CFI Ready to Help Those Harmed by Homeopathy

The Center for Inquiry affiliate in Canada is assisting in going after distributors of homeopathic medicine in a $30 million lawsuit. You may argue that homeopathic medicine is, by definition, useless… so what’s the harm? However, if people take the fake medicine in lieu of actual medicine, their bodies could be getting worse when they should be getting better.

CFI also wants to help anyone in America who has suffered because they took homeopathic medicine:

CFI is willing to assist individuals who believe they have been defrauded or otherwise harmed through the marketing of homeopathic products. If you are interested in discussing the possibility of pursuing legal remedies, please contact Steven Fox, CFI’s Legal Director.

…

“People are unconscionably being misled in their time of greatest vulnerability: when they’re sick,” said Ron Lindsay, President and CEO of CFI. “We intend to stand up for consumers and their right to be told the truth about the medicines they spend their hard-earned money on. We will take the fight to the perpetrators of homeopathic fraud in the media, in legislatures, and yes, in the courts.”

Good on them. Get these fake pills off the shelves before they do more damage.

CanadianNihilist

Good stuff.
TheAnalogKid

Well, it’s their money; they can use it how they like. But what led these people to try the homeopathy? The same kind of thinking that leads to this:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2135324/Woman-starves-death-spiritual-journey-trying-live-sunlight-alone.html?ITO=1490
CanadianNihilist

Sometimes homeopathy “medicines” are in the medicine isles and look very much like the actual thing. The companies go through great effort to mislead the consumer. If you’re not careful it’s easy to buy it by mistake.
Thomasprikakis

Don’t forget about the herbs they’re going take away from everyone once this comes to the us.

Herbs and extracts are important to me.
Thomasprikakis

This needs to be a battle against misleading labeling instead of singling out the homeopathic area.

It’s not a foul concept. There’s just foul people using the title. Now, theres cleverly disguised negative propaganda “for a good cause”. Right here.
TheAnalogKid

Okay. But don’t you read the packaging and stuff before you take it?
Maik Both

What is not ‘foul’ about defrauding people by selling them water and claiming it has some magical power (and acts in a way that defies what we know so far about the universe)?
JohnnieCanuck

And what do I see in one of the ads at the bottom but Revelar, a Free Radical Breath Analyzer.

“It’s the Gold Standard for Oxidative Stress Assays”, says Dr. John Hunt MD.

All this talk about woo is attracting the woo-meisters to us.
Gordon Duffy

I think it is a common assumption that a “reputable” chemist will not sell medicine that does not work. Clearly this is a mistaken impression.

But it shouldn’t be.
Tris

I think the World Homeopathy Awareness Week is reaping benefits for all.

http://mygodlesslife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/world-homeopathy-awareness-week.html
C Peterson

Herbs and extracts are not homeopathy. I think some herbs and extracts should be regulated, meaning that their active ingredients should be identified and assayed, and their health claims verified, but unlike homeopathy, there actually are active ingredients. Many herbs and herb extracts have actual biological effects.
C Peterson

Now if they can just go after the other bogus stuff as well: chiropractic, accupuncture, etc.

Or maybe, we should just let Darwin have the final word, and allow for a bit of cleansing of the gene pool (although at the least, children should probably be protected from their parents’ stupidity, even at some risk to that gene pool).
J2j3

Don’t forget the FDA is not allowed to regulate homeopathic or natriopathic “remedies”. It’s all quackery/snake oils and that’s why if you watch the commercials or read the boxes in VERY TINY PRINT there is a disclaimer -This product is not intended for the diagnosis or treatment of any diseases. Save your money. Ignore the bogus unfounded claims and use real medicine studied by real science.
J2j3

So does arsenic. Completely natural that is. Most of the herbs and extracts fall under the same nonregulated hogwash. Herbs that have actually been studied like St. John’s Wart for depression are rarely given in high enough doses to matter and have interesting side effects when they are. Be skeptical of everything.
C Peterson

I wouldn’t personally use any herbal medicines. I want anything I take in order to treat an illness or improve my health to be assayed and tested.

I was simply pointing out that herbal medicines and homeopathic “medicines” are completely different things.