‘Right to Repair for Your Body’: The Rise of DIY, Pirated Medicine

kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de to Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ@lemmy.dbzer0.com – 373 points –
‘Right to Repair for Your Body’: The Rise of DIY, Pirated Medicine
404media.co

You wouldn't pirate a medicine, would you?

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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

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.

It certainly sounds like it should be more difficult than that (and as far as I, a non-medical professional, know it is) but keep in mind the pharmaceutical industry is worth billions to a select few, and keep in mind back when Eli Lilly's Twitter was hacked and posted insulin, a substance that costing some people over $1000/month just to live, would be free, their stock dropped 4.37% the next day.

Like I said, I'm no medical anything but like with previous products that have claimed to be medically beneficial, I think it's worth at least taking a step back and looking at what someone stands to gain by claiming something vital is simple versus what those who claim otherwise stand to lose.

After all, I think we've all heard the story of the doctor who, in a fit of desperation, cured his wife's cancer with bicarbonate of soda and then did so with more of his patients before being sued by Big Pharma.

Hack? It's not even that. Just musk in his infinite wisdom enabling pay-to-get-checkmark on Xitter so all the fake/satire accounts immediately jumped on the opportunity.

Oh, was that it? I'd heard someone had hacked the EL Twitter account. That's even dumber. Thanks for the correction and highlighting how much dumber the fallout was, luckily my misunderstanding didn't take away from the main point.

HAHA no! Someone literally just changed their twitter handle, display name and avatar, then bought a blue check, and THAT'S IT.

The CLR (the reactor to create the medicine) costs about US$300-500 to make according to their website. Then there's actually figuring out the software. They don't sell recipes,as it were, so there's time involved as well.

I've been poking around their site tonight after I saw this posted to another community. It's worth looking at, imho.

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.

You're not wrong—all of 4TVC's work is extremely dangerous. Not as dangerous as you'd think, though. And, compared to living a life crushed by debilitating disease or debt, do those risks outweigh the outcome? Probably not.

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.

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%20elm%20contains%20mucilage%2C%20a,throat%2C%20stomach%2C%20and%20intestines.

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.

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.