The 1023 Challenge World-Wide, 2011

After 200 years, no conclusive scientific evidence exists for the effectiveness of homeopathic treatments (reviewed here, here, here, here, and here). A product that has been diluted so much that not a single molecule of the original active ingredient is present would require a highly implausible mechanism and break the laws of physics and chemistry as we know them.
Homeopathic remedies are legally exempt from providing documentation to the FDA showing their products are safe. It’s solely up to the manufacturer to ensure safety. What could go wrong? Oh, right…You could lose your sense of smell, permanently. Or poison children.
When pharmacists misuse their professional reputation to recommend products that are not known to be effective, patients may feel that they can forgo legitimate therapy.
For added confusion, homeopathic ingredients are listed in Latin. For example, a popular product sold as a remedy of flu-like symptoms is Oscillococcinum. The ingredients are lists as Anas Barbariae Hepatis et Cordis Extractum – 200 CK. Think about it. Pharmacists are selling products that they themselves have no clue as to what’s in the box. By the way, the Latin translation is roughly, ‘extract of heart and liver from a duck.’ Yum!
The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) endorses homeopathic products through several means. Firstly, the APhA accepts money from homeopathic manufacturers for booth rentals at APhA conventions and advertisements in their journals. Secondly, the APhA publish book chapters and articles written by homeopaths, guaranteeing a favorable bias of the material taught. Therefore, the professionalism of the APhA has been compromised. Pharmacists must refuse to sell homeopathic products because doing so legitimizes the non-professional stance taken by the APhA and other organizations, and further degrades the status of the pharmacy.
Selling homeopathic products dishonors the professional relationship with the patient and yields a dishonest profit. This practice reduces pharmacists to the level of hucksters and predators who prey on their unsuspecting patients.
Selling homeopathic products is, at best, legally questionable. Any product stocked by a pharmacy is subject to an ‘implied warranty’. This is to ensure that products sold are fit for a particular purpose. Recently, pharmacists in the UK were the subject of four year investigation for selling homeopathic anti-malaria remedies to travelers headed to Africa. The cases were unfortunately dropped but let that be a warning to pharmacists who think that they are doing nothing wrong.
Selling homeopathic products violates the ‘oath of a pharmacist,’ in which US graduates vow to ‘. . . apply my knowledge, experience, and skills to the best of my ability to assure optimal outcomes for my patients.’ Selling unproved products clearly and unequivocally violates this vow as optimal outcomes cannot be achieved with expensive placebos.
Pseudo-medical practitioners wish to displace legitimate medicine. By only selling products proved safe and effective, pharmacists hold the line against the encroachment of quackery on conventional medicine. Conversely, selling homeopathic products hastens the erosion of conventional medicine and lowers that pharmacist to quackery. Those pharmacists are essentially no better than some scientifically illiterate health food store clerks. Selling homeopathic products thus lowers esteem for the pharmacist, the pharmacy and the profession at large.
Homeopathic products appeal to the greed and profit motive. Health food stores are making huge profits off the sale these worthless products and pharmacies want a slice of the pie. “If the guy down the street is making money, why can’t I?” The argument that profit justifies the sale of homeopathic medicines is the identical justification used by illicit drug dealers, pimps, and illegal arms dealers. Profitable quackery is still quackery.
Selling homeopathic products betrays a lack of intellectual honesty and rigor in thinking. To know the scientific method, but to ignore its power and utility is perhaps even worse than to be scientifically illiterate. Selling quack products lowers respect for the pharmacy in the eyes of physicians and others who adhere to the principles of legitimate medicine.

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I've got a gallery of 10:23 stunts around the globe here.

Posted by: Andreas Kyriacou | Sunday, February 06, 2011 at 12:23 PM

I took some photos and a few video clips from the Vancouver, BC, Canada overdose yesterday and posted a short YouTube video of the same event.

Posted by: Fred | Sunday, February 06, 2011 at 03:13 PM

Excellent!
And thanks for the link.
I also filmed the overdose itself (you're linking to my video diary of the 24 hours afterwards)

10:23 Natal, Brazil.

Posted by: Igor Santos | Tuesday, February 08, 2011 at 05:28 AM

Hi... you just posted on my blog regarding my video... I am from -- Morelia Mexico, Un Papa Esceptico (a Skeptic Dad)

thank you very much

Daniel

Posted by: daniel | Tuesday, February 08, 2011 at 11:33 AM

Thanks for commenting on my 10:23 post. Also, thanks for including my Wakefield post in one of your previous lists ( I never replied to that comment as I took an extended hiatus from the web shortly after that post. Sorry about that, and thanks.)

Posted by: GodlessGeek_ | Friday, February 11, 2011 at 03:54 PM

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The 1023 Challenge World-Wide, 2011

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