Snake Oil

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I’ve been meaning to write this post for a few days, but needed to calm myself down first.  A friend posted on Facebook about how upset she was at too many friends being diagnosed with cancer.  Nothing wrong with that post, and much sympathy was expressed by many others.  However one of her friends simply posted a link to this: https://www.cureyourowncancer.org/producing-the-highest-quality-cannabis-oil.html

I’ll just give you a moment there. 

My blood pressure rose so high I could feel it pumping through every part of me and making me shake. With anger.    I don’t normally respond to things like that, but I couldn’t help myself.  Get your snake oil and piss off, was more or less what I said. She called me a troll. I said I wasn’t the troll here. She said she’s seen with her own eyes what it could do. I posted an article from Cancer Research UK  that explained the case for cannabis oil (https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-chat/thread/cannabis-oil-4). She said why should she believe an organisation with such huge funding and yet they haven’t found a cure yet. She said ‘maybe she’d been sent to help me’ after I said I too, had cancer. I replied that she wasn’t helping, she was making me very angry. She told me there was lots of ‘evidence’ on YouTube.   I replied with my librarian and pharmaceutical company credentials.  Another person waded in, explaining that cancer wasn’t one disease, but an umbrella term for many and it was rather complex to find a solution to... she buggered off after that. 

So, apparently cannabis does have some compounds in it that are showing promise of being a potential treatment, but there is not conclusive evidence that cannabis oil does anything.  Most of the people using it are also having conventional treatments too, so who knows which one did the magic? I know where I’m laying my bets.  

Call me conventional, but I like robust scientific research.  I like statistics and evidence. Real evidence, not anecdotal stories on YouTube or blogs from charlatans trying to make money out of frightened and desperate people with scary diseases.   

So take your snake oil and stick it where the sun doesn’t shine, thank you.   And if any of my friends or family  suggests some new age shit during this, you’ve just lost yourself a friend. I’ll show no mercy if it isn’t backed up by a good, reliable, peer reviewed scientific paper or 5. 

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