CKNW - AM-980 - Vancouver
TP: Terry Polevoy, MD - HealthWatcher.net - Consumer Health Advocate - Kitchener, Ontario
JS: Jim Strauss - Head of Strauss Herbal Products Co. - Kamloops, B.C.
Promo before show started
PW: Right after the top of the hour we are going to be a little different and we are going to try to sort things out. Jim Strauss, creator of Strauss Heart Drops, as many, many people know, Kamloops, on the internet, selling across the country will go head-to-head with a medical watchdog we've used on this program before, Dr. Terry Polevoy from Kitchener, Ontario. Are these heart drops the saving grace for patients, or a scam, ripping off vulnerable Canadians? We'll find out in a hard hitting one-hour. Be with us right after we turn the top of the hour.
The show
PW: Good afternoon across this incredible country of ours......First a debate, if you had heart problems, and I said to you that peole hooked up to oxygen, gasping for air, could be cured, angina pain would go away, swollen enlarged hearts would shrink, that this stuff would prevent heart attacks and strokes, and it would be a sure safe way to unclog your arteries. Would you believe me, it would do all that. They are called Strauss Heart Drops, and on the line with us is Mr. Strauss himself. He's going to tell us what these drops contain, what they do, and what they can not do. Jim Strauss, good day to you sir.
JS: Hello Mr. Warren, I am so happy to be on this program.
PW: Thank you sir, and we also have Dr. Terry Polevoy, who has been a guest on this program before, who is a self-styled medical watchdog, has alerted us before to what he calls some medical scams. He's out of Kitchener, Ontario. Dr. thank you for joining us.
TP: Good afternoon. I'm in my "summer home" in Waterloo today.
PW: O.K. fair ball, fair ball. Can we start please. Jim Strauss, it is obvious from my producer that you have alerted the people who sell you stuff coast to coast, to call us today during the next hour because my producer has been overwhelmed by calls for the last three days saying, "What is the number to call in to the Strauss Heart Drops program?".
JS: It's 250-37.......
PW: No, no, no. You told your people to phone this program today.
JS: I did not. I just informed all our distributors. I did not phone any people.
PW: O.K. you informed them. Just so we know we got a pile of calls asking what number they should use. O.K. what is in the Strauss Heart Drops?
JS: Garlic, cayenne pepper, bilberry, motherwort, lungwort, and duh....which one I....I almost forgot what's in there.
PW: How much do you charge for it
JS: $86 for two-months supply.
PW: Is it for sale in every Province?
JS: All over the world now.
PW: You must be making a fair dollar.
JS: Oh, lots.
PW: Does it work?
JS: I swear to you it works. I challenged the government for decades. Two decades ago I had a heart attack and they told me if I don't have surgery, I am dead. I started to make the heart drops. Now to explain why they work is like, I was born in the family of medicine men, and that's the worst thing which can happen to a child to be born in a family like that. From the time you can walk, you go and collect herbs with your family. They shove them in your mouth and you have to chew on them, and they explain.....that's for heart, that's for lung, that's for liver, that's for kindney. So we develop a taste for herbs, just the same as a housewife develops her taste-buds are trained to make a meal.
PW: Alright
JS: If that meal is not in proportion, it does not work, it's not edible.
PW: I understand what you're saying, Hang on a minute. I then received an e-mail that says:
"Warren when is the government of British Columbia going to shut down Jim Strauss and his "heart drops"scam. I witnessed the charming, not so subtle effects of brain washing and fraud in St. Jacobs, Ontario. The audience was targetted by a not so slick presenter who had the audience in the palm of his greasy hands, and the product was "heart drops". The intended victims, the 25 seniour citizens and Mennonites. Before the night was up, I was basically asked to leave the room, because the host was tired of hearing me ask intelligent questions."
That's part of the e-mail which came from our other guest, Dr. Terry Polevoy. Dr. Terry Polevoy, ask your questions.
TP: Hi, how are you?
JS: I'm always well. I am very pleased to meet you at least by phone. And I'm very happy to hear are you want to save our medical problems in crisis. You will get rid of all the quacks and we have no more problem, and that's a very noble job for you to do.
