Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Events occurring and how they relate/affect Anabaptist faith and culture.
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Wayne in Maine
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by Wayne in Maine »

RZehr wrote:John it seems to me that you are not being fair with this case. It seems to me that since you are sympathetic to Sam, you ignore the core of the charge -mislabeling-, and want to focus on all the peripheral matter. This is a legal issue, so it is right that it is legalistic. I don't think you would take this approach on if the issue was something you agreed with.
This is all a good example of where a superstitious practice (naturopathy) can become an entrance for all kinds of other sins, like slander, rebellion and greed.
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by mike »

As he did at after Sam Girod's conviction, Edwin Shank, Mennonite owner of The Family Cow, wrote a defense from his company's email list. According to the email, quoted below, he and his wife attended the proceedings and spent time with the Girod family.

Although Shank clearly supports Girod, he warns at in the postscript of Girod aligning himself with the Sovereign Citizen ideology. "This was neither Sam's original position nor his position at his trial," Shank writes. "He must not get dragged into that now or he'll lose all credibility."

He says, "Their case against Sam was flimsy and full of holes," and blames his conviction on the fact that he did not have a lawyer.

But the primary claim Edwin Shank makes is that Sam went to jail for telling the truth. His refusal to put the FDA's disclaimer on his salve is interesting. It is true that makers of many non-FDA approved products can market their products by labeling their products as not intended to prevent, treat, or cure disease, when in fact everybody knows they really are intended to do so, or at least it is hoped that they help with actual physical ailments. So Sam refused to label it because in his mind it would be dishonest. I can actually see some logic in that. But at that point he broke the law by continuing to sell the salve without the required label.

So, I would not agree that he went to jail for telling the truth. He went to jail for refusing to stop selling his salve which was not labeled according to federal requirements.

I don't know Edwin Shank, but I am surprised at this public endorsement of a man whose position is, in my opinion, problematic and questionable from a Christian perspective.
Edwin Shank wrote:Give Me Truth


Hello Family Cow Friends,

I'm sad as I write this, so my mood may come through a bit. Sorry, but I just feel a lingering heaviness of heart ever since last Friday when Dawn and I held court step vigil in Lexington KY with Sam Girod's family.

I have read a lot of commentary on the case and most writers are sympathetic as they try to understand Sam. But as a fellow plain person, I feel that an important detail is missed by non-plain folks trying to understand. Our family is Mennonite not Amish, so even we may not understand the Amish mind totally. But we do have a lot of similarities in how we face life and see issues in life. And I do work with and know the Amish community very well... so at least hear me out. :)

What follows is my best understanding of the clash of values that lies at the root of Sam Girod's tragic tangle with the Government. As background for my opinion, I've talked with Sam's sons and his close friends over the last six months. On Friday, Dawn and I got to meet and speak with his wife Elizabeth and their four daughters too. After the sentencing we were invited to sit in on the tearful family discussion circle back at the farm. These discussions with Sam's family and Amish friends and neighbors verified my plain person's intuition of what was going on in the minds of Sam and his family that led to this.


All Sam wanted is to tell the TRUTH.
Sam is a simple, no-nonsense, black and white, straight-forward Amish thinker. Stuff is either right or it is wrong. No middle ground. In his straightforward way of thinking it would be a lie to print the FDA required disclaimer on his labels: You know, the one that says, "This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease." The truth of the matter is, his salves were intended to treat skin ailments and disease. Of course they were! That's 100% why he selected those particular herbs for his salve.


So Sam refused to print a lie for a disclaimer on his salve.
And in turn, the FDA declared his salves drugs. Unbelievable to Sam and indeed to most of us, the FDA officially stands firmly on their statement that "any product that treats, cures, prevent disease" are drugs. So since Sam's 'drugs' were NOT approved by the FDA... presto! ...they are illegal drugs.


