# Who regulates Homeopathy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 4, 2016, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141 "2016-02-04T15:26:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/1 "2016-02-04T15:26:39Z")
Not it’s effectiveness, but the claims of how often and in what way the different solutions are diluted. What’s to stop me from putting tap water and food coloring in a small bottle and charging $39.95 for homeopathetic “medicine”? ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/2 "2016-02-04T15:36:01Z")
There’s FDA requirements to what you can claim on the label and a requirement to register as a manufacturer. As long as you meet the labeling requirements (which seem mostly about claiming what it can do) you’re fine. ---
**Author:** ![iljitsch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/77aa72/32.png) [@iljitsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iljitsch)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/3 "2016-02-04T15:45:05Z")
Leaving aside the irony about wondering if the water you’re being sold as medicine is _real_ water being sold as medicine… In the herbal/supplements business it’s exceedingly common for the product to not contain what it says on the box it contains and/or have significant additions, sometimes in the form of actual drugs. ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/4 "2016-02-04T15:46:37Z")
Here’s a piece from the New York Times entitled [“The 1993 Snake Oil Protection Act”](http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/05/opinion/the-1993-snake-oil-protection-act.html). Not sure this is a factual answer, but it might send you the right direction. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/5 "2016-02-04T15:47:55Z")
Who do you register with, and does the group you register with actually go around making sure all those different companies putting out homeopathetic potions and pills go through all the necessary steps? It seems to me that it would take a very large group of people to regulate that many companies. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/6 "2016-02-04T15:50:12Z")
There’s one guy at the U.N… He watches over the entire industry. He is…The Most Powerful Bureaucrat In The World. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/7 "2016-02-04T15:56:21Z")
> [@watchwolf49](#): > > Here’s a piece from the New York Times entitled [“The 1993 Snake Oil Protection Act”](http://www.nytimes.com/1993/10/05/opinion/the-1993-snake-oil-protection-act.html). Not sure this is a factual answer, but it might send you the right direction. That is disheartening, to say the least. ---
**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/8 "2016-02-04T16:05:30Z")
The regulations for homeopathy are very, very ,very, very tiny. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/9 "2016-02-04T16:10:15Z")
I used to work for a company that didn’t do homeopathy, but did make nutritional supplements, which are similarly unregulated. You know, capsules of “natural” products - echinacea, St. John’s wort, that sort of thing. When I worked there, we had a lab manager that actually cared about doing things right, but for a long time previously, that wasn’t the case. The old lab manager used to set expiration dates on our products by putting on his coat, walking across the street to Wal-Mart, and looking at the dates on competitors’ products. Then he’d put our dates out a few months longer. As a side note, the company I worked for entered bankruptcy while I was there, not long after we started taking lab work seriously. It’s easy to criticize that don’t do proper regulatory work when they’re not forced to, but remember that this work costs money - a lot of it. If you choose to be a good corporate citizen and go above and beyond what is strictly required by law, then you’re going to get undercut by competitors who don’t bother. That’s why regulation is needed, and self-policing is never going to work. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/10 "2016-02-04T16:15:45Z")
[The FDA Is Under More Pressure to Regulate Homeopathic Products](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-26/the-fda-is-under-more-pressure-to-regulate-homeopathic-products) > [@](#): > > Federal agencies don’t normally tell each other how to do their jobs. But the Federal Trade Commission, which polices advertising claims, did just that last week when it asked the Food and Drug Administration to reevaluate its light-touch regulatory approach to an obscure corner of the over-the-counter drug market: homeopathic products. > > The FTC filed official comments that said it is “concerned” that the FDA’s policy on homeopathy conflicts with the FTC’s requirement that medical advertising claims be supported by evidence. The split “may harm consumers and create confusion for advertisers,” the agency wrote in comments approved unanimously by the five FTC commissioners… > > The FDA hasn’t required homeopathic products to meet the same standards as other drugs. They can be sold over the counter for “self-limiting” conditions, meaning such ailments as colds that go away on their own. The agency has never evaluated them for safety or efficacy, though it oversees manufacturing practices. In April, the FDA held a meeting to evaluate whether such a hands-off policy makes sense, given the growth of the homeopathic industry and recent safety problems linked to some products. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/11 "2016-02-04T16:22:57Z")