TP: I have a question for you. The presenter at St. Jacobs and on two radio shows said that you acquired the knowlwedge through your family, and you just restated that. That you were able to tell the difference in "taste". Now when I saw what the presenter was doing in the audience, and he was really quite blunt in ignoring any intelligent questions at all, I put it to him basically, let's see the studies, see the double-blind, let's see the people long-term. Testimonials for me, and as any other family doctor would say, testimonials can work only so far. All I've seen so far is a testimonial, and a denial by anybody on any web site, or in person, to answer a single question. Why does this stuff work, how do you know it's going to work long-term. If you are giving something in the mouth, not swallowing it, according to the Federal Drug Administration in the United States, it is not a food, it is a medicine, and it has to comply with their laws. As I know right now, the Food and Drug Administration will not allow any of those claims for any of your products to be made. And, in fact, in the last week I was watching E-Bay and there were only three people selling the herbs, the Strauss "heart drops" on E-Bay, and only one of them was from the United States. When I couldn't figure out if it was so popular, why so few people were selling it, actually.
JS: Because it's so popular, and I can, I have records. Before you do any accusations, I wish you would come and see our records. Doctor 200,000, about 200,000 last year who got well and got cured. Now, I made the government a suggestion. I want to have the largest hospital in Canada where the most heart patients are. I will supply free my medicine, and in that hospital there should be people who can not be helped anymore, with only days to live. And, if my medicine won't work, if within one or two months, all without except practically without exceptions, all of them won't walk out of this hospital, I will shut down my clinic, which is practically the largest in North America. I will shut it down and you will never hear from me anymore. Now what more do they want from me? Who would call food a medicine, it's nonsense. Water is a medicine. If you don't drink it, you are dead witin a week. So, how do they come to the point where they say I have to have proof or handle it as a medicine? It's a food
PW: Are you saying Dr. Polevoy that Jim Strauss is breaking Health Canada regulations?
TP: Yes.
PW: Straight up?
TP: Straight up because he can not make medical claims for a product like that, whether it's given sub-linually, or in fact, if he's claiming it's a food, he can not make those kinds of claims. He can say anything he wants, and I've had interviews with people as recently as last night, who are willing to identify people in their own community who have died after giving up going for their heart procedure, and/or getting off their medications, who have been convince that the "heart drops" are the only way to go.
PW: Mr. Strauss, you claim it is a medicine, I have a page here of your own internet. It says, "Jim Strauss is a master herbalist who has created a medicine that stops heart disease."
JS: Alright.....That's right.
PW: But, it's not, it doesn't say food!!
JS: Mr. Warren, Canada has un......... took me to court, and I'm still in business. Did you find someone, anyone now in this country who sued the government, or the government sued them, that the government lost? You don't. And I will swear to you and I am welcome all the experts in the world, to come and check out my operation.
PW: Alright hang on, I've got to do a commercial break. Hang on both of you, please....
Station break
The question is cancer - the answer is?
PW: Back with our two guests. We'll go to calls momentarily. Dr. Polevoy, you say that the meeting that you infiltrated, or attended, the staff representative actually said that milk was dangerous and caused a whole pile of diseases, including cancer?
TP: Yes, yeah. And I challenged, him. I said you know that obviously you didn't read the paper or the medical journals this week where milk in Norwegian women reduced breast cancer risk by 50%. And, so his information was wrong. The fellow who gave the talk in St. Jacobs, his background was that he's a battery recycler from a small town near Niagara Falls. He's got no medical training whatsoever, and he said something on the radio that is really, I have to get this off my chest now before the calls come in. He was asked by the interviewer, which was basically an infomercial on the other radio station on the 20th of October. He said after the interviewer asked him if he had anything for cancer, He said:
"Strauss has had great success with breast and prostate cancer. The other cancers at this point, I don't believe they have had any better success than conventional medicine has had with many other people. Whether it's a stage of cancer or when somebody discovers it you know, I don't know. But, cancer is very difficult, very difficult disease. Strauss is working on a cancer again now at his clinic. So, hopefully there will be some improvement in that area, but in the area of breast and prostate cancer there's been tremendous good luck and success."
So, my question to Jim Strauss is what kind of medical license or naturopathic license does he have to call his clinic a clinic, and where does he have....? Would he hire this man to work for him after hearing what he had to say? Would he agree with what this man had to say, that he had the cure for breast and prostate cancer using his herbs?
JS: You tell me one medical licensed person who can cure the hemorrhoids or the hiccups. Beside that I have here from the computer of your stories, see!
The legal action against you:
(The following quote is taken from a web site where Tim Bolen has his rants posted. Strauss read from it directly. The quote below is from that web site.)
