Natural healer fears worst

While consumers scan their bathroom cupboards to work out which products may be restricted under the complementary medicines bill, many Northland health providers are steeling themselves for the worst.
Northland natural healer Gregor Robinson, who sells herbal tinctures to 100 health food shops around the country, says it may force him out of the holistic healing business after 17 years.
"It'll probably make it too expensive to register our products, so we won't be able to have them on the shelves," he said..
The bill aims to make vitamins and supplements safer and protect the public from substandard products, but opponents claim it will drive up prices and force many health supplements from shops.
Mr Robinson practises holistic, emotional, spiritual and physical healing from his Bushlore Herbal Company near Maungakaramea, and also works with Maori healers in Otangarei. At his six-weekly health days in the Whangarei suburb patients pay $10 for healing and a bottle of herbs.
The bill was "against the Treaty of Waitangi", he said, comparing it to the Tohunga Suppression Act which restricted Maori medicine from 1907 to 1962.
"It marginalises the Maori healers again. They'd be restricted in what they could do with their herbs. All they want to do is get it out to their people, especially the urban Maori."
Mr Robinson said it may cost $1500 to $50,000 to register a product, and small companies won't be able to afford the compliance costs.
"If we put together a really powerful combination of herbs that heal something like cancer they can just cross it off their list. They don't have to prove it's dangerous.
"I'd pack up and go overseas. It would restrict us so much it wouldn't be possible to do effective healing."
John Kairau, spokesman of the Taumata Kaumatua o Ngapuhi Nui-Tonu (council of Ngapuhi elders), doesn't swallow the Government's assurance that the bill exempts non-commercial production of traditional Maori rongoa (remedies). "There is nothing in writing to indicate Maori will be exempt."
Maori were "at the forefront" of a recent Whangarei protest march against the legislation, he said. He is travelling the country collecting signatures from iwi chiefs to present to Parliament, and said only Maori can stop the bill being passed..
"We've known for centuries how to administer our own medicine," he said.
Jennifer Beachen has run Healthwise Kamo for seven years, and says she would be sad to leave the industry. "I'm going to do all I can to have my business survive.
"We get a lot of joy out of helping people mend themselves ..."
Even though we might sound a bit angry at the moment, we know the importance of doctors and hospitals and all that. We just want the freedom to choose and say "No - we don't want antibiotics'."