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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 Brown-shirt 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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"As soon as you say that [a herb can benefit you then through some strange, unexplainable and convoluted logic the herb suddenly becomes a drug [rather than a food] and requires a drug identification number (DIN)."
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Jim went on to say that over the years he's sent out his information packages to people around the globe trying to find someone in an influential position who'd be willing to investigate his products further and promote them for the benefit of the sick. He sent information to Boris Yeltsin, Russia's President, when he had heart problems; he's sent it to American Presidents, he's sent it to numerous Provincial Health Ministers across Canada and in B. C. as well. In all cases he's received the same response: dead silence by all levels of government. It's as if they're all bent on ignoring natural, inexpensive cures while at the same time they're promoting the exorbitantly costly high-tech medical industry along with its pharmaceutical drug fixes. Meanwhile a deaf ear is turned to the screams and rage and grief and suffering of millions of unnecessary victims. This is responsible healthcare? This is democratic government responding to the needs of the people who support it with their blood, sweat, tears and taxes? Not bloody likely.
In this age of madness that we associate the terminal stages of the 20th Century with, people are so accustomed to hearing government and media preaching the line that doctors and healthcare and research and cures are all so professional and expert and that new drugs are emerging daily to combat the woes of a populace suffering from countless
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