Tag Archives: Black Salve

Evidence denial looms large as 2025 begins

Posted in Alternative "medicine" scams, Denialism, Health, Human Rights, Legal, Religion, Science, Skeptic, So Called Alternative Medicine, Social Media by

January has ushered in some interesting developments for skeptics in Australia as dodgy practices seemingly jostle for attention. Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has published welcome updates and warnings, a QLD influencer sank to a new low, our most insistent anti-vaccine fantasist copped yet another fact-check from the Australian Associated Press (AAP) and 14 members of a faith healing cult have been found guilty of manslaughter.

Black Salve

Black Salve has been a long term problem for the TGA as it remains a dangerously reckless alternative cancer treatment, linked to the unwarranted belief it offers a cure. A company and its director were convicted in 2022 for advertising alternatives to medicine not on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods. A significant seizure of black salve also took place in late 2023. On 6 January this year, the therapeutic watchdog published information that following an investigation in conjunction with the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, an individual faced 12 charges for alleged criminal offences under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989.

The alleged offences relate to the advertising and supply of black salve, bloodroot capsules and other unapproved therapeutic goods. It is alleged that the individual made claims about the products’ ability to treat serious health conditions, including anxiety and cancer.

The defendant faces a maximum penalty of 12 months’ imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $222,000 for each charge. 

Sanguinarine, a primary corrosive agent in black salve, is listed as a Schedule 10 substance in the Poisons Standard. These are described as substances “so dangerous to health that they are prohibited from sale, supply and use in Australia”. Whilst the TGA has not named the individual, a certain Belinda Gae Harris (pictured) who operates Tickety Boo Herbal, had prior to Christmas, revealed via video on Rumble that she had been charged in the exact manner later outlined by the TGA.

Harris remains adamant she is being charged for “helping people” and wrote, “I have been persecuted for being a healer for many lifetimes”. In her video Harris announced she has spent her life finding solutions for the damage [the TGA] have done with mRNA vaccines and “allopathic treatments”. On the topic of mRNA vaccination, Harris wrote last month on social media she used black salve and, “sucked the jab out of people straight after that poison injection”. She continued on her Rumble channel:

I’m just going to keep doing it, because I’m helping people and I’m saving lives. My angels managed to keep this at bay until 2025… I need to have a stack of evidence saying these are all the people whose lives I have saved… Oh my God, Oh my God. It just never ends with this world. This matrix is bullshit. Bullshit lies. They’re allowed to administer carcinogenic chemotherapy to people and fry the fuck out of them with their radiation. But I’m not allowed to do a simple herbal remedy that I have tested over and over again… I’ll see you in court government – who always seem to be loving watching me. I bet you’ve got the hots for me. You probably do, just like the trolls… You can’t shut me up. If you put me in jail I’ll just be educating everybody around me. Okay. Namaste. Loving you. Ben Abou.

Harris was scheduled to appear before Deniliquin local court on 4 January for Commonwealth and Police criminal mentions. One awaits updates on the matter, which aren’t presently coming from the Tickety Boo Facebook page.

Melanotan tanning products

On 24 January the TGA published a warning about the risks of using tanning products containing melanotan. Illegally sold and advertised online they consist of nasal sprays and injectable and indigestible tanning products. Unapproved for sale in Australia, they may contain toxic or counterfeit ingredients. Melanotans are synthetic peptides that increase melanin production in the skin. The risk of serious side effects mean melanotans should only be used under medical supervision. However they are being illegally promoted as safe, including by social media influencers. Vulnerable young Australians struggling with body image issues are at significant risk. The TGA write:

While the most common side effects include headache, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and facial redness, the most concerning one is the risk of serious skin cancers. With melanotan-II, there have been reports of increased moles and freckles, kidney dysfunction and swelling of the brain.

Melanotan is not approved for sale or use as a tanning agent in Australia. These tanning agents haven’t been assessed for their quality or safety. Since these tanning products are not approved for sale or use in Australia, you also have no way of knowing what’s in them, no matter what’s written on the label. They could be made with toxic, poor quality or counterfeit ingredients.