"Mail Fraud, Wire Fraud, Perjury, Subordination of Perjury, Extortion,
Stalking, Terrorist threats, Assault, Filing false police reports, Illegal lobbying, Illegal influence of foreign government officials and/or agencies, Trespass, Invasions
of Privacy, Web site tampering, Internet Spam, Investigation without license, Violation of Civil Rights & Free Speech, ...."
None of it is true, and because it was read here by Jim Strauss, it can be actionable in Canada as defamation.
TP: Who are you getting that from Mr. Strauss, from your friends in Tijuana?
JS: That's from a web site. From the computer we get it.
PW: Well, Mr. Strauss, you can get anything off the computer, good, bad, indifferent, right or wrong! What is the web site, where are you getting this from?
JS: (He tries to read it...) It's h-t-p, my son will tell you because I can't read web sites. h-t-p....I will give you our manager who can say it. O.K, can you tell the web site.
Strauss manager: The web site is at:
www.citizenshealth.org/barrett.htm
JS : So, that's where I got it from. If that is wrong I will apologize to Mr. Polevoy.
TP: Well, I think you should do it in writing and send me your lawyer's name, but I don't want to get into that, because whatever's on that web site is not true. That is not the purpose of my talk. My purpose is to ask you do you have the cure for breast and prostate cancer? And if you are why have you witheld the information from the Canadian public?
JS: First, anything vat you say is not true. I will tell you that we never lost a prostate cancer patient. That is true. And we have proof, we have names, and addresses which is available to anyone who is interested to investigate it. We have a cure for now another surprise to you. There is no asthma which we can not cure. That's an epidemic today. The first time anyone will take our combination for asthma or bronchitis, the first time he will drink a cup, he will throw the puffer away, the inhaler away. And that's again is something I can prove.
Look, all my life, I live by the 12 Commandments. I know I don't tell a lie, and if you are so interested bring an army of experts to our clinic here, and you have free access to everything we have to check it out. Please do that. Otherwise it's not even worth to talk to you.
Then maybe Strauss should see what the Federal government wants.
TP: Well I think you ought to talk to the Natural Health Product Directorate director in Ottawa, whose name is Phil Waddington, who's a naturopath, and certainly he has a degree in natural health, and he has a Master in Business Administration. Maybe he can come over to your part of the world and help you out, once he retires.
JS: Well, a naturopath, Dr. Polevoy, according to me he's far away from knowing anything about natural medicine.
Station break
PW:... Mr Strauss, you made a number of allegations about Dr. Polevoy based on that web site. You were good enough to get your manager to give me the web site. I've now gone to the web site and this is based on an e-mail from one Tim Bolen which in effect mentions mainly an M.D. named Stephen Barrett. And, then lists off a whole pile of supposed charges against Barrett, and various other people, including my other guest, Dr. Terry Polevoy. These are merely charges that were laid some time ago, and in fact I will let you, Dr. Terry Polevoy, tell you that to the best of my knowledge and research in checking it out. Dr. Polevoy, you have never actually been served summonses on any of this? Is that right?
TP: Well apparently they reached, they reached one of our lawyers. It's a SLAPP suit, following a suit where we sued Tim Bolen, Hulda Clark, and her publishing company, and her agent in Europe as well, I think, was part of the lawsuit. We served them last Summer or last Fall. Tim Bolen appears in various courtrooms trying to tell people that we are nasty people, that we are evil, that we're going under, and all sorts of nasty things. I don't think there is any one word of truth, except somewhere along the line I happened to see a picture of Tim Bolen coming out of a courtroom in Florida and he gave the, I don't know if you know what the French called it, the English salute, and the English called it the French salute, you know what I mean? So, he gave it to the person who was head of one of the quackery groups.
PW: But, you have never been found guilty of any of the charges?
TP: Absolutely not.
Caller highlights:
PW: Let's take a few calls if we can, please. We'll start in Vancouver, West Vancouver with Dennis.
Dennis: Well, good afternoon. I started taking Mr. Strauss's heart drops in December last. I've bought and used up eight 100 ml. bottles and I've been getting worse all the time. The angina I had has been getting worse, more frequent, more painful, and I then decided that I would have an angiogram, which I had been recommended to have. And that revealed that I've got blockages of 100%, 90% and several other lesser ones. I need a triple bypass and possibly a new valve. So after 10 months I'm a lot worse off than when I started. And I think actually that it's complicated my condition by wasting my time relying on this product.
