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LY D © oF VEN? ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE GAINING ACCEPTANCE Kuwait's covert subsidies. It is claimed that the ruling family -” of Kuwait handed out "at least US$300 million [in] political pay- ments"—that is, bribes to US and European leaders in order to enlist their support for the military inter- vention against Iraq now known as Operation Desert Storm. The documentation unearthed by Spanish investigators has revealed that the European branch offices of two major US money institutions, Chemical Bank and Bankers Trust Corporation, were the main conduits for the manipulation of Kuwait's overseas funds. According to Spanish investiga- tive journalist Franconero Belmonte, "the Spanish government has imposed a strict cover-up on its probe of Kuwait influence-buying”. "In February it secretly sent two high-rank- ing officials to Washington to discuss how the scandal can be smothered without caus- ing ‘structural damage’ to NATO." (Source: The Spotlight, 28 March 1994) According to a recent column in The Los Angeles Times, one in three Americans seeks alter- native health care each year, to the tune of US$13.7 billion. A whopping US$10.3 billion was paid by consumers out of pocket without reimbursement by insur- ance providers, according to a recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine. These ‘unconventional thera- pies’, like acupuncture, natur- opathy, herbs and massage, are 4 used by people for chronic, not life-threatening illnesses. Eighty-three per cent had pre- viously sought treatment from a medical doctor. American Western Life Insurance Co. based in Foster City, California, recently began offering coverage for alternative medical treatment. This is the first such insurance policy in the nation, but because of insurance industry regulations is present- ly available only to consumers in California, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. To address the lack of scientific studies, the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) Office of Alternative Medicine plans to fund 20 preliminary research studies of unorthodox cures such as the use of shark cartilage to treat cancer, and bee pollen in treating allergies. (Source: Wildfire Magazine, Winter 1993) SPANISH INVESTIGATION REVEALS GULF WAR BRIBES a While conducting a detailed examination the scandal can be smothered without caus- of financial records at Grupo Torras, a__ ing ‘structural damage’ to NATO." major holding corporation for Kuwaiti (Source: The Spotlight, 28 March 1994) investments in Europe, Spanish authorities found hidden internal reports on the con- TOBACCO COMPANY duits used to pass around multimillion-dol- SUPPRESSES RESEARCH lar payoffs among top government figures A leading tobacco company in the US in Washington and other Western capitals. | knew in 1983 from its own research that Although he has ordered the newly dis- nicotine is highly addictive. But the com- covered documents sealed, Spain's pany blocked publication of a paper based Attorney General, Eligio Hernandez, is on the research, setting back other scien- under increasing pressure in parliament _ tists in the field at least six years, according where opposition party leaders want to to a US Congressman conducting hearings know whether any Spanish government _ into the addictiveness of nicotine. officials were among the recipients of Henry Waxman, a Democrat from California, has released a draft of the paper which was submitted to the journal Psychopharmacology, but then withdrawn by its author, Victor DeNoble, at the insis- tence of Philip Morris, the tobacco compa- ny which employed him. This is the latest in the battle by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) to have tobacco classified as an addictive drug. As one veteran FDA observer comment- ed recently, "It looks like the pharmaceuti- cal drug companies are going for the mar- ket currently held by the tobacco compa- nies!" This could certainly be the case. If the FDA is successful in classifying nicotine as an addictive drug, tobacco companies may end up handing over their products to phar- maceutical drug companies to sell under prescription. (Source: New Scientist, 9 April 1994) a — = ee Y WHAT A BEAUTIFUL VIEW ... 1T'S LIKE CMETHING oO ‘HING Our OF A POSTCARD! JUNE - JULY 1994? 6*NEXUS