You wouldn’t pirate a medicine, would you?

  • becausechemistry@lemm.ee
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    1 month ago

    I’m a process chemist. I do this sort of thing for a living.

    These guys don’t even know why what they’re suggesting is so dangerous. Do not do any of this.

    • EchoCranium@lemmy.zip
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      1 month ago

      I’m a quality chemist. I test the API’s that process chemists make to be sure they’re right. Yeah, reactions don’t always proceed as intended. These guys do understand the risks, and are only trying to provide an option. Here in the US the insurance companies are perfectly willing to let us die because funding expensive treatment hurts their bottom line. Unless you’re independently wealthy, a small scale reactor at home may become the only option a person has available. Definitely risky, but why not take the chance when corporate America has determined you’re not valuable enough to save?

  • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
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    1 month ago

    I would if I could!

    I will say, there’s something scary about crafting your own medicine, I’d expect medicine to be highly precisely crafted in labs by highly educated professionals and that it’d be difficult and perhaps dangerous to make and take your own medicine. I could be wrong.

    The things they write in the article are amazing, people can make their own life savine cure to hepatitis C for about 70 USD for their whole home made treatment, that just works? It seems too good to be true without any caveats.

    Oh and, final thought, “Four Thieves Collective”? They really don’t beat around the bush. I like that

    • Maeve@kbin.earth
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      1 month ago

      Four Thieves vinegar was supposedly used by four grave robbers to protect them from bubonic plague, each thief added their own herb to the infusion. It apparently worked well enough, they negotiated their freedom by giving up the recipe.

      Nowadays, people vary the herbs, garlic is the constant.

      It’s no secret herbs like oregano (most savory herbs actually) have antimicrobial properties. When you’re poor and a doctor’s visit is a day or more lost pay, the daycare is paid regardless of attendance, then the uninsured cost of the visit and pharmaceuticals, you learn.

    • RBG@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 month ago

      It is easy to make if you have the know how and some equipment, also if it is already known what you need to make. For example, aspirin is known structurally (unless I am mistaken), so if you have the chemistry know-how and equipment, you can make your own.

      However the tricky part is to get it as a safe medicine to take, that you do not have impurities that could be dangerous, toxic. You will need to be able to make quality and safety checks like that. Which I am not sure how easy that really is.

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
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        1 month ago

        White willow bark and devil’s claw root contain naturally occurring salicylic acid, similar to aspirin. Better, but it tastes funky.

        ETA: https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/herb/slippery-elm#:~:text=Slippery elm contains mucilage%2C a,throat%2C stomach%2C and intestines.

        Nothing wrong with homemade medicine. Just know what you’re doing. I’ve used many, on myself and now adult child. Grandparents on both sides taught me. Their’s taught them. I’ve used comfrey to heal deep wounds on friendly strays.

        • TerkErJerbs@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          Along the same line of pain management did you know that pretty much all the poppy seed (for ornamental flowers) you can buy at any garden store are opium poppies? You can grow them easily, then macerate the whole plant and extract in off the shelf alcohol and strain it for essentially laudanum which is great for a sleep aide or pain in low to moderate doses. Quite safe as well, obviously if you don’t abuse it.

  • Melody Fwygon@lemmy.one
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    1 month ago

    I firmly think this would be a boon for many people; owning one of these is likely a lifeline that even small town physicians could utilize to dispense drugs freely or cheaply to patients in need.

    This is something that I think small-town pharmacies could use to create compounds in cases of drug shortages. I think tools and programs and small labs like what are discussed in the article are a positive force for good; and that they should be not only allowed, but encouraged, for many drugs that are expensive, unavailable to someone in need and can be readily synthesized safely with a basic college level of chemistry training by someone in a pharmacy.

    I think the potential risks and downsides are small right now; and I think more of it should be encouraged gently so that we can find out quickly what the flaws and limitations are so that we can put regulatory guardrails around it so that people do not harm themselves.

    • winterayars@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      Yeah, one of the meds they talk about making is Vyvanse. That’s having a serious national shortage right now due to a combination of the DEA and corporate greed. It’s illegal for compounding pharmacies to make it but there’s no technical reason they couldn’t. Same for lots of this stuff.