Water On The Brain

"If homeopathy is proven to be based on implausible science, shouldn’t legislation be passed that forbids pharmacists from saying it works?"

"It’s one thing to sell it, but another for trained and licensed pharmacists (people we’re supposed to be able to trust with our health) to tell us lies about it. I’m not sure if it’s the same in the US, but currently here in France pharmacists are not only SELLING homeopathic “medicines,” but they’re also recommending them as effective treatments. They’re flat-out saying it works!"

"This isn’t just about the placebo effect. There’s a product here called Camilla, which is used to reduce pain in babies when they’re teething. After a huge fight with my wife this weekend (she sent me to the store for this crap and I refused to buy it; and it doesn’t help me at all that her MD friend gives it to her kids) I went out to four different pharmacies just to see what they’d really say about it. I didn’t even ask about this particular drug. I simply said that my baby is teething and that we’re looking for something effective. Each one of them recommended Camilla and said it works really well."

"[explitive] I felt like I was in a Twilight Zone episode! I’m not kidding. This is the only way I can describe it. I was certain that these pharmacists would give me the rebuttal I needed to show my wife that homeopathy is silly. I thought they’d be on my side. Not one of them was. To the contrary, each one not only said that Camilla worked well, but two of them said they’ve used it on their kids with great results. I said, yeah, but what kind of result do you think you would’ve seen if it hadn’t worked? They didn’t answer except to say that lots of mothers use it."

"Only recently am I starting to realize that this world is much more screwed up than I ever thought. I heard about homeopathy a long time ago and laughed it off. Never in a million years would I have guessed that it was taken so seriously. And how can people be expected to sort through the nonsense in this world if real doctors and pharmacists are being so dishonest? These people studied chemistry, anatomy, etc, and are expected to have a better understanding about the differences between science and pseudoscience. What right do they have to lie about this? I am so furious. I really want to fight this. I want pharmacies to be ridiculed or sued in court for lying about this. I can live with gullible people believing stupid things. But I can’t live with pharmacists and real doctors telling lies about quack medicine. This scares the hell out of me."

"Please tell me, what can I do? Donate money, sure. I’ll be happy to. But what else? Is there some type of formal movement going on against this? If so, is it international?"

"I just watched Mr. Randi’s Princeton lecture about swallowing 64 pills in front of congressional members. This had me thinking. What about a public Homeopathy eating contest? You know, like they do with hotdogs at Coney Island. What better way to ridicule this industry than by inviting a bunch of big-bellied contestants to come duke it out over who can throw down the most Homeopathy pills in one hour?"

"Not sure how good this idea is, but it’s the first thing I could think of. We need free publicity because we’re against a lot of big wallets. I think a lot of media would show up for The First Annual Homeopathy Eating Contest. If you’re interested, let me know. I’ll do anything I can to get one started here in France, including promoting it and helping finance it."

-- Bill Fahber, a resident of France (where 40% of citizens use water as medicine), on the JREF blog