The Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain is concerned about elderly people taking so many prescribed drugs and being unsure of side-effects.

The Telegraph reports that a survey by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain "shows that nearly half of over 65s are currently taking over five medicines at any one time," and "Royal Pharmaceutical Society spokesman and pharmacist, Paul Johnson says; “It’s not unusual for older people to get confused with the medicine they are taking, particularly when they are on numerous types of medication.""

The Society is seeking to promote an annual review of the medication elderly people take and says that pharmacists are ideally placed to do such reviews.

Well clearly somebody should be reviewing prescribed meds! - A cocktail of prescription drugs is fraught with risk, especially with confused older people. - You'd think our highly-paid GPs would be doing reviews as a matter of routine and culling the drugs. - Taking more than 5 prescription drugs at the same time, which each have potential/actual adverse side-effects, and causing the side-effects to be increased in number and severity when taken with other drugs... This seems a recipe for harm for most of the patients taking them, though clearly it is of great benefit to the drug manufacturers.

What motivates multiple drug prescribing like this? I consider it irresponsible.

Charity guide criticised for not declaring GM interests

Sense About Science pamphlet failed to list contributors' links with industry. Zoë Corbyn reports
A charity has come under fire for failing to declare all industry affiliations of the experts it enlisted to compile a booklet explaining genetic modification to the public. The pamphlet was produced by Sense About Science (SAS), a charity that claims to promote scientific reasoning in public discussions. According to anti-genetic modification campaigners and academics, it failed to mention links between some of the experts who wrote the booklet and GM firms. For example, the guide's biography of Vivian Moses, emeritus professor of microbiology at Queen Mary, University of London, and visiting professor of biotechnology at King's College London, does not mention that he is also chairman of CropGen, a GM lobby group that receives funding from the biotechnology industry.
Read article in The Times (UK)
Comment: In addition to its links with the GM industry, Sense About Science also has links with the pharmaceutical industry. In the past year, it has received financial contributions from AstraZeneca plc, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, and a number of large medical charities who themselves have received financial contributions from drug companies.

'Snooper's charter' to check texts and emails

· Hundreds of public bodies to access personal details
· Home Office measure driven by EU directive
Local councils, health authorities and hundreds of other public bodies are to be given the power to access details of everyone's personal text, emails and internet use under Home Office proposals. Ministers want to make it mandatory for telephone and internet companies to keep details of all personal internet traffic for at least 12 months so it can be accessed for investigations into crime or other threats to public safety. The Home Office admitted that the measure will mean companies have to store "a billion incidents of data exchange a day". As the measure is the result of an EU directive, the data will be made available to public investigators across Europe.
Read article in the Guardian (UK)

The list of organizations that have access to personal information of this type in the UK includes the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain. And when the UK’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act was discussed in the British House of Lords in 2000, it emerged that the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain is considered to be a public authority and that it uses “covert surveillance”.

Why is the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain one of the UK public bodies with the power to monitor people's private communications?

Why is the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain one of the 653 public bodies and quangos in the UK that have the power to monitor people's private communications and carry out surveillance? - See http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts2000/ukpga_20000023_en_12#sch1

Pretty sinister, in my opinion...)o: