@Bretbocook – Your personal experience is not proof positive of anything. Even if you are not lying, this is still an anecdote. By your use of language and formatting, it is unclear if you are speaking about yourself, or quoting someone else. At any rate, to the maker of this claim: I’m glad that three years of having cancer made you an expert, but on this subject, you are actually mistaken. And, if you are not in fact lying, I am glad you are in remission, and I wish you the best. Tell me, was hemp oil your only treatment? Do you truly owe nothing to the scientific method?
Also, do you have any experience with cults/brainwashing? Do you even know what to look for? Do you ever wonder at the fact that you take one youtuber’s story as absolute truth and reject all information from the hundreds of thousands of medical professionals, as being “all part of the big pharma machine?” Do you ever think that maybe, in fact, you are the one who has been misled? Are you ever troubled by the fact that you know very little about the mechanics of the subject, or the medical substance of the hemp oil claims, and that neither you nor Rick Simpson can show us how hemp oil cures cancer? Don’t tell me – show me.
@professor78 – There are many places where hemp oil is not illegal. It is unclear if we are talking about a derivative of marijuana (usually illegal) or some non-THC containing form of hemp (usually not illegal). At any rate, there are places where hemp oil is legal, and there have been no massive disbanding of the cancer support networks. Let’s just wait and see if these areas also show corresponding reductions in cancer rates in the future. Despite what you may think, doctors are not stupid, and results get noticed. Results speak louder than any rhetoric. Show me. Show me now or disappear.
You also hedged your support of hemp oil. I agree that even if hemp oil were show to be effective at treating and preventing cancer, it would only be certain kinds. Cancer is like a car crash – it can kill you quickly, but there are many specific ways it can happen. Thanks for at least making that minor concession to rationality.
@Robhfl11 – Thanks for the support!
And as (hopefully) a final note in this ongoing saga, I urge anyone with cancer, or who has a loved one with cancer and is desperately searching the internet for hope – it is out there. By all means – consult with your physician, and try alternative cures if you so desire, but recognize the difference between medicine and snake oil. Cancer treatment is better and more effective than it ever has been. Outlooks are better than they have ever been for new diagnoses. This is not magical. This is the slow march of the scientific method. It can take a while – and I wish so many people did not have to suffer and die from these diseases before we develop new treatments. But this is the way of things.
Vaccinations and antibiotics have made deadly disease such a small part of our experience that we have difficulty accepting it as a reality of human existence. When confronted with it – it is so much easier to believe there is some agent behind it – someone to blame – and someone to trust. A charlatan preys on this – even if they legitimately believe what they are saying. Easy answers are everywhere – and they can give us a sense of control when we feel unable to control our lives. But they won’t help. (this is a good chat about how and why people deceive themselves, from a brain science perspective)
Cancer is deadly – and seemingly random – and it scares us. But no matter how great your fear – recognize that you and your cancer both inhabit the real world. In the real world – unsubstantiated claims must always be scrutinized. In the real world – empty hope is just a band-aid before death. There is real hope. It might be faint – it might be perilous – but it’s there. I’ll take bad odds against reality over a sugar coated dream world any day.
Please don’t give this hemp oil debacle any more traction – it undermines real treatment, and will literally cause people to die. By literally, I don’t mean figuratively. I mean literally. Rick Simpson and other fake-fluther-account-making charlatans out there must be exposed for what they are: snake oil salesmen.