Friends Newsletter
Friends Newsletter #1 — 11/7/2023
Dear Friends,
Thank you for enrolling in the Friends of the Pharmacopoeia program. It has been a long and busy five months since the new website and the Friends program launched, and I don’t want to wait any longer to be in touch with you. I will be more actively promoting the program in the next several months.
I first announced the Friends program in my address to the Joint American Homeopathic Conference this past March. I placed the HPCUS as a vital part of a larger community that faces many internal and external challenges. I described a few main challenges, some of which can be addressed by the HPCUS, and some that other groups need to address. I stressed the need for the various sectors (HPCUS, manufacturers, practitioners, consumers, educators, and researchers) to communicate and work together.
Each of those sectors contains individuals and groups that have differing viewpoints, ideas, and needs that should be integrated for effective action. In turn, the actions of each sector are likely to affect other sectors within the larger homeopathic community, again requiring integration for effective action. Stepping back to another level, the homeopathic community exists within larger systems, such as healthcare, legal, regulatory, social, and economic.
The Friends of the Pharmacopoeia program was developed as I spoke with leaders in the various sectors of the homeopathic community. At the same time, I was also researching models of effecting change in today’s complex, rapidly changing, and uncertain times. The resources section at the end of my address to JAHC contains links to material that helped me to orient myself in that area.
Meeting the many challenges facing homeopathy will require new ways of acting. How we relate to each other will have a very significant impact on our level of success.
Let’s take the HPCUS (Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia Convention of the United States) as an example. The Convention is primarily a scientific and technical body. We publish drug monographs, instructions for making homeopathic medicines, and good manufacturing practices (GMP) that ensure quality, purity, and safety. Those all have clearly definable parameters with known outcomes. As such, linear thinking is the appropriate and effective tool.
The HPUS (the Pharmacopoeia itself) was first published in 1897 during the heyday of homeopathic medicine in this country. By the mid-20th century, American homeopathy was in decline. Advances in medical and pharmaceutical sciences, technical advances in measurement tools, statistical methods, “evidence-based” medicine, and changing legal and regulatory frameworks kept the Convention focused on its core scientific and technical work.
The last 15 or so years have seen an increasingly difficult environment for homeopathy, especially in Europe and in the United States. All sectors of our community are affected, and successful adaptation will require that we communicate and collaborate effectively.
The Convention is now actively considering changes in its procedures that are in accord with newer models and with our unique role in preserving and protecting quality, safety, purity, and access to homeopathic medications. Given that the Convention must work alongside current legal and regulatory structures, this is not a simple undertaking. The Friends program represents the HPCUS’s initial effort to inform, engage with, and involve the larger community so that together we can find our way forward.
Lastly (for now), I am interested in any comments or questions that you may have. I also want to know how you found out about the Friends program, as well as your experience and interest in homeopathy. Please email me at [email protected]
William Shevin MD, DHt.
President, HPCUS