4 ms·

Wishful thinking, but next up should be homeopathic snake-oil. No company should have a homeopathic product sitting on the shelf next to an actual medicine.

tasty_freeze 3y ago
I was at a Walgreens years ago and there was a rack of impulse-buy items at the checkout counter. One of them was a homeopathic cold "remedy." I had the same thought as you -- Walgreens is hurting their reputation as a trustworthy pharmacy, but then I realized that behind the counter was a wall of cigarettes. That resolved the tension for me: if they are willing to sell cancer causing agents, selling homeopathic meds is tame in comparison. Their goal, of course, is to make money, not to make you better.
- octonion 3y ago
  [dead]
- jnwatson 3y ago
  CVS doesn't sell tobacco products for that reason.
DangitBobby 3y ago
This is what the entire latter 2/3 of the article is about.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
Alex3917 3y ago
> Wishful thinking, but next up should be homeopathic snake-oil. It sounds like it's serving a useful purpose. > "I know so many people… hell, I've done this myself, I've bought [a homeopathic] product by mistake," Little said. In a trip to the drug store while sick or as a weary parent of a miserably ill child, it's easy to mistakenly pick up a homeopathic product in haste or the fog of infection. If folks are going to irresponsibly take some random drug without having any idea what's in it, it sounds like funneling them toward something that won't harm them is a good thing. I mean would you really rather have them giving their kids something like tylenol without reading the dosage instructions?
- ekianjo 3y ago
  We should give kids aspirin just like we used to and stop believing a ridiculous paper that claims that it causes some kind of rare disease.
  - brandonmenc 3y ago
    > like we used to We haven't given aspirin to kids for like half a century. I know this, because my uncle died from Reye syndrome from aspirin when he was two years old right before the recommendation changed. I'm guessing a decent number of unexplained child deaths from back then can be attributed to Reye syndrome from aspirin.
- irons 3y ago
  If you're assuming that the homeopathic stuff is incapable of harming anyone, you're mistaken. https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/08/fda-warns-amazon-to-stop-selling-bogus-anti-poxvirus-products-for-kids/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/08/fda-warns-amazon-to-s...
  - derbOac 3y ago
    The reason to remove such products is because they contain dangerous agents that aren't being disclosed. The same would be said of any scientifically well-validated product that was tainted. If bottles of paracetamol/acetaminophen were contaminated with toxic mold, those should be removed too I think. I personally think the FDA should be more focused on these kinds of things — contamination and labeling fraud — and less on regulation of efficacy or access. We need more access and competition in the US, not less.
  - Alex3917 3y ago
    I'm definitely not assuming that homeopathic medicine is incapable of harming people, but for the sake of this specific argument I think it's reasonable to assume that we could find something that isn't especially harmful to fill the role of giving people who don't read the labels something to take.
- 3y ago

tasty_freeze 3y ago

I was at a Walgreens years ago and there was a rack of impulse-buy items at the checkout counter. One of them was a homeopathic cold "remedy." I had the same thought as you -- Walgreens is hurting their reputation as a trustworthy pharmacy, but then I realized that behind the counter was a wall of cigarettes. That resolved the tension for me: if they are willing to sell cancer causing agents, selling homeopathic meds is tame in comparison. Their goal, of course, is to make money, not to make you better.

octonion 3y ago
[dead]
jnwatson 3y ago
CVS doesn't sell tobacco products for that reason.

DangitBobby 3y ago

This is what the entire latter 2/3 of the article is about.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

Alex3917 3y ago

> Wishful thinking, but next up should be homeopathic snake-oil. It sounds like it's serving a useful purpose. > "I know so many people… hell, I've done this myself, I've bought [a homeopathic] product by mistake," Little said. In a trip to the drug store while sick or as a weary parent of a miserably ill child, it's easy to mistakenly pick up a homeopathic product in haste or the fog of infection. If folks are going to irresponsibly take some random drug without having any idea what's in it, it sounds like funneling them toward something that won't harm them is a good thing. I mean would you really rather have them giving their kids something like tylenol without reading the dosage instructions?

ekianjo 3y ago
We should give kids aspirin just like we used to and stop believing a ridiculous paper that claims that it causes some kind of rare disease.
- brandonmenc 3y ago
  > like we used to We haven't given aspirin to kids for like half a century. I know this, because my uncle died from Reye syndrome from aspirin when he was two years old right before the recommendation changed. I'm guessing a decent number of unexplained child deaths from back then can be attributed to Reye syndrome from aspirin.
irons 3y ago
If you're assuming that the homeopathic stuff is incapable of harming anyone, you're mistaken. https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/08/fda-warns-amazon-to-stop-selling-bogus-anti-poxvirus-products-for-kids/ https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/08/fda-warns-amazon-to-s...
- derbOac 3y ago
  The reason to remove such products is because they contain dangerous agents that aren't being disclosed. The same would be said of any scientifically well-validated product that was tainted. If bottles of paracetamol/acetaminophen were contaminated with toxic mold, those should be removed too I think. I personally think the FDA should be more focused on these kinds of things — contamination and labeling fraud — and less on regulation of efficacy or access. We need more access and competition in the US, not less.
- Alex3917 3y ago
  I'm definitely not assuming that homeopathic medicine is incapable of harming people, but for the sake of this specific argument I think it's reasonable to assume that we could find something that isn't especially harmful to fill the role of giving people who don't read the labels something to take.
3y ago