Thread: Supplements Seized In Canada

Supplements Seized In Canada

These US supplement formulas have somehow made their way into Canada by smugglers but have now been been seized in raids on two fitness facilities in British Columbia. Health Canada inspectors collected 18 varieties of supplements. The public health agency said the supplements were removed because they contain ingredients that legally require a prescription. Many also contain a combination of ephedra and caffeine, which was banned in Canada in 2002. Some of the seized supplements also contain M1T or DHEA, which is a prohormone that’s regulated as a controlled drug in Canada. It cannot be purchased without a prescription.



What’s Next?

Health Canada is now working tighter with Canada Border Services to stop the importation of the unauthorized health supplements. In order for US supplement companies to continue selling their products in Canada, they will need to customize their formulas to fit with Canadian laws and obtain a Natural Product Number (NPN) as the government is hiking up their inspection process as this post shows. Ontario supplement distributor Upper49th recently learned this the hard way when their SYNERATE product was recalled.

Natural Products Numbers (NPN)

The trouble many US supplement companies are having with getting their NPN is that it costs roughly $2,000 per product to do the application for a simple formula. For a large multiple ingredient formulation it’s even more expensive. They also have to manufacture a formula made specifically for the Canadian market which means no Ephedra, no Yohimbe, no Chromium Picolinate, no L-Carnitine, 6OXO, no BPHEA, no Methysynepherine, no DHEA and many others. US supplement factories have minimum quantities they will make at a time and thus if you don’t meet that minimum order, they simply will not make your product for you. Since Canada is 10% of the size of the US population, there is no way many US supplement companies can sell the volume of supplements in Canada that’s needed to meet these minimum run quantities.

SOURCE: CBS News

Originally Posted by Built

Yep, for supplements it's a pisser. However, it means my yohimbine and DHEA are pharma grade and covered by my health plan.

On the flip side of our laws, possession for personal use of all anabolic steroids, no matter how they were obtained, is legal here. Needles are legal to purchase OTC at any pharmacy, as are insulin and IM B-12. And of course, 222s and Tylenol with codeine are OTC.

So weird.

I forgot about the Tylenol with codeine. I might have to pick some up and do a little cold water extraction on them