Again, this thread isn’t about whether or not the potions and pills work, so let’s not go down that path. I would like to know if anyone is making sure that they are diluting their concoctions they way they claim on the labels-is there an official agency that has a record of actually punishing companies that cheat, or do most /all homeopatetic companies get a rubber-stamp “seal of approval”? ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2016, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/12 "2016-02-04T16:33:20Z")
Actually, considering that some of the things that are diluted to get to the plain water are unsafe if undiluted, if anyone is really using these things in any amount, there does need to be regulation to make sure it really is minuscule. As far as “Why can’t I just use tap water?” Every ounce of me wants to say “You can,” but the fact is that it’s not honest. There’s a rabbinical rule that kosher butchers cannot sell non-kosher meat to gentiles if the gentiles think it is kosher (back when the scandals about how filthy slaughter shops in general were, came out, a lot of gentiles started buying kosher meat). There is absolutely no difference to a gentile whether a piece of meat of kosher of not, because there is nothing better about kosher meat (except in the rare case of the non-kosher butchers being notoriously sloppy and slovenly, but that has nothing to do with kashrut). However, it does have to do with honestly. It’s wrong to profit from gentiles by unloading your unkosher cuts at kosher prices. I want the homeopaths to be kept honest, because I want everybody to be kept honest. If we make an exception for the homeopaths, because, well, it’s BS, then someone could think something important to me is BS and decide to fake-regulate it. I don’t know what that would be, but it could happen. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/13 "2016-02-05T17:20:41Z")
I’ve been trying to find a case where the government has come down on any company that makes homeopathetic goods for taking shortcuts in manufacturing, and so far I’ve come up with nothing. Is the entire industry squeaky clean when it comes to how they manufacture their goods…or is that aspect of Homeopathy just not being monitored? ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/14 "2016-02-05T17:36:05Z")
You know, there’s got to be a way to combine the notion that every glass of water you drink has a few molecules from Jesus’ blood with homeopathy, and make a colossal pile of money… ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/15 "2016-02-05T18:16:15Z")
It’s impossible to regulate homeopathy because their 50x Dilution products contain not one single molecule of the original agent. You can watch their factory and see them do a 50x dilution while being observed but you cannot randomly test their final products and determine if it’s been done or not. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/16 "2016-02-05T18:33:24Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > It’s impossible to regulate homeopathy because their 50x Dilution products contain not one single molecule of the original agent. You can watch their factory and see them do a 50x dilution while being observed but you cannot randomly test their final products and determine if it’s been done or not. But does the government even do surprise spot-checks to see if the companies go through processes at all? ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/17 "2016-02-05T18:37:16Z")
> [@coremelt](#): > > It’s impossible to regulate homeopathy because their 50x Dilution products contain not one single molecule of the original agent. You can watch their factory and see them do a 50x dilution while being observed but you cannot randomly test their final products and determine if it’s been done or not. If you tested and found some of the original agent, that would be a violation, right? ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/18 "2016-02-05T18:41:41Z")
The regulations on homeopathy have been diluted to 100X, thereby ensuring that they are the most effective consumer protections ever invented. 🙂 Seriously, the FDA’s general rules are the only thing I can think of. Short of showing that you were actually harmed by what you took, the regulations mainly focus on the claims they make about the product. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/19 "2016-02-05T18:53:17Z")
> [@iljitsch](#): > > Leaving aside the irony about wondering if the water you’re being sold as medicine is _real_ water being sold as medicine… You mean there is such a thing as imitation water? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141/20 "2016-02-05T18:56:37Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Not it’s effectiveness, but the claims of how often and in what way the different solutions are diluted. What’s to stop me from putting tap water and food coloring in a small bottle and charging $39.95 for homeopathetic “medicine”? In Canada, sadly, it is regulated by the same federal agency that regulates drugs - though under a different set of regulations (the _Natural Health Products Regulations_). I say “sadly”, because giving them a license gives them a legitimacy that is totally spurious. The regulations and guidelines all look like legitimate science-based regulatory documents. Homeopathic “natural health products” have to “prove” safety and effectiveness, just like drugs. It is only when you examine the details that you realize that the “proof” of effectiveness is allowed to be … pure BS. I can point out details if there is any interest. It’s a pathetic story, really. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-regulates-homeopathy/745141.md?page=2)