PW: Alright, that's one call. We'll go to Port Coquitlam, Karl
Karl: Hi, I'm 34 year old and have a heart murmur and relatively high blood pressure. I've been taking Dr. Strauss's drops for about three months now. My blood pressure's gone down, just under 10 points, and I haven't had any chest pains from my heart murmur at all. So, I have nothing bad to say about him at all. I think we should lighten up a little.
PW: Alright, thank you. We'll go to Swift Current, Saskatchewan. Ivan
Ivan: Yes, these drops are called the Strauss Heart Drops made by Peter Strauss?......That's what is says on my bottle.
PW: Made by Peter Strauss?
Ivan: Yes.
PW: Jim is that your Peter?
JS: Yah, that's my son. He knows already more than I do.
Ivan: "Unclogs even 100% plugged arteries. Stops angina pain in a very short time." That's what it says.
PW: That's what he says, I've got it in front of me.
Ivan: I heard Mr. Strauss on Medicine Hat Alberta radio station. I tried it and the station said it would help me notice a change in 14 days. I didn't notice a change. I tried the second dosage, and it didn't do anything for me. Then I was told by the vendor that I had to take at least 8 bottles, and I'll tell you something it's just a waste of money. If you want to taste it, it's got a lot of garlic in it. But, other than that it does no, has no benefits to me at all.
PW: That's from Saskatchewan. Here is Sandra from Coquitlam.
Dead by the water
PW: Let's take a few calls if we can.
Sandra from Coquitlam, B.C.: Yes, I was wondering why Dr. Strauss change his umm...
PW: He is not a doctor.
Sandra: Well, whatever he is. Because it didn't work for my husband. My husband took his drops for 8 bottles, at $86 a bottle. And his first bottle that we bought had on the label "unclogs even 100% plugged arteries and stops angina pain in a short time". And the next bottle that we bought said "garlic, cayenne mixture". Well why did he change the labels?
PW: Well ask him, he's listening to you.
Sandra: Can you tell me why you changed your labels?
JS: Pardon me
Sandra: Can you tell me why you changed your labels....on your bottle?
JS: I can't understand her.
PW: She is asking why did you change the label on the bottle.
JS: We changed the label now we have all ingrediences (sic), not because I wanted to, but because so many people phoned for the ingrediences (sic). If a drug needs our ingrediences (sic), they call my heart drops a drug, it has to list all the ingrediences (sic). Now if it is a drug, why doesn't aspirin have all the ingrediences (sic)?
Sandra: Exuse me???
JS: But, beside that, uh if like you had a caller here from Saskatchewan somewhere. I am quite sure he never had, he doesn't have a receipt and he never got...He's one of probably of Mr. Polevoy's people who are instructed to phone in and say all the bad things about me.
Sandra: Exuse me???
PW: Sandra do you...Sandra it's Peter Warren, do you still have the receipt?
Sandra: I have the bottle.
PW: You have the bottles
Sandra: I have the bottles.
PW: Now tell Mr. Strauss and tell us all, how is your husband?
Sandra: MY HUSBAND IS DEAD.
PW: Your husband is DEAD?
Sandra: He died.
PW: Of what?
Sandra: Of heart, he died of a massive heart attack, a massive heart attack. He'd been taking this stuff for two years and he died of a massive heart attack. He only had a 50% blockage and he started taking this. What it says on here, "unclogs even 100% plugged arteries". And he died of a massive heart attack. And, I'm very, very angry. And we even phoned Kamloops to find out about this before we started taking it. It's a SCAM Peter, trust me.
PW: Hang on the line a minute, Dr. Polevoy, or Jim Strauss... any comments to Sandra?
TP: I don't know who Sandra is but I feel sorry for her. I was contacted last night by a very close friend who lives in a small town in Waterloo County. And, apparently according to him, he was in his doctor's office and he was talking about certain herbs and stuff like that, and one of the nurses in the office said, "Oh we just had a little while ago a lawyer in town who was their patient drop dead. He postponed getting his coronary bypass or coronary procedure done because he was taking Strauss Heart Drops. I mean that's two cases I know of right now. I don't know how many more cases there are like that.
