Sir, - Mr John Bourke, President of the Pharmaceutical Society (November 23rd) supports the prescription confinement of St John's Wort despite there being not one single death linked to its use in over 2,000 years. Paracetamol, freely available everywhere, kills an average of 200 people a year in Britain alone (British Medical Journal, December 1996); yet as a licensed medicine it has presumably been assessed as to its safety as well as its quality and efficacy. Is there not something inherently wrong with a regulatory system that allows this huge double standard? - Yours, etc.,
Brod Kearon, Killincarrig Road, Greystones, Co Wicklow.