Pharmacy Council Submission

pcnz-logoWe are looking for skeptics around the country to help the NZ Skeptics Society gather evidence for a submission we will be making to the Pharmacy Council of New Zealand. We need people to visit pharmacies around the country and gather information about how homeopathy is sold and promoted. Unfortunately, we have limited time to gather this information as our proposal needs to be submitted by the 1st of October. If you are able to help us, please read on:

Recently the Society for Science Based Healthcare has asked the Pharmacy Council about their Code of Ethics, and how it relates to the sale of homeopathy in pharmacies. Section 6.9 of the code says that healthcare products can only be supplied “when there is credible evidence of efficacy”.

The Pharmacy Council has now opened a consultation with a view to changing this part of the code. Their proposed amendment would do away with the requirement for evidence of efficacy for supplying both complementary therapies and healthcare products other than medicines and herbal remedies. In its place, the proposed code says that pharmacists should be able to provide “sufficient information about the product” to allow “the purchaser to make an informed choice”. The consultation document goes on to say:

“Pharmacists should be able to advise patients about the general use, current state of evidence, associated effectiveness and any safety issues relating to complementary and/or alternative medicines. This knowledge should provide the basis on which a pharmacist makes a conscious decision on whether or not to supply or promote these types of medicines. In instances where there is credible evidence to suggest a specific complementary and/or alternative medicine/product lacks efficacy, pharmacists should not promote or recommend its use.”

Pharmacy Council Code of EthicsThe NZ Skeptics Society will be submitting a proposal, and we would like your help. We plan to use homeopathy as a good test subject, as it’s clear that it doesn’t work beyond any placebo effect. We are concerned that pharmacists, and pharmacy assistants, are not all aware that there is no good quality evidence that homeopathy works, and that some pharmacies are willing to promote homeopathic products as a viable treatment for various conditions.

What we would like people to do is to take a few minutes to visit a pharmacy close to you and ask about a homeopathic product. Listen to what the pharmacist has to say about the product, whether it works, what conditions it is good for, etc. Then, when you are able to, send us an email telling us what was said, the date of your visit and the name of the pharmacy you visited (store brand and location should be sufficient). The more details of your conversation the better, including the name of the homeopathic product, any specific claims of efficacy and so on. However, even if you can only give us a general overview such as “they told me it would help with insomnia”, that information will still be useful to us. If you’re really keen, and live somewhere with several pharmacies nearby, feel free to visit more than one and send us multiple reports.

We’d also like to hear of negative results, where a pharmacy doesn’t promote or even doesn’t sell homeopathy – as well as it being fair and balanced to collate these results, it would be heartening to hear that some pharmacies are abiding by their Code of Ethics! Even if you are unable to talk to a staff member about homeopathy, please let us know the details of the pharmacy you visited and whether it stocks homeopathic products.

Any prior encounters with a pharmacy would be relevant as well, where a pharmacy has tried to sell you a homeopathic product or where they’ve defended homeopathy after you’ve challenged them for selling it in the past. I’ve talked with several skeptics who have had homeopathy recommended to them by pharmacies, and I can also name two pharmacies close to me where I’ve challenged their sale of homeopathy and been told that they sell it because it works.

Please send your responses to homeopathy@skeptics.nz. As I said before, our submission has to be in by the 1st of October so we would like to have all responses in by the 29th of September – two weeks from today. We will make our submission public when it is complete, and will ensure we anonymise any personal data in your responses before adding them to the document.

New Journal, Membership, Aliens

Hello there,

The latest issue of the NZ Skeptic is heading to the letterboxes of financial members, packed full of the intriguing, the informative and the infuriating. It’s a whole new look for the journal, along with our new website and brand-new logo.

Now is the time to subscribe or renew your subscription to the Society. It’s quick and easy to do online (or use the handy form in the journal).

If you don’t see the Journal in the next week or so, it’s because your subscription hasn’t come through. Either join up now, or contact the secretary to check your current status.

Real Alien Footage Revealed? Not!

The NZ magazine Uncensored is standing by its claim to have released real footage of aliens at Roswell, despite clear evidence that the film was part of a B-grade movie released in 2006. See our side-by-side comparison.

What will Uncensored reveal next? This amazing story perhaps:

Footage Released of 1960s Secret JetPack Flight Over London

We’ll award a virtual chocolate fish to the best breathless headline and image pairing you can come up with, Send your ideas to the Chair.

More weird illusions

If the debate over the colour of that dress got you flummoxed, here are some more neat ways the brain can be fooled.

Skeptics in the Pub

Lee Traynor is doing the rounds at Skeptics in the Pub locations, and will be giving a talk titled “The skeptic’s dilemma – on changing your mind”. He’s in Wellington on Friday, March 6th (6pm, Kitty O’Shea’s), followed by Palmerston North on Saturday (7pm, venue TBC) and Hamilton on Sunday (The Bank, 7pm).

Felicity Goodyear-Smith is giving a talk at Auckland Skeptics in the Pub on Monday, 9th of March. Shared idée fixe – “The case of murder that wasn’t” starts at 7pm at the Juice Bar at Windsor Castle.

Future Alert emails will be coming from our new address of alert@skeptics.nz, so if you’re currently whitelisting our Skeptic Alert emails, please add this new address to your list to continue receiving our alerts.

Cheers,

Vicki Hyde

Media Spokesperson, NZ Skeptics