[Editor's Note: It is now over a decade since I first met Jim Strauss, founder of the Strauss Herb Company. It was not long after launching The Radical newspaper in June of 1998 that I had a call from Mr. Strauss in July of the same year. He said that he had caught a television news story in Kamloops regarding my new publication and considering the name I had chosen challenged me to do a story on him and his controversial herb company then known as Natural Way Herbs.

Of course I was interested in Jim Strauss's case and agreed to do an interview, one which appeared in the September 1998 edition with the headline reading "HEART ATTACK" The Liberal's Assault on Canada's Health Food Industry. The story was subtitled, Jim Strauss - Master Herbalist, Caught between a Rock and a Heart place.

Arthur Topham

Editor,

The Radical Press
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Interview with Jim Strauss of Strauss Herb Company Vol. 1 No. 4 The Radical September 1998

There is a man living in Kamloops, B. C. who has the gift of being able to heal people of diseases that the medical profession have deemed to be incurable.  His name is Jim Strauss and for the past 30 years he's been a practising Master Herbalist who has literally  cured thousands of patients worldwide who once suffered from a multitude of ailments ranging from Heart Disease and Cancer to Asthma, Arthritis, Prostate, hernias and Chronic Hiccups!

Considering the years and years of successful treatments and the stacks of testimonials from grateful, cured patients around the world one would think that Mr. Strauss's name and his cures would be household words throughout the medical establishment and amongst the general public.  But, alas, such is not the case and Jim Strauss - Master Herbalist - rather than enjoying the approbation, respect and dignity due him for his amazing herbal cures, has, for decades, been harassed  by Canada's Health Protection Branch (HPB) for manufacturing and advertising his natural herbal remedies.

When questioned on the subject of  the government's tactics Jim is quick to point out that the Federal Health Minister, Allan Rock, who's main function is the protection of  Canada's citizens from disease is, in fact, not only neglecting his primary duty but, through his office and through policies set by his ministry, is actually aiding and abetting those agencies and lobbyists who are out  destroying the rights of Canadians to live healthy and prosperous lives.

"There are two things in this world that are the major sources of disease" says Jim.  "One is the chemical adulteration of our foods by the giant Agribusiness industry and the second, and most perilous of all, is the genetically-altered  food    products that government and industry are currently engaged in developing."  In Jim's words, "Genetically altered food, be it vegetable or animal, means the imminent demise of mankind as a species."

Asked why this was so Jim pointed out that everything in God's creation consists of matter made from Nature.  Our bodies are natural outgrowths of organic substances that the earth is created out of and, as such, it is these pure and natural ingredients that are required in order to maintain our physical health.  As Jim put it, "Trying to fix our bodies up with inorganic, chemical substances is like taking our car into a lumber yard to be repaired with 2x4's instead of using the appropriate materials."

Since the end of WWII and the onset of the large-scale production of food by giant cartels the world of agriculture has radically changed.  For millions of years the word "organic" was taken for granted.  In fact, it wasn't even entertained in thought anymore than we debated air or water or sunshine prior to the industrial age.  But now when you mention the word "organic" people think of it as unusual or odd as if it were somehow not normal or real.  This, in itself, should be indicative of just how far we've allowed ourselves to slip away from the truly fundamental realities in life.

Referring once again to the Federal Health Minister, Allan Rock, Jim went on to describe how he took the time and effort to send Mr. Rock information on his herbal remedies, especially the Strauss Heart Drops which have helped so many people around the world.  Finally, after months of waiting for a reply, Jim received a letter back from Allan Rock.  In it Jim had hoped that Mr. Rock would have shown an interest in the numbers of people who had confessed to having been cured of heart disease by Mr. Strauss's heart drops and had submitted copies of coronary angiograms that showed the positive results from using his remedy but, instead, all that the Health Minister did was give him a lecture on drug identification numbers (DIN) and cautioned him to be a "responsible company" and not to promote his cures!

According to Mr. Rock and "Schedule A" of the Food and Drugs Act there are 46 listed diseases including, "...conditions such as liver diseases, kidney disease, cancer, heart disease, hypertension and diabetes which are not considered to be amenable to self-treatment but rather require professional medical care."  Such was the response of the man who's mandated duty is to maintain and improve the health of Canadians.

Over the years Jim attempted to have his herbal remedies sanctioned by the health officials and at a time when it wasn't a costly item like it is today with all the new regulations and fees.  Each time that he applied he would receive a letter back stating that such and such of an herb was not considered by the Ministry to be effective in the treatment of this particular ailment and so he would be told to change the formula in order to obtain the drug identification number.  Of course this meant that the formula would now be ineffective and so Jim was left with only one option - continue making the cure so that it worked and forego being able to legally advertise his products.

As the years went by and the cures continued to work so did the harassment by the HPB.  Inspectors would show up at his business Natural Way Herbs at 399 Tranquille Road in Kamloops and try to make a mockery of his products by going around his shop pointing fingers at his herbal remedies and childishly remarking, "snake oil, snake oil!".

Things finally came to a head (literally) in May of 1992 when Jim was attending a Trade Fair in Vernon and Federal Food and Drug Inspectors swooped in and charged him with 28 counts of advertising and promoting his herbal products contrary to the Food and Drugs Act.  There was also an additional 29th charge laid against Jim for obstructing and hindering Inspectors G. D. Orriss and W. G. Baird of the HPB because when they began grabbing his products and literature off his table he threw a package of styrofoam cups at Mr. Orriss and hit him on the head!

The outcome of the trial which ended in November of 1993 was that Jim received a $600 fine for advertising his herbal remedies for which new drug submissions had not been filed with the Minister of Health.

It's a classic case of the Catch 22 situation.  Jim refers to the herbal henchmen who hassle him as the Hitler's of the health protection branch.  They go about the country harassing small health food store entrepreneurs and driving them out of business so that the large pharmaceutical companies can gain total control over the sources of healing remedies and then substitute the natural ones for the synthetic.

The crux of the whole issue as far as Jim is concerned is the arbitrary reclassification of herbs by the HPB from that of food to that of drugs.  To the mind of an HPB bureaucratic  Brownshirt who's been lobbied into submission by the giant pharmaceutical companies, a herb is a herb until you put a label on it saying that it will benefit you in some way.  As soon as you say that then through some strange, unexplainable and convoluted logic the herb suddenly becomes a drug and requires a drug identification number (DIN).

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