You know, I mean this is pathetic. If I can ask Mr. Strauss just a minute. I heard one of the people refer to some other products on one of the presentations, not just the heart drops. But, something called Cancer Tea, and I looked up the ingredients this morning and the tea contains chaparral which is almost completely banned in North America for internal use. It can cause liver failure and renal cancer. It has white willow in it, like the heart drops. It's got 3 or 4 other things including pokeroot or pokeweed root, that's quite toxic. I mean you can go through almost every single one of your herbal products and find some kind of toxicity. And yet when you ask a presenter, or people call up on the radio shows, to ask if there's any side effects, the presenter or the radio host says NO. There's NEVER ANY SIDE EFFECTS.
PW: Yeah, but that is paid programming.
TP: That's paid programming, yes. But, when you are going to a free seminar you expect to hear honest answers from Strauss's salespeople, and I didn't hear one honest answer.
PW: Jim Strauss has the right to answer. Sandra have you seen a lawyer about this?
Sandra: No, I haven't Peter.
JS: She wouldn't dare to. I don't believe what she is saying.
PW: Alright. Sandra I want you to hang on a minute, please. Would you?
Sandra: Yes
PW: Mr. Strauss, I want to give you equal time to what Dr. Polevoy or to what Sandra has just said.
JS: O.K. Now I have here a report, "Comparative causes of death - annual averages". Drugs 140,000; commercial herbal products zero. Now any two elements, like two foods, you mix together you get a third element. It creates a third element. If you want to eat bread, and you eat the yeast only, you will get sick. But as soon as you mix it with flour and water you create a third element, which is not harmful any more. You get an ounce of car battery acid, you drink it you are dead. If you mix it with an alkaline, like baking soda, you can drink it, no harm done. You've created a third element. The first and second one loses its characteristics. So why can Dr. Polevoy say it has side effects? None has established. If it would have any side effects, I wouldn't be in business, the government would have put me out of business, you can be sure of that.
TP: The government is sitting on their hands doing nothing in Ottawa. They took two years to form this new Directorate. They've issued a recent report saying what they might do, or with suggestions of what they might do, and they've done absolutely nothing. I mean, if you took the ingredients in some of your products, and tried getting them cleared through Canada Customs, and if they were being imported, they would not be allowed to be imported. That's according to import directives. It certainly couldn't be sold in the United States. Why do you think that the Food and Drug Administration in the States sent out those letters to those people who were trying to sell it on the internet?
PW: Alright. Let's talk to another person. Jerry in Delvern, Alberta
Jerry: Yes, I had bypass surgery in 1985, um but then my blood pressure started going up, and my cholesterol. And uh, about a year ago I started on heart drops, and um it took my blood pressure down a long ways, so I quit taking my blood pressure pills, and my cholesterol pills. I didn't tell my doctor about it until much later. And, uh later on I did have, not too long ago I had my cholesterol checked. My blood pressure's been staying good and I told my doctor I'm not taking the high blood pressure pills anymore. But my cholesterol, because I've had a bypass I wanted to keep it down lower than normal, and it was higher than he wanted so he told me to go back on my pills. So I'm back on the cholesterol pills but I'm still taking the heart drops. I find that they keep my blood pressure down really good.
Station break
PW: ....We're back with Jim Strauss and Terry Polevoy. Mr. Strauss, the calls seem to be going about 50-50 so far. Dr Polevoy, they seem to be going about 50-50. Dr. Polevoy, if this stuff doesn't work, and it's not good, and it seems to be with the lady whose husband died and the other guy who said it wasn't working for him. That the reason it wasn't good is that people are giving up traditional medicine. Why hasn't the government acted? Why hasn't the British Columbia goverment acted? Why hasn't the Federal government acted, and why aren't your own counterpart doctors saying to people, "This stuff is wrong for you"?
TP: Well, they are saying it. They're saying it more and more. In a recent meeting in Alberta, a leading medical journalist from the Hamilton area was there to write some articles and do some interviews, and during one of the seminar sessions all sorts of cardiologists, GPs and family doctors got up complaining about the Strauss heart drops. And they are powerless to do anything.
I mean, I've had my anti-quackery web site up, HealthWatcher.net, up for almost four year now. We cover all sorts of quackery, remedies, and devices and so forth. I didn't really pay too much attention to this until last March, when I saw this display, it was one of the largest displays at the Total Health Expo in Toronto, at the very controverial health expo where all sorts of right-wing conservative politicians and Holocaust denialists were scheduled to speak, and there was a major politician there as well.
