If you want to find $23.9 billion in faux health nonsense, look at the $24 billion alternative medicine industry. And no alternative product has benefited from a health halo like marijuana has in recent years. There are claims it treats everything from glaucoma to pain to depression, and maybe it does for 10 or 20 percent of people or whatever else in the same placebo range as acupuncture does. Government bureaucrats are rushing to get it legally on the books to get more taxes so they turn a blind eye to the nonsensical claims about benefit.
But when it comes to cancer marketing, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has finally drawn a line. They have issued warning letters to four companies - Greenroads Health, Natural Alchemist, That’s Natural! Marketing and Consulting, and Stanley Brothers Social Enterprises LLC - because these frauds are selling marijuana-based products claim they can prevent, diagnose, treat, or even cure cancer. Obviously that is illegal, and a step beyond the shady claims that exist in a cloud over marijuana. At least with shady claims about pain dealers can state that marijuana has been nearly impossible to study so no one really knows. But preventing cancer? We know what that is:
“Substances that contain components of marijuana will be treated like any other products that make unproven claims to shrink cancer tumors. We don’t let companies market products that deliberately prey on sick people with baseless claims that their substance can shrink or cure cancer and we’re not going to look the other way on enforcing these principles when it comes to marijuana-containing products,” said FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, M.D.
And exploiting family members of Alzheimer's patients is just as wrong.
This won't be the last time FDA has to warn supplement makers about specious, unverified claims related to marijuana. Or plenty of other products hawked by the Four Horsemen of the Alternative (Oz, Weil, Chopra, Null - replace them with your own choices if you don't like mine) but we won't rest until all of the really dangerous charlatans are driven out of business and have to find alternative employment as astrologers, psychics or Crossfit video salespeople. We all know what that will be like:
