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URGENT
Texas Health Freedom Alert - Say No to the Dietitians!
Colleagues and Friends of
Texas Health Freedom,
Every Texas legislative session since 1999, the Texas
dietitians have introduced a bill to
license the practice of nutritional counseling to only them and medical doctors. We
now know that this will occur in 2007 as well. Once again,
the Texas dietitians are trying to monopolize and censor the information consumers
receive about nutrition and dietary supplements.
We have received reliable information, via a forwarded
e-mail, that The dietitians will be
introducing a licensing bill as early as this week. On Feb. 20th, they will hold a
legislative day, and busloads of dietitians will descend on
Austin and lobby the legislature to pass their bill.
If passed, the bill will legally prohibit nutritionists,
naturopaths, homeopaths,
sports trainers, natural products
retailers/distributors and any
other unlicensed Texas practitioners from providing nutritional
information to consumers.
Experience in other
states shows that, if their bill is
passed, the dietitians will ruthlessly enforce it. In Florida, a
naturopath/health food store owner was handcuffed and jailed for
practicing
nutritional counseling without a license. In
Ohio, a Ph.D. nutritionist and
a health food store owner were each subjected to intrusive,
lengthy, hostile investigations and forced to spend tens of thousands of dollars
in legal fees. At the very least, we can expect the Texas
dietitians'
bill to contain stiff fines (up to $1,000per day) for practicing
nutritional counseling without a license.
Each time the dietitians have previously attempted to pass
their bill in Texas, their efforts
have been foiled by grass roots groups, the
many health organizations that
protect consumer freedom of choice, and professional groups.
During the 2005 legislative session, our Coalition
mustered a powerful response of over 350,000 inputs to
the legislature to
thwart the dietitians. That time has come
again.
Fortunately, you have at your disposal a powerful,
easy-to-use means to make your voice heard and help us say
NO
to the dietitians.
We are mounting a massive fax campaign to let the
legislature know how the
citizens of Texas feel about this bill. Why a
fax? Experience has shown
that faxes sent to a legislator's office make the
most impact. However,
if you don't have a fax capability, you will be
able to easily send an
e-mail and still let your voice be heard. Here's
how to do it:
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Log onto our web site www.texashealthfreedom.com.
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In the upper left
corner of the Home page, click on the link Who's My Rep? You
will be taken to a screen to enter your address
information. The
screen will then show you the contact information (not
including fax numbers and
e-mails) for ALL your state senators and representatives. Please copy ALL their names (except members of the US
Congress). You will need to contact all of them.
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Return
to www.texashealthfreedom.com. In
the Recent Items List on the left side of the Home
page, you will find the Senate and House Contact Lists (two separate files)
with the complete contact information for all the Texas legislators,
including fax number and e-mail address. Please
copy the fax number for each
of your legislators. If none is listed for a legislator, copy their e-mail
address.
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Now click on the
section "Urgent: Health Freedom Alert." Below
the article you will find two
fax forms (click on the green arrows), titled "No Nutritional
Monopoly" to fill out and send to your legislators
in the House and Senate,
respectively. Please download them, and print
out and complete as many copies of
each as you need. If you are using e-mail,
please copy and paste the fax
text into the body of the e-mail, enter the legislator's e-mail
address, contact information and your personal
information, and send it that
way. Please use the e-mail title Say NO to the Dietitians.
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Send a fax or
e-mail to EACH state senator and representative on your
list.
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If you are a
health professional or natural products retailer/distributor, please
make multiple copies of each fax form, and ask every one of your
patients/clients/customers to fill out one each of the forms (Senate and House). Fax
them at the end of each business day to YOUR senators and
representatives.
That's all there
is to it! PLEASE fax or email your
representatives
and senators ASAP. The
more of these faxes and e-mails the legislature receives before Feb. 20th, the
dietitians legislative day, the better chance we have of cutting them off at the
pass and preventing
the bill from coming to a hearing. If
you receive this message after Feb.20th, send your faxes or
e-mails anyway. Let your voice be heard!
PLEASE FORWARD THIS
E-MAIL TO ALL TEXANS ON YOUR E-MAIL LIST. TIME
IS VERY SHORT! (If you are the
leader of an organization supporting our effort, please feel free to
substitute your own salutation and signature at the beginning and end of this
message when you forward it.)
Protect YOUR health
freedom. Say NO to the Dietitians!!!
Thank you for your
help and support, Peter McCarthy, ND
Chair
TX Health
Freedom Steering Committee Member Organization
TX Health Freedom Coalition
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