A while back my wife and I were visiting my mother-in-law when someone
mentioned having an earache.  My mother-in-law left the room and returned
with a box containing "Similasan Earache Relief."  I took the box and
looked
for the "Active Ingredients."  I was confused by ingredients like
"Chamomilla 10x" until I turned the box over and noticed "Homeopathic"
written across the front.

I hadn't thought about that again until tonight when my wife and I visited
the local CVS store to pick up a prescription.  While waiting, I noticed
the
boxes of "Similasan Earache Relief" on the shelf among real medicines.
That
set me off.  I took a box to the pharmacist, tossed it on the counter, and
demanded "what is this?"  The pharmacist looked confused. I told him that
my
mother-in-law had bought it and that it was worthless, etc.  The manager
came up and I explained ... maybe not as calmly as I should have ... that
I
felt my mother-in-law had been taken advantage of.  The manager said some
people believe that homeopathic stuff works.  I told him that the store
should, at the very least, segregate the homeopathic stuff to a "woo woo"
section of its own instead of putting the stuff along side stuff that has
at
least some expectation of effectiveness.

The manager expressed the opinion that the chain won't do anything about
it
unless they receive multiple complaints.  I'd like to encourage others to
question managers at CVS and other drug stores about the products and to
contact the chain headquarters.  I'm not expecting them to do anything,
but
it's worth a try.  Maybe they'll pay attention.  A local bookstore moved
the
"New Age" magazines out of the "Science" section after I complained about
it
a few years ago.

BTW, the pharmacist is just a young man and I learned that he had only
been
working for a few days.  The poor guy looked like a deer caught by
headlights as I accosted him.  I, of course, apologized to him.

But, I think I had a right to be upset.  My mother-in-law is a Holocaust
survivor living on a fixed income of a few hundred dollars a month.
Charging her $10 for a bottle of useless "Earache Relief" should be a
crime.

-- Roger

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