But, I didn't realize how hard hitting this stuff was on a community, when I went into the St. Jacobs Community Centre, and saw the people who where there, the 25-30 people that were there, about 80% of them were Mennonites. And I've been to several meetings of health boosters over the years, where Mennonites were being targetted. And, they looked down at me like I was the devil incarnate, because I was there to debunk their god, Mr. Strauss. And I asked them, is Mr. Strauss a god to you people? Mr. Strauss, are you a god to these people?
JS: A what? Am I a god? Now look, the Mennonites, whatever, I never visited them, and our distributors all over the country, all over the world, if they go to the Mennonites, that's their own business. But, here I have something. You must know a drug book by Dr. Winter Griffith. Did you ever see it Mr. Polevoy?
TP: Is it Lester Griffith?
JS: Winter Griffith, MD. And he puts out a drug book which all the side-effects.
TP: I've got Dr. Graedon's book. I've got four books. I have a book called Bitter Pills.
JS: Then you look up the beta-adrenergic blocking agents, right. The first adverse reaction side effects. The first one is congestive heart failure. So, the people who take the beta blockers, and they take the heart drops, they might be dead or killed by the drugs which is the first one is congestive heart faiure, shortness of breath, rapid heart beats, severe asthma. And all the beta-blockers have the same thing. Now I have here a book from B.C. Health Guide. The government gave out to every household....a book. Here on page 337 it says, "Herbal medicine uses plants as medicine to keep people healthy and cure illness". That book is sent to every household by our government. So, why would they do that?
TP: Your government in British Columbia doesn't even regulate natural health products. They have regulations, but the don't have any teeth in it. They have recently taken the Naturopathic people and taken all of their framework away for regulation. British Columbia is asleep, they're like in the Dark Ages. And yet, they speak loudly, but they do nothing to control the quacks that are out there, whether the manufacturers, or they're people selling zappers, or selling Hulda Clark's wormwood. I mean, there is nothing.... It's almost as bad as Tijuana, Mexico, parts of British Columbia, in terms of what people are being sold, what they are being told, and the government does nothing. You guys out there have had a recent change of government.
JS: So you mean to tell me that the doctors and the medical corps in British Columbia doesn't know anything about the curing? I have, I was in court, that the association of physicians and surgeons took me to court a couple of years ago. They chickened out.
TP: The RCMP chickened out. Not the College of Physicians and Surgeons.....
JS: They took me to court. I was in court so don't tell me that the RCMP chickene out
TP: The RCMP was in charge of the case. Because since you are not a medical doctor practicing bad medicine, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, you can ask Dr. Van Andel that directly.
JS: Now...
TP: They have no jurisdiction over you. It had to be an RCMP case against you. And the RCMP threw it out. ( It was actually the Crown Council Ask the RCMP why case # got thrown out).
PW: Lets' take a couple more calls of people who have been waiting a pretty long time. Doug in Richmond, very quickly.
Doug: Yes, good afternoon gentlemen. My first reaction is why don't the medical people face this challenge and put up or shut up type of thing. But, now hearing some of these other people that they didn't have great success with it, and I've had a triple bypass in '99 myself. So I did have concerns. But, I'll come back to the two doctors that are listening, are you gentlemen prepared to put up or shut up, like he says and come to the clinic, do your data research independent; look where you want to look. Are you going to do that, yes or no? Don't beat around the bush. You either will or you won't. Go for it. I'll hang up and listen
PW: Terry?
TP: I'm not in control of inspecting herbal factories. I don't grow the stuff, I don't smell it, I don't chew it, I don't sleep with it, I don't put it under my tongue. But, the people in this country deserve to have an answer from Allan Rock, or Phil Waddington sitting in their ivory towers in downtown Ottawa.
PW: O.K. gentlemen, one fast break and we'll be back. Warren on the weekend, the CORUS radio network.
Station break
PW: I want to be as fair as possible. We've got two people who've waited a long time, and one is Bernice in Powell River. Bernice very quickly.
Bernice: Yes, my family has a history of heart problems, so when I got to be 75 I heard about this, and I started taking for eight months, and I certainly did feel better. When I stopped taking them, I will start taking them again because I want to keep my cholesterol down, and I want to have my really very good heart health. Now, if all doctors could save the patients I would think that Dr. Borovoy (sic) would have something to talk about. In the meantime I just wonder what pharmaceutical company is filling him with this nonsense, and I don't like his descrimination against Mennonites.