The TGA also warn about advertising such products and leave little to the imagination by reminding readers that “all media types visible to the public” are included and liable as breaches under the TGA Advertising Code. More so, they have “a dedicated workforce to investigate the inappropriate and unlawful manufacturing, distribution, sale, import and advertising of therapeutic goods”. Let’s hope the warning is heeded.

Meryl Dorey

Regularly warned, reminded, debunked, corrected and revealed to have a striking aversion to the truth is one Meryl Dorey, founder of The Australian Vaccination-risks Network and owner of a Very Big Tag (VBT) on this website. Meryl has been fact checked by AAP in the past for cultivating notions about child suicides, and claiming later the same year that vaccinated people are more likely to die from COVID. The latest very, very old chestnut wheeled out by Meryl during an interview on YouTube [relevant section here] with Australian Liberal MP and vaccine cynic, Russell Broadbent, is the baseless claim that medical students spend a mere few hours discussing vaccines during their entire time at medical school. This is a decades old lie and serves to support the preposterous assertion that anti-vaccine activists know more than medical professionals. Dorey told a gullible Broadbent:

When doctors study vaccination, and we had the curriculum for the New South Wales school of medicine at UNSW – University of New South Wales – and it was out of four years of medical school there was one morning where vaccinations were discussed. […]

I think that any parent who’s done a modicum of research will be able to know more about this issue than the average doctor.

Ah yes, doing your own research. Busted by AAP, Dorey replied to their queries saying the curriculum was from “many years ago” and she had spoken to “probably thousands” of doctors about vaccines. Doctors apparently supporting her version of vaccine risks. Both replies should be regarded as monumentally dubious. I recommend reading the AAP piece to appreciate medical training around immunisation, population health and the use of vaccines. However, one paragraph stood out for me. A spokesperson for the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners observed:

When it comes to vaccines, as with other health issues, GPs are trained to consider the patient’s history and relevant risk factors, discuss the options available to the patient and any risks associated, and enable the patient to determine the most appropriate decisions about their own health care.

This isn’t the post to dig into this point, but bear in mind that anti-vaccine activist Judy Wilyman was awarded a PhD for a meandering literature review that made much of so-called “undone science” and unverified claims that vaccination programmes pose serious risks because they do not accomodate the genetic diversity and unique health needs of individuals. The above quote should serve as yet another reminder that the decision by the University of Wollongong to award that PhD, was and is demonstrably flawed.

Influencer charged with poisoning

The ABC joined the world’s media reporting on a 34 year old QLD mother and social media influencer, who has been charged with torture and giving her baby unauthorised medications, with the aim of attracting donations. It was a simple, if repulsive tactic; inform followers of your child’s illness, then create and exacerbate symptoms filmed to elicit sympathy. Police allege up to $60,000 was raised this way. The crowdfunding platform, GoFundMe, is presently refunding donors. It was also reported that after hospital staff improved the child’s health, the woman filled additional prescriptions and recommenced the abuse. The drug, carbamazepine, had been stopped by treating doctors due to fears it was causing seizures. Last week the woman was charged with 11 offences.

  • 5 counts of administering poison with intent to harm
  • 3 counts of preparation to commit crimes with dangerous things
  • Torture
  • Making Child Exploitation Material
  • Fraud

On 28 January a Brisbane Magistrates Court heard the woman allegedly hid her then 12 month old daughter under a blanket prior to administering unprescribed substances via a nasal tube. The child, now 18 months, was born with tuberous sclerosis, a genetic disorder which caused benign tumours in organs and can lead to epileptic seizures. Doctors believe the illegal medication administration caused further seizures in this child. The woman was caught on CCTV fiddling with her daughter’s nasogastric tube and handling a syringe, which was unrelated to her daughter’s medication. In the timeframe observed, the child went from being alert and awake to unconscious – a symptom not related to her condition.

The ABC reported on 29 January that the seizures, unexplained loss of consciousness and a cