It also says to use it only for self-limiting conditions. You need to see a doctor to make sure what you have is self-limiting, and not something that won’t go away by itself anyway. :rolleyes: In other words, if it’s something that will go away whether you take the homeopathic product or not, it perfect for homeopathic treatment. If it needs something to make it go away, or it won’t go away, you’d better get something like, y’know, penicillin.
Putting these products in a pharmacy gives them an aura of respectability. I’m sure there are people who have heard vaguely that homeopathic remedies are water, but them encounter them in the pharmacy, and think “Oh, maybe what I heard [read] was mistaken [I’m misremembering it], because here it is next to real drugs in a pharmacy.”
Not to mention, I have met people who don’t know the derivation of “homeo” in homeopathy is “alike.” They think it means something like “home remedies.” You don’t see an explanation of the term on the box anywhere.
People know cigarettes are bad, and each pack has a warning; what’s more, in my state, and I’m pretty sure in all states, you have to be over 18 to buy them. You have to be over 18 to buy a lot of medications too, including OTC meds (but not all-- there are some things teens can buy). I’m pretty sure that since homeopathic crap isn’t actually medicine, it’s “supplements,” or something, people of any age can buy it, and the packages don’t carry warnings that the things they contain have been shown to have no effect whatsoever on any illness of symptom of illness.
People SHOULD have to go to general stores or tobacconists for cigarettes, and other smoking products. They should have to go to places that are understood to deal in snake oil, like the GNC, or to a homeopath’s office, for homeopathic products.
CVS is, IMHO, not concerned about my health, is making a shameless gesture of self-promotion, and expects to make up the revenue lost to cigarettes (which was probably not large anyway) in expansions that were already happening. If CVS really wants to be taken seriously as the vanguard of 21st century healthcare with its clinics, and not just another evolution of the pharmacy/soda fountain* (which is what the pharmacy/convenience stores are), and mean it, they should get rid of all the snake oil.
*CVS bought out a local chain of drug stores/soda fountains called “Hooks” years ago, and on the Indiana fairgrounds, runs an old-fashioned time-capsule soda fountain/drug store, where you can buy all kinds of regular OTC drugs, displayed on shelves along with vintage boxes (the regular ones are behind the empty vintage box), and they sell old-fashioned toys, like yo-yos, and wooden cars, and several hand-made things. You can get real sodas made with seltzer and flavorings, and ice cream, and they sell candy sticks, and other kinds of vintage candy. They also sell loose tobacco and pipes. I doubt that will be effected by the ban, particularly since they’ve never had flu shots. [/OT]
It seems amazing at this point that doctors endorsed cigarettes in the 1950s and 1960s.