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Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Medical marijuana and the new herbalism, part 3: Cannabis does not cure breast cancer

It’s been a while since I discussed medical marijuana, even though it’s a topic I’ve been meaning to come back to since I first dubbed medical marijuana to be the equivalent of herbalism and discussed how the potential of cannabinoids to treat cancer has been, thus far, unimpressive, with relatively modest antitumor effects. The reason […]

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Biology Cancer Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine History Skepticism/critical thinking

Medical marijuana and the new herbalism, part 2: The cult of “cannabis cures cancer”

About five weeks ago a month ago, I finally wrote the post I had been promising to write for months before about medical marijuana. At the time, I also promised that there would be follow-up posts. Like Dug the Dog seeing a squirrel, I kept running into other topics that kept me from revisiting the […]

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Clinical trials Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

A compound derived from marijuana decreases seizure frequency in children with Dravet syndrome, and there’s nothing “miraculous” about it

There’s a new clinical trial published in the New England Journal of Medicine showing a beneficial effect due to cannabidiol, a chemical isolated from marijuana, on drug-resistant seizures due to Dravet syndrome. Medical marijuana advocates are crowing, “I told you so!” As is usually the case, the real story is more nuanced.

Categories
Cancer Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Pseudoscience Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking

Did cannabis oil save Deryn Blackwell’s life?

In a forthcoming book The Boy in 7 Billion, Callie Blackwell claims that cannabis oil, which she had started giving her son Deryn to relieve his symptoms during a bone marrow transplant for two cancers, actually saved his life when the bone marrow transplant appeared to be failing. Unfortunately, her story appears to be another testimonial that confuses correlation with causation.

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Autism Medicine Politics Quackery

Evidence prevails: No medical marijuana for autism in Michigan—for now

Advocates have been trying to persuade Michigan to add autism to the list of conditions for which medical marijuana can be prescribed. Fortunately, this time at least, Michigan saw through their dubious arguments.