I'd certainly never noticed anything homoepathic before at CVS (and all the real medicine is still there) and so was inclined to dismiss it, but just did a quick search for "cold medicine":
I am actually rather shocked to see that 3 of the first 20 items listed (Zicam, Cold-eeze, CVS Non-drowsy cold remedy) do indeed say "homeopathic" on the front label.
But 3 out of 20 is certainly not "flooded" or "nearly every item". And those 3 are just lozenges, where the main action is the sugar that coats your throat anyways, so I don't see any evidence it's trying to trick people from buying actual medicine.
But still, I wasn't aware "homeopathic" products were sold at legitimate drugstores at all, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.
CVS (and others) have sold homeopathic asthma rescue inhalers for quite a while. They appeared on the shelves immediately after Primatine Mist became unavailable. This is infuriating because asthma rescue inhalers are one of those "do not fuck with" things and a chain of multiple morons thought it would be okay to sell aerosolized water in place of actual medication.
I get a little wound up on a number of topics, but this is one where, if I had the opportunity, I'd gleefully kick square in the goolies every single person involved in putting that product on the shelf. And I'd buy a pair of steel-toed boots first.
How is that legal? Is there no law by which they could be sued for misleading representation of a life-saving medical product or something?
It seems like such a no-brainer of a law. Serious question: why is this the first I'm hearing about it? I've literally never seen an article about this in any newspaper and I read a lot of news. And this is exactly the kind of stuff that journalists tend to discover and expose.
Where is the outrage, and how is this still being permitted?
The FDA was bought off by a big homeopath company a while ago from what I heard. However, recently, they’ve began cracking down on false claims through the FTC.
As for the outrage: it’s because it’s too common; you don’t want to alienate a large portion of your viewer base by “exposing” homeopathic remedies
I think it's gray because in my opinion it's not true. I've been to CVS many times, and while there may be some products, I don't see the shelves overflowing with homeopathic remedies.
Also, it's important to remember that "homeopathic" has multiple definitions in this context. There is the definition of "a substance in a dilution so minute that it's likely non of the actual molecules exist in solution", but that BS is not what you'll find at CVS.
Instead, you'll find stuff like Zicam, which is marketed as a "homeopathic preparation" (TBH I have no idea why), but it most definitely contains sizable amounts of the active ingredient, zinc. While the jury is still out on whether zinc is as effective in shortening the duration of the common cold as advertised, there is certainly a sizable number of studies that support it. I take it and it definitely seems to work for me - whether that's placebo effect or not I have no idea.
The makers of Zicam have been sued hundreds of times because they put so much Zinc Gluconate in to their product that it (permanently) destroyed people's ability to smell.
https://www.cvs.com/search/?cp=%5B%7B"key"%3A"source"%2C"val...
I am actually rather shocked to see that 3 of the first 20 items listed (Zicam, Cold-eeze, CVS Non-drowsy cold remedy) do indeed say "homeopathic" on the front label.
But 3 out of 20 is certainly not "flooded" or "nearly every item". And those 3 are just lozenges, where the main action is the sugar that coats your throat anyways, so I don't see any evidence it's trying to trick people from buying actual medicine.
But still, I wasn't aware "homeopathic" products were sold at legitimate drugstores at all, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.