Attention Whole Foods and the Davis Food Co-op! According to the Guardian , a new review of the efficacy of homeopathy by the Australian Government’s National Health and Medical Research Council shows that the whole enterprise is quackery. But we already knew that. Now if only left-wing and “natural” grocery stores knew the same.

The 200-page overview report (free pdf) is here ; my copy is corrupted so I haven’t been able to read it. The authors were 7 distinguished academics and scholars, several of whom specialize in alternative and complementary medicine. Since I can’t read the official document, I’ll just report what the Guardian says about it:

Homeopathy is no more effective than a placebo, according to an extensive study by a peak science body. The draft paper by Australia’s National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) assessed research into the effectiveness of the alternative medicine on 68 health conditions and concluded “there is no reliable evidence that homeopathy is effective”.

But of course it can’t be more effective than a placebo, because it’s just water, with perhaps a touch of starch or alcohol. And the idea that water molecules can retain a “memory” of something that was diluted out of them is, on its face, ludicrous. You can dismiss homeopathy on the laws of physics alone, but these tests put the nail in its coffin. More:

The Australian Homeopathic Association states the practice treats patients as a “whole person, taking into account personality, lifestyle and hereditary factors as well as the history of the disease.” But the NHMRC review, conducted by a working committee of medical experts, said it had no impact on a range of conditions and illnesses including asthma, arthritis, sleep disturbances, cold and flu, chronic fatigue syndrome, eczema, cholera, burns, malaria and heroin addiction. For the 68 conditions – including those listed – the review either concluded definitively that homeopathy was not more effective than a placebo, or at the very least there was no reliable evidence to suggest it was. “No good-quality, well-designed studies with enough participants for a meaningful result reported either that homeopathy caused greater health improvements than a substance with no effect on the health condition (placebo), or that homeopathy caused health improvements equal to those of another treatment,” read the report’s summary.

And, I had no idea that there were homeopathic vaccination! What do they do—inject saline into people?

Professor John Dwyer, an immunologist and Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of New South Wales, told Guardian Australia that the report was long overdue. . . . He said the greatest danger in homeopathy was in its use as a vaccination. “In my point of view as an immunologist, the most serious issue was the spreading of the concept that homeopathic vaccinations were harmless and just as good as orthodox vaccinations. People who believe that are not protecting themselves and their children,” he said. Homeopathic “vaccinations” are offered for standard diseases, as well as some that there are no medical vaccines for, said Dwyer. “Homeopathic vaccines were being offered for HIV, TB, Malaria… none of them were effective,” he said.

So how about it, Davis Food Co-op? As long as I’m in town, won’t you consider stopping the practice of bilking your credulous customers by selling them water at high prices—water that is totally misrepresented as medical cures? Your selling this stuff means that you’re promoting quackery, and perhaps injuring the health of your customers. Why don’t you sell cigarettes as well?