UPDATE: The Norwegian Newspaper VG (Verdens Gang – roughly translated as The Way of the World and apparently not usually the most cerebral of papers) has included a photo from Bristol in its coverage of the 10:23 events. I passed the link on to a Norwegian very close to me, and she said:

“I reckon [the coverage] is pretty positive. Apart from showing your mugshot and reporting the countrywide protest, they quote several anti homeopathy sources, one medic who is vaguely pro due to the placebo effect and one comment from the Norwegian Homeopathy Society which is so vacuous I wonder why they bothered. …It goes on to say that Norwegian pharmacies have to stock homeopathic remedies as the EU classifies them as medicines (why Norway has to abide by EU directives beats me – they are not in the EU but what do I know …)”

On Saturday I overdosed on a bottle of 30C Nux Vom as part of the 10:23 campaign. Apparently, when taken by a healthy person, it “causes muscle spasms and cramps, and even convulsions.” Needless to say, of course, it didn’t.

Boots’ own-brand homeopathic pillules come in special bottles with a strange dispensing mechanism: you’re not meant to touch the pills. Unfortunately this mechanism broke on my bottle, so I had to go into Boots to get it replaced.

This wouldn’t normally bother me, but Boots had laid on extra security (including one *obvious* plain-clothes officer) and at 10:23am had pulled some signs over the door as a makeshift barricade in case we tried to storm the store (yeah, all 15 of us). Still, I wanted to take my overdose, so strode in purposefully wearing full protest regalia and walked the length of the store to wait in the queue for the pharmacy.

– “Hi, I bought this yesterday, but the bottle’s broken: I can get any pills out. Could I swap it please?”

– “Certainly, come with me to the shelves”

We walk over to the shelves that should be labelled “For people who don’t quite get it”. She tries to give me a bottle of 6C nux vom, rather than 30C.

– “Um, no, I need 30C – I’d like to overdose in complete safety, please”

– [laughs, picks out another bottle] “Of course, there you go”

I walk out and manage to take the whole bottle in about a minute.

So what have I learnt? Well, for one, Boots have excellent customer service; secondly, homeopathic pills taste exactly like Nerds; and last, we realised that PCSOs are actually homeopathic policemen (they pretend to be a real policeman, but actually have no real police in them).

However, there’s a question I still find unanswered – if you can answer it (even if you’re a homeopath: I’m not just going to take the piss, I’m genuinely interested in an answer), please leave a comment.

A question:

The ladybird version of homeopathy is that you take a very dilute mix of something that would otherwise *cause* your symptoms, and it cures them.

There is some evidence that Arnica, when it’s actually put into a real gel or lotion (i.e. not a diluted homeopathic remedy) can help bruising or swelling.

So why put it into a homeopathic concoction? Surely you should be diluting something that causes bruising, swelling or muscle pain, not that relieves it?

It’s a mystery to me.

Please support the 10:23 campaign: I think it’s important to teach people the difference between herbal medicine and other alternative therapies that at least have an active ingredient or action, and the strange magical woo woo of homeopathy: after all, there’s nothing in it.