It's good to require evidence of extraordinary claims, though! If we say "Cannabis cures cancer", we need to be able to back that up, and not just say "I use it every day and I don't have cancer". Properly done scientific studies cut through bias and expose the reality of something in a way that everybody can measure and understand, with checks and balances to avoid corruption, politics, pseudoscience, etc.

MediKatie and I sometimes hang out downtown or in front of City Hall on a Saturday afternoon with signs saying "cannabis cures cancer" and "end cannabis prohibition".

Often, we get people coming up to us for info. Just about as often, we get people coming up to us to demand we take down the cannabis cures cancer sign. One lady shouted in our faces "you can't lie to the public like that! you're getting sick people's hopes up! you're just a bunch of stupid stoners who can't even read!"

Katie schooled her by naming various universities, researchers, and studies on the topic, and explaining exactly how cannabinoids target receptors on cancerous cells to cause apoptosis, shrinking the tumor and eventually curing the cancer. The lady replied "but I have a degree!" to which Katie responded "so do I, plus I've done an additional 5 years full-time research into this topic, and it's clear you haven't". The woman turned to me, flabbergasted, and shouted "can she do this?!" I was like "yup, she knows what she's talking about, and you don't, so please get educated before you continue to spread your lies". She threatened to call the cops, we told her go for it, they already know we're here again today.

Man, people got upset. That't definitely not why we did it, but those kind of intense interactions show how ignorance still abounds out there. People still don't know (or believe) this, even though Nixon figured out about it in 74 and had the results hushed. It wasn't until the late 90s that the internet uncovered it again and researchers in Spain started new research. Now there are thousands of studies proving cannabis cures cancer, but many ignorant people refuse to acknowledge it, mostly without even reading the studies. And so, cancer continues to kill 1 in 4 people, when most of those deaths were preventable with cannabinoid therapy.

So having good scientific research done, and being able to cite it as needed, is very important for MediKatie and I as activists. We realize that it's possible to figure all this stuff out by being high on a regular basis, being around other cannabis users, just by thinking it through, hearing others' experiences, and realizing that cannabis cures cancer, expands creativity, helps us socialize, reduces pain, and more. We don't need studies to back us up!

But non-stoners often do need some kind of evidence, and science is the best method we have of showing empirical evidence that something we say is true, so we can say "told you so".

Thank you so much for the comment and upvotes!! <3