Boots hit by mass homeopathy 'overdose'

There is mention of a "sympathy protest" in Canada. Has anyone heard if this has happened?

From the Telegraph (UK):
The protesters will drink large quantities of homeopathic fluids to illustrate their claim that the potions are too diluted to have any impact on the body.

Homeopathy has grown from an obscure alternative remedy to become a multi-million pound industry in the UK, with Prince Charles among its high-profile advocates.

But critics say there is little scientific backing for its claims to ease conditions including asthma, migraine, irritable bowel syndrome, arthritis and depression.

Campaigners have already lobbied for the NHS to reduce its £4 million annual spend on homeopathic remedies and are now targeting Boots for profiting from what they claim is an "unscientific and absurd pseudoscience".

The Boots protests planned for later this month have been organised by campaign called 10:23, which grew out of the Merseyside Skeptics Society, a group of rationalist thinkers.

They will take place on high streets in Edinburgh, Manchester, Bristol, Liverpool, Glasgow, Birmingham, Southampton and London, with sympathy protests in Australia, Canada and the United States. ...more

Pharmacists urged to 'tell the truth' about homeopathic remedies

From the Guardian (UK):
Britain's leading pharmacists' organisation is being urged to crack down on high street chemists that sell homeopathic remedies, amid accusations that they are in breach of their own ethical guidelines.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has been asked to take action following allegations that pharmacists are failing to give customers proper information about the shortcomings of homeopathic treatments before they buy them.

In an open letter to the society, Edzard Ernst, the country's only professor of complementary medicine, criticises high street pharmacists for selling homeopathic remedies without informing customers that they contain no biologically active agents and are no more effective than sugar pills.

The ethical code states that pharmacists who sell homeopathic remedies, herbal medicines or other complementary therapies, "must assist patients in making informed decisions" by providing them with "necessary and relevant information".

According to the letter, "customers are frequently misinformed ... by promotional material available in UK pharmacies and verbal advice given by pharmacists. Thus pharmacists breach their own mandatory ethical code on a daily basis." ...more