Monday, July 21, 2003

The lure of a miracle pill for mental illness (Canada)
Ottowa Citizen story on Empowerplus, a vitamin and mineral supplement from an Alberta company called Truehope that is manufactured in the US but has been banned from Canada - "Last week, Health Canada officials and RCMP experts in computer retrieval raided the offices of Truehope Nutritional Support Limited in Raymond, Alta., scooping up computer and paper files and shutting down the call centre. Phone calls and e-mails poured into the Alberta division of the Canadian Mental Health Association, where executive director Ron Lajeunesse warned that mental patients may kill themselves over the issue -- and he knew of two deaths already." See also Health Canada is advising Canadians not to use Empowerplus and Health Canada's actions against Empowerplus at the Health Canada web site.