I’d have thought this would be more effective than changing the labelling on boxes, and expecting that to change people’s behaviours, which seems to be main reaction the Australian drug regulator is proposing.
[I do not have any involvement in sale or manufacture of drugs]

RIGHT:
“You are right that natural products have side effects and can be toxic at a certain level.”

WRONG:
“The thing is, usually that level is ridiculously high compared to the average prescription drug.”

Again, to understand why that sentence is such a tradgedy… you’re going to need to read the first few chapters of a pharmacology book. Seriously… it’ll take you an hour at most. We compare the efficacy and danger of drugs based on things called “effective dose” and “lethal dose” among other terms. The ED50 is the effective dose that works for 50 percent of the subjects (usually rats). The LD50 is the lethal dose for 50 percent of the subjects. The safety of a drug is measured by a ratio (something like LD50/ED50 or LD1/ED99 something like that I don’t have the time to look it up). Note that most alternative medicines don’t have an “effective dose” because they don’t have a measurable endpoint! However, all alternative medicines have a lethal dose, no bones about it. Do you understand why your quote above makes absolutely no sense? To suggest that conventional medicines have a lower safety margin than alternative medicines is absurd. You’re comparing drugs that work, to drugs that don’t. Not even apples and oranges.

WRONG: “As for the prescription drugs: The big problem is that they are only prescribed to treat your ‘symptoms’. ‘Oh, your feeling sad – you must have a prozac deficiency. Take this for the next 30 years’ — Great system we have here.”

You’ve gone off the deep end here. I’m honestly contemplating if you’re a Poe.

WRONG: “People need to find the root cause of their illness and treat it naturally.
If you are completely happy with modern medicine — good for you.
I was not happy with it, and have chosen to use a safer, natural approach.”

What do you even mean by “root cause of their illness”? Do you mean spirits? Do you mean molecules? What on earth are you talking about? And what is your obsession with the word “natural”? You, sir, have fallen for the naturalist fallacy! For some reason, you and many other people think that because something is natural, it’s good, and that if something is synthetic, it’s bad. Many of the drugs we use today are natural (we just don’t call them alternative or “natural” medicine because it’s pointless). Botulism toxin is natural. So are bacteria. Leukemia is natural. The statins are NOT NATURAL. Many antibiotics are synthetically altered. The computer you’re reading this on is NOT NATURAL. Again, you’ve fallen for the naturalist fallacy. Classic. Your brain needs rewiring bro.

Hey you get one right!
CORRECT: “As for evidence? Search PubMed – you can find a lot of good studies on natural products. Are there as many studies as there are on drugs? No – because you can’t patent a natural product and make a gigantic profit (which pays for the studies).”

Yep, that is an unfortunate part of our system today. Many drugs don’t get studied due to lack of funding, probably because a lack of profitability. That being said… and I’ve repeated this several times now. IF AN “ALTERNATIVE” or “NATURAL” drug has been shown to work on PubMed… it is no longer considered an alternative medicine, or a “natural” medicine… from then on, it is just medicine. Doctors use drugs that have been shown to work. We don’t care whether it’s natural, herbal, synthetic, alien, whatever you want to call it. We use drugs that are safe enough to where the benefits outweigh the risks. Note that if a drug has no benefits (ie alternative meds), the benefits will never outweigh the risks.

You are right that natural products have side effects and can be toxic at a certain level. The thing is, usually that level is ridiculously high compared to the average prescription drug.

As for the prescription drugs: The big problem is that they are only prescribed to treat your ‘symptoms’. ‘Oh, your feeling sad – you must have a prozac deficiency. Take this for the next 30 years’ — Great system we have here.

People need to find the root cause of their illness and treat it naturally.

If you are completely happy with modern medicine — good for you.
I was not happy with it, and have chosen to use a safer, natural approach.

As for evidence? Search PubMed – you can find a lot of good studies on natural products. Are there as many studies as there are on drugs? No – because you can’t patent a natural product and make a gigantic profit (which pays for the studies).

“There are many Alternative approaches to health that can do incredible things.”
First off, why are you capitalizing Alternative? Is that supposed to portray a false sense of authority? Like christians capitalizing “Him”?
Secondly, no they can’t (which is probably why you didn’t cite any examples). Again, if they did amazing things, they would no longer be called “alternative”, they would just be called pharmaceuticals.

Just like Ben… you proceed to demonstrate an unchained ignorance toward the concept of pharmacology. It is in the first chapter of any pharmacology book. All drugs have effects. Period. SOME of these substances have beneficial effects, but EVERY substance known to man can be toxic at the right dosage. Think about it. Now read your quote.

“Have fun taking prescription drugs for your symptoms and then dealing with their side effects. Conventional ‘Medicine’ as you call it, is really great today, isn’t it.”

You actually get the first part right!! Every drug on the market today has side effects! Great job for revealing the truth! But then it falls apart… Did you really just try to suggest that alternative medicines are better than Big Pharma Drugs because they don’t have ANY side effects? Every drug has side effects, regardless of its classification as conventional or alternative. The difference between the two groups is that conventional medicine has been shown to WORK. Alternative medicines are only “believed” to work. Doctors who care about their patients, friends, and family are patiently awaiting the results of any studies that validate your claims. NOBODY wants to see a drug fail. It would be AWESOME if every herb and mineral were shown to have beneficial effects with no side-effects! Unfortunately, the exact opposite has been shown time and time again. The vast majority of alternative drugs, those of which have been tested, have been shown to have no more effect than placebo, in addition to the side effects they cause. Perhaps go to the library and find a pharmacology textbook. Take a look at the “Alternative Medicine” chapter (most modern textbooks include one).

I could be wrong though. Perhaps it’s a giant world-wide conspiracy between millions of scientists and doctors?

Michale Jackson for instance.