PW: I don't think he's descriminating against Mennonites. Ken in Vancouver, quickly
Ken: Very quickly, I started life with a heart attack, worked like the blazes to keep off of that all of the medicine all the way down the line until I finally let the congestive heart failure. I think that the medicine that Strauss is talking about was probably the cause of it. That led to quadruple bypass surgery. That lasted 18 months. That led to some stents. That lasted about 20 months, and I was declared dead. They could do nothing for me. They told me that I was one of the 7 or 8 percent of people who fell through the cracks. I started taking Strauss Heart Drops. I'm functioning well today. I've lived a thousand more days than the medicine gave me following all their rules. Health Canada and that bunch, I think should be taken to task, and I think people like Polevoy should be put inside Melosovic and tied....
PW: Come on, come on. Mr. Strauss you've got 30 seconds, that's all I've got left on the air. Thirty seconds to you, 30 seconds to the doctor
JS: O.K. I have here an angiogram from for a patient who needed a transplant, a heart transplant. He lives here in Kamloops. Now doctor Kavanagh from St. Paul's hospital, she was the doctor who took the first angiogram, I have it in front of me. And she took the second angiogram. She was not, when she saw this heart is perfectly working.
PW: Quickly Mr. Strauss. We're running out of time, very quickly.
JS: I with I would be next time on your show only with you on the talk show, and....
Wow....Alright, Mr. Strauss I don't do paid programming, thank you very much.
JS: O.K.
PW: Doctor you have 30 seconds.
TP: I am working on the cure for infomercials, if you have any suggestions out there in your Province. In Quebec, infomercials done by hosts are subject to criminal investigation, and a talk show host who does those infomercials can actually be put in jail.
PW: Well, Terry, Terry you know me well enough, I don't do them!!
TP: Exactly.
PW: I've got to leave it there. Hang on the line a minute. Thank you very much.
Odds'n'Herbals
Why does the Natural Health Products Directorate in Ottawa have no specific listing for their operation in British Columbia? Instead these spineless wonders have this to look at:
British Columbia, Alberta, Northwest Territories and Yukon
Region:
Enquiries (604) 666-2083
This region of the Health Products and Food Branch covers
Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon and Northwest Territories
and is headquartered in Burnaby, B.C.
So, what is a person in Coquitlam, or Powell River going to do when they have a bloody complaint about someone who dies or who was injured by an herbal product?
Shouldn't they contact the HCPB Inspectorate? At least there they can e-mail someone to complain about any herbal product that makes health claims.
The Inspectorate is also responsible for the management of investigations and
other monitoring activities as well as enforcement strategies related to the
fabrication, packaging/labelling, testing, distribution, importation and
wholesaling of marketed health products for human and veterinary use; the
implementation and management of Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs)
and other international agreements with different Regulatory Authorities
concerning Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) for human and veterinary
pharmaceuticals; the inspection and the assessment of conformity to the
Good Clinical Practices (GCP) regulatory requirements including the research
performed on humans during clinical trials involving pharmaceuticals, biological
products and genetic therapies; and, the communication and education
functions related to each of the above activities. The communication and
education functions are shared with various Programs and Directorates.
Resources for Health Protections Branch
-
HPFB Directorate Inspection Page - The Inspectorate of the Health Products and Food Branch of Health Canada is
the authority that enforces the Food and Drug Act and Regulations. You will
find links to the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) guide and to applicable
regulations below. These documents are posted on the Therapeutic Products
Directorate site and the site operated by Justice Canada.
My question to these folks who we all pay taxes to is this. Why are the companies that are run by Jim and Peter Strauss still in business? Can we see the Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency reports and inspections that were done on their facilities? Who inspects their clinics? Who allows these people to examine patients, to treat them with unapproved medicine in British Columbia?
What about British Columbia regulations?
- Natural Products Marketing Act
(f) to require persons engaged in the production, packing, transporting, storing or marketing of a
regulated product to register with and obtain licences from the marketing board or commission;
(g) to set and collect yearly, half yearly, quarterly or monthly licence fees from persons producing,
packing, transporting, storing or marketing a regulated product;
Does Strauss have the necessary permits to manufacture, package, or market herbs or herbal products in B.C., or in the rest of Canada? If he is doing clinical studies, are his research subjects in British Columbia given informed consent? If not, why not.
In conclusion:
This company has flaunted its products for years. Nothing has been done to stop them.
We call on all levels of government, and the media to take whatever action necessary to protect the public.
