Well, sure. No need to adequately regulate the herbal/supplement industry and make them prove their products’ safety and effectiveness before they go on the market.
For instance, ralph124c should be able to buy all the “traditional Chinese medicines” he wants. After all, it’s capitalism! If anything goes wrong and his kidneys go bust, he can always sue somebody (if he can find them). It’s what the market wants.
Heck, I know plenty of people who don’t trust a remedy UNLESS it’s been rejected by the medical industry.
At every major chain drug store I’ve been there is a clear delineation between the “pharmacy” which is separated from the rest of the store and is staffed by licensed and trained professionals, and the “store” which carries any number of products from cigarettes and beer to Halloween costumes. Basically I view most drug stores as simply a specialized supermarket, with an actual pharmacy on the premises. The selection is about the same as you will find in a supermarket like Kroger’s or Wegman’s, just not quite as broad, and there is a bit larger selection of OTC products and supplements than you would find at a normal supermarket (and a smaller selection of stuff like foods and beverages.)
I’ve never viewed Walgreen’s or CVS or Rite Aid as strictly pharmacies, I view them as “drug stores” with a wide range of products and an actual pharmacy in-house.
I actually know a pharmacist that works in a CVS, and he says that the management of the store and pharmacy is completely separate, and that the two are almost distinct entities. For example he’s the head pharmacist (I forget the actual title) and the store manager doesn’t have the right to fire him, schedule him, or fire anyone else who works under him, the entire pharmacy is his and the store manager manages the store. The only person who can fire him is someone from the larger CVS organization itself (in fact he has outlasted many store managers and many different organizations, the store was originally a SuperX, then a Revco, then CVS.)
If you were to take a copper bracelet to him and ask about how it would work, he wouldn’t lie to you, he’d tell you his opinion based on his education and experience. Based on what I know about this guy, it’d basically be an answer like, “There’s no evidence I’m aware of that they work all that well, although some people say they do relieve their symptoms.” Since he isn’t in any way responsible for the store or its profits he has no interest in lying about the efficacy of products sold in the store.
True enough in that there’s a clear line of demarcation between what’s behind the pharmacist’s counter and what’s in front of it.
But when there’s a big rack of herbal pills, promising to improve everything from your memory to your sexual potency, right next to the counter where you pick up your prescriptions, a lot of people are going to come away with the impression that the pharmacist stands behind those claims, figuratively as well as literally.
Maybe, but as long as most pharmacies operate inside larger stores which are purely profit motivated, I’m not sure what solution there is, aside from what I think is needless regulation or prohibition of what perfectly legal goods a store can sell.
How about regulating the claims that can be made for herbal remedies? A drugstore can sell a Halloween mask, but if the box containing the Incredible Hulk mask claimed that it would make you as strong as the Hulk, that would be false advertising. Similarly if the Ibuprofen box said it would make your hair grow back. But herbal remedies can for some reason make claims that neither drugs nor ordinary products can make. That’s absurd.
I started off as a pharmacist, though haven’t worked as one in nearly 30 years (egads, am I approaching middle age all ready :eek: ). I worked in both ultra-professional pharmacies that wouldn’t dream of selling anything less than FDA approved medicinals/ medical supplies and I worked at…<hangs head>…Rite Aid*. Although I didn’t relish having snake oil in my store, they generally kept the undesirables far from my perch. Each year it seems that stuff moves closer and closer to the poor pharmacist. Don’t blame the pharmacist, he’s probably embarrassed to sell questionable items. Don’t even blame pharmacist-owners, they’re just trying to compete in a tough market.