The missing disclaimer is what allowed the FDA to charge him as an illegal drug dealer. And since he was also making the drugs he's charged #2 as an illegal drug producer and since some of these illegal drugs are sold out of state he's charged #3 as an interstate illegal drug dealer. All of these charges are federal crimes against the United States of America because the FDA is a federal agency. As you know, the case ridiculously escalated from there until the Government had 13 Federal crimes stacked against him and 68 years in prison hanging over his head. All of these false charges hanging over a peaceful, simple, Amish farmer, father of 12 and grandfather to 28 who has no prior criminal record whatsoever and who had never harmed anyone! All he wanted was to tell the truth.


Sam did hire a lawyer at first.
The Amish are very slow to hire lawyers. They really don't trust them. (Imagine that!) They feel that, too often, all a lawyer wants is your money and often will push you to do something shady or wrong in violation of their Christian moral principles. So when, true to form, Sam's lawyer tried repeatedly to persuade him to "just plead guilty"...even though the lawyer knew Sam was not guilty and Sam knew he was not guilty, Sam told the lawyer to go home. He was not going to violate the TRUTH by "pleading guilty" even if, as his lawyer said, it would be his best chance at winning his LIBERTY. The lawyer was smart in the ways of the world, of course. He thought that the best way he could help was to free Sam no matter what. What he did not realize is that Sam's code of life is "TRUTH no matter what," not "LIBERTY no matter what."


Sam decided to represent himself at his trial with TRUTH as his only defense. In his common sense thinking, if he'd tell the truth and nothing but the truth... he'd be exonerated. Why should he need a lawyer and a lawyer's slippery weasel words to win him his freedom? So at his trial Sam did tell the truth and nothing but the truth. His trial defense could be summarized almost entirely like this: "The herbs in my salves are not drugs, I am not a drug dealer or drug maker and my salves have not hurt anyone."

And he was cut to shreds by truth-twisting Federal prosecuting attorneys, a totally non-Amish jury that could not understand where he was coming from and a haughty judge that openly despised his simple TRUTH tactic.

Was this foolish? Yes, in the eyes of those wise in the ways of the world and the world's court system, it was foolish. To Sam though, it made a lot of common sense. His downfall was that he actually had a little faith in Justice in America. He had faith that the justice system in America was at least a little committed to TRUTH. As near as I can tell, I think he and all his friends and family have lost that little faith now.


Sam's simple moral stand on "Truth No Matter What" is misunderstood as stubborn and obstinate. The Federal judge actually called him obstinate to his face at the sentencing on Friday. Right up to a few hours before the sentencing, the Federal prosecutors were trying to get Sam to sign a plea deal which may have allowed him to go home that day. But always connected to the plea deal was the bargain that he'd have to plead guilty. And Sam was having none of it. Sam absolutely refused to sign his name to even a white lie, or "normal court technicality" as some would call it, to obtain his freedom. He was willing to lose liberty to keep TRUTH. He was not about to sell his soul to the Father of Lies.

Understandably, this is a pretty hard concept for a lawyer or most government officials to grasp. In fact it's even hard for most Americans to grasp. To most Americans (especially over July 4th weekend) the highest pinnacle of being an American is Patrick Henry's revolutionary battle cry of "Give me Liberty or Give me Death!"

Sam's cry of "Truth no Matter What" just sounds like something from another world... from another Kingdom.

And maybe it is... just maybe it is.


------------


NOTE: This above explanation is not a full defense of all that Sam has done or all of the decisions that he has made. He is human and so is his family. There are definitely mistakes that he has made. I'm sure he would say so too. But none of them are anywhere close to mistakes that should put a man in federal prison for 6 years. For example, I'm pretty sure Sam wishes that he would have just stopped making salve altogether years ago. That is something that he could have done. He was under no moral compulsion to be a salve maker.

He might even wish he'd have hired a different lawyer rather than trying to explain his own case in court with no lawyer. He could have hired a more understanding lawyer that could truly represent him including his "Truth No Matter What" convictions. If he would have done so, I feel the FDA would have been forced to retreat... Their case against Sam was flimsy and full of holes.

