The president's column in the August 15 issue interested me immensely. Dr. Nada Stotland wrote that the meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in London was modest and that “using the meeting facilities of the inexpensive venue of the Imperial College has enabled the college to experiment with a meeting without pharmaceutical support....” She also wrote, “The meeting briefcases carried only the seal of the college....”

In the late 1950s, President Eisenhower warned against the military-industrial complex. Now, the nation must be warned against the medical-pharmaceutical complex. It is ominous. Organized medicine and APA must find a way to fund their needs through money raised by a foundation at either the national or district branch level and not through revenues of advertisements by drug companies. Also, physicians ought to buy their own lunches and their own pens and scratch pads. And they should not get their“ medical education” from drug representatives but from rigorous engagement in continuing medical education. We must cleanse the holy temple of medicine from these corrupt practices. Maybe Dr. Stotland will start us off on this much needed pilgrimage.