GO AND VOTE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![*quot]
The Homeopaths Desperate Campaign to the MHRA
February 16, 2011
By Le Canard Noir
More leaks from homeopathy land…
Tomorrow is the last day that you can submit a response to the MHRA regarding how they should regulate the sale of homeopathic products – or ‘medicines’ as homeopaths like to call them.
Meanwhile, it would appear that the homeopaths have been wanting to bombard the MHRA with responses. It would appear that the homeopaths, at all costs, do not want honest labelling on their products – labelling that would simply state that the sugar pills contain no active ingredient and there is no good evidence that they are effective for any known condition. Instead they want the MHRA to be obscure in its wording and deceptive as to the true nature of the pill.
What is quite clear from their campaign is that they do not want to have to provide any scientific evidence about their products – understandably, as homeopathic products are usually so diluted that nothing active remains in them. Homeopaths want to make claims about health benefits to the public purely on the back of their ‘tradition’, that is, their long standing delusions about the magic in their pills.
As a starting point for understanding the issues, please visit DCScience.
So, in my email inbox this morning was this plea for help…
Dear EVERYONE,
This is urgent. TOP PRIORITY!!! The deadline is the 18th of February. The practice of homeopathy by lay homeopaths is at stake, and if the MHRA changes the wording to the document mentioned below, we will …not be allowed to practice any longer. This will take effect immediately. The new wording which is being suggested by sense against science, and is being considered by the MHRA will effectively put us in catch 22 so that we can no longer give out remedies – basically, it is about the difference between dispensing and prescribing. all homeopaths dispense remedies as a normal part of daily practice. the new rules will mean that it will be illegal to dispense without a license, and only a qualified doctor can make a prescription. without the ability to dispense, all we can do is sit and listen to people’s problems, but can do nothing else about it. this will also have an affect on the homeopathic pharmacies, who will only be allowed to dispense licensed remedies (currently, only arnica and possibly one or two others are licensed) unless prescribed by a physician, and this means the potential loss of thousands of remedies. The key words in the version we want, which help keep homeopathy going are "…use within the homeopathic tradition". This avoids the need to prove the science behind prescribing of remedies and allows us to practise as normal.
Could you please send this template to EVERYONE and inundate Ms Farmer with requests to keep the wording as shown below, so that homeopaths can continue to practise homeopathy legally.
Please contact everyone on your database, if you are a homeopath, please send it in yourself and contact all your patients to do the same. we can counteract sense about science with numbers. we just proved we have greater numbers than they do, and that when we mobilise, we can beat them at their own game. last week, they started a poll against homeopathy in an irish newspaper ( see link –
http://www.thejournal.ie/do-you-have-faith-in-homeopathy-2011-02/?voted=1) and inundated it with votes against. it was 435 against 67 for. we started a campaign on facebook, and within 24 hours, we shifted the balance of power to what you see here in the link – 67% for 27% against. they gave up and went away with their tails between their legs, and we showed them that people don’t want what they have to offer.
Please help us to do this again. many people don’t realise this new risk we are facing. it only takes a minute to copy and paste the below template and email it. Apologies in advance if you have acted on this already.
Thank you to everyone in advance – i know if we all work together, we can beat this.
email address: andrea.farmer@mhra.gsi.gov.uk
Ms Andrea Farmer
MHRA, Area 5M
151 Buckingham Palace Road
Victoria, London SW1W 9SZ
Dear Ms Farmer,
I am writing to you about the MHRA consultation document entitled; Review of Medicines Act 1968: informal consultation on issues relating to the PLR regime and homeopathy. As a member of the public who chooses to use homeopathy and benefits from its application/practicing homeopath (delete as applicable), I am deeply concerned by the current orchestrated campaign against homeopathy, which is led by a self-appointed pressure group, Sense About Science, and a number of bloggers.
I consider it to be a fundamental right of any citizen living in a country which purports to be a democracy, to have ready access to the healthcare option of their choice. This includes homeopathy, which as you know is included in the original NHS charter.
I find your statement below acceptable for the new registration labels, and can see no reason to change this statement:
"A homeopathic medicinal product licensed only on the basis of safety, quality and use within the homeopathic tradition"
Yours sincerely,
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One Response to “ The Homeopaths Desperate Campaign to the MHRA ”
David Waldock on February 16, 2011 at 7:55 am
It’s just possible the information commissioner will be interested in this…
[*/quot]
source:
http://www.quackometer.net/blog/2011/02/the-homeopaths-desperate-campaign-to-the-mhra.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheQuackometerBlog+%28the+quackometer+blog%29GO AND VOTE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*