I do feel strongly that Sam must absolutely distance himself from those who recently have begun taking advantage of his lack of knowledge and are advising him to use the "Sovereign Citizen" argument. If Sam naively follows that siren call... it will be an even bigger disaster and put him and his family in entirely the wrong camp. This was neither Sam's original position nor his position at his trial. He must not get dragged into that now or he'll lose all credibility.

Let's keep praying for this poor man and his family... That they would all make wise, God-honoring decisions that they will never regret in the days that are ahead.

Also remember that, by God's word, "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God..." Romans 8:28

God may have a special reason for Sam in prison that is completely beyond our knowledge. In fact, God has already used Sam to help another inmate who came to him and asked how he could find Jesus. Dawn and I shared some happy tears with the family Friday afternoon at the farm. Elizabeth and the girls especially were touched that God was using their father this way.

God is good all of the time! All of the time God is good. He's in control. Never be afraid.


Blessings and Prayers,

Your farmers - Edwin and Dawn Shank
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by Josh »

At some point, if the truth is so important, then perhaps the truth of whether or not chickweed salve can cure diseases (it can't) should be important. That's the entire point of the FDA: to discern whether claims that this herb or that herb or this extract of an herb (which is all a drug is - drugs have plant based origins are just very carefully refined) can actually cure the diseases that the seller claims it can.

And it's also false that he would have had to plead "guilty". He could have pled "no contest", which means "I am not admitting guilt to the charges against me, but I don't see any way to successfully defend myself, so I'll plea no contest" and the could have copped a plea deal.
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by mike »

Earlier this month, Sam Girod lost an appeal, in which he represented himself as he did during his trial.
He argued that Reeves erred by not dismissing the charges against him because his products were not drugs; that Reeves gave improper instructions to the jury; that Girod suffered selective prosecution based on his religion; and that Reeves was biased against him.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court turned away all Girod’s claims.
According to the article, he is in a federal prison in Pennsylvania and is scheduled for release in April of 2022.
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Remember the prisoners, as though you were in prison with them, and the mistreated, as though you yourselves were suffering bodily. -Heb. 13:3
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by Valerie »

mike wrote:Earlier this month, Sam Girod lost an appeal, in which he represented himself as he did during his trial.
He argued that Reeves erred by not dismissing the charges against him because his products were not drugs; that Reeves gave improper instructions to the jury; that Girod suffered selective prosecution based on his religion; and that Reeves was biased against him.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court turned away all Girod’s claims.
According to the article, he is in a federal prison in Pennsylvania and is scheduled for release in April of 2022.
Unbelievable- truly- 6 years- the former letter supporting Girod did say he had made 'mistakes', and apparently selling the product after being told not to- is one are the Amish have gotten themselves in trouble before- where they will apply the 'we must obey God rather than man' to areas like this which are not necessarily obeying God- (did God tell Girod to continue to make & sell the salve?) so I have seen them run into problems with the law in this type of mindset before-

HOWEVER seems 6 years for this is truly astounding-
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by Judas Maccabeus »

Valerie wrote:
mike wrote:Earlier this month, Sam Girod lost an appeal, in which he represented himself as he did during his trial.
He argued that Reeves erred by not dismissing the charges against him because his products were not drugs; that Reeves gave improper instructions to the jury; that Girod suffered selective prosecution based on his religion; and that Reeves was biased against him.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court turned away all Girod’s claims.
According to the article, he is in a federal prison in Pennsylvania and is scheduled for release in April of 2022.
Unbelievable- truly- 6 years- the former letter supporting Girod did say he had made 'mistakes', and apparently selling the product after being told not to- is one are the Amish have gotten themselves in trouble before- where they will apply the 'we must obey God rather than man' to areas like this which are not necessarily obeying God- (did God tell Girod to continue to make & sell the salve?) so I have seen them run into problems with the law in this type of mindset before-

HOWEVER seems 6 years for this is truly astounding-
This is typically what happens when one starts to make sovereign citizen defenses.

J.M.
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by Aaron »

Josh wrote:
temporal1 wrote:already happening, Joy.
today, stats are kept on damage+death, class action lawsuits follow.
it seems drug companies are like credit card companies: they factor in their potential financial loss, and just go ahead and distribute. legally, of course.
What else could we do? The only other option is more government regulation. Pharma is already very heavily regulated, to the point researching new drugs and bringing them to market costs billions of dollars.
Be honest.
"Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to one another ... - Bible Hub
Search domain biblehub.com/colossians/3-9.htmhttps://biblehub.com/colossians/3-9.htm
Putting on the New Self … 8 But now you must put aside all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you have taken off the old self with its practices, 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.…"

government regulation is not an option that works in the usa.
"The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil." Money rules..... over, and over, and over, and over ...... and over again.

>>>>>>>>>>>>
"Postby Josh » Fri Feb 17, 2017 6:09 am
Exactly what snake oil requires a prescription?
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Answer Many or Most drugs used by government protocol. (instead of natural inexpensive non-patentable items that work)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
snake oil> worse than snake oil > mercury in everything it is in >
"by temporal1 » Fri Feb 17, 2017 6:56 am

Joy wrote:
Josh wrote:
Exactly what snake oil requires a prescription?
Some prescriptions of yesteryear's mainstream medicine. And I expect the cycle continues, so that some of today's will be eventually banned.

As a child I was prescribed a mercury lotion for skin fungus. Not good.
already happening, Joy.
today, stats are kept on damage+death, class action lawsuits follow.
it seems drug companies are like credit card companies: they factor in their potential financial loss, and just go ahead and distribute. legally, of course."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Native Americans 500 years ago had a remedy for liver troubles (called "today" hepatitis)....
It was broadcast on antenna television over a decade ago, but overall ignored.

the last couple years, a "new" drug, condensed in ONE PILL, for liver problem (called "today" hepatitis),
and it works, (a co-worker had trouble for years, then was approved for the ONE PILL , and he was cured by the doctors with it)
It cost about $20,000.00 (a few years ago) ......

The Native American remedy ? (no toxicity , btw)
cost about $3.00 (three hundred pennies) .....

It was not and is not for EVERY occurrence - difference occurrences may require different remedies.
Just like the toxic drugs are made for different occurrences/ (different diagnosis) ....
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by Aaron »

Edited for brevity and maybe a little for emphasis today:
mike wrote:
I noticed this story before, but I just took the time to read it for the first time. A picture on one of the articles rang a bell. Sure enough, I'm selling this chickweed salve in my store.

"Sam has made this product for over 20 years, and he has never hurt anyone," said Oh.

"It is like a freight train out of control, there is no stopping it," said Oh.

She says she believes the bottom line in this all is that "They are targeting the Amish because they don't threaten. They don't fight back, and they don't like lawyers."

The U.S. Attorney's Office is saying that is far from the truth and that their primary and sole concern is protecting potential consumers. The office released the following statement:

"In cases like this, our interests are ensuring that drugs that are made available to the public are safe for consumption and ensuring the integrity of the judicial process.”
[/quote]

Mike, realize, the google, bing, chinese, and other bots that crawl all the forums and websites copy everything posted and it may be used against anyone in action taken against them. Anytime. Anywhere.
When the news of something that wipes out all the viruses was broadcast, within two months it was taken off Amazon and Ebay , banned by the FDA.
They are currently , I read recently, seeking to ban three hundred items this year (maybe more, of course), including wheat grass items (mostly 300 all natural dietary supplements or similar) ....
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by steve-in-kville »

Aaron wrote: Mike, realize, the google, bing, chinese, and other bots that crawl all the forums and websites copy everything posted and it may be used against anyone in action taken against them. Anytime. Anywhere.
When the news of something that wipes out all the viruses was broadcast, within two months it was taken off Amazon and Ebay , banned by the FDA.
They are currently , I read recently, seeking to ban three hundred items this year (maybe more, of course), including wheat grass items (mostly 300 all natural dietary supplements or similar) ....
Ever try smoking dogfood? You'd be amazed....
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Re: Amish Salve-maker in Jail, Facing Federal Prison

Post by Aaron »

I think you'd be approving .....


(it is safer than smoking cigarettes (usa brands) )
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