There was a time when we used to label slick hucksters selling elixir cure-alls for everything and anything as quacks. These days, we haven’t necessarily done away with snake oil salesmen and medical quackery. That’s why it’s still wise to take all medical claims with a grain of salt.
Unfortunately, inappropriate medical claims come from all angles. You still have the snake oil salesman who comes up with some all-natural product that is supposed to be a cure-all. Then you have the supplement folks. There are even medical marijuana advocates who claim their drug of choice is a secret cure for cancer.
Even within what is considered the medical establishment there are those individuals and companies pushing false narratives. If we have learned nothing else from the last 18 months, we should have at least come to understand that not everything medical experts utter in the name of science is true.
No Cure for Cancer
Medical marijuana is a great subject for illustrating this point. No doubt that both CBD- and THC-derived medications help patients deal with their symptoms. But neither one is a cure-all. The government is not keeping marijuana’s cancer-beating properties quiet in order to benefit Big Pharma.
The Fresh Toast contributor Mike Adams recently wrote a piece commenting on the passing of well-known marijuana advocate Eddy Lepp. Lepp was more or less a legend in California, not only advocating on behalf of marijuana legalization, but also growing plants to privately help people who used the drug medicinally.
Lepp was among those advocates who believe marijuana can cure cancer. Unfortunately, cancer recently took his life. Likewise, Adams interviewed a Hollywood stuntman by the name of Mark Chavarria years ago. Chavarria was convinced that marijuana cured is colorectal cancer. Yet he still died from cancer in 2017.
We Don’t Know Everything
Utah Marijuana is an organization that runs a number of medical cannabis clinics through which Utah patients can get their medical cannabis cards. Their medical professionals say that it is dangerous to promote medical cannabis as a modern-day miracle. The evidence bears out their concerns.
Do not misunderstand. This post is not a hit piece against medical marijuana. Our implicit (and misplaced) trust in modern medicine is evident no matter where you look. How many of us falsely believe that a vaccine and face mask offer guaranteed protection against COVID-19?
As COVID infections increase around the country, they are not limited only to the unvaccinated who don’t wear face coverings. Even vaccinated people are getting sick again. A few are even dying.
When you look at these types of things through an objective lens, it becomes glaringly apparent that it’s time for us to collectively step back and admit we don’t know everything. It is time to admit that we place far too much trust in people who purport to know what’s best for us medically, even though they don’t.
A Place for Science
There is an important place for science in the application of medicine. But science is not perfect. It never has been. Therefore, there is also a place for common sense. One could even make the case that common sense trumps science most of the time.
The lesson in all of this is to take every medical claim you hear with a grain of salt. Just because someone says a particular therapy is your best option to treat a particular condition doesn’t make it so. By all means investigate for yourself. If you have questions, ask. Just don’t blindly go along without using the brain you’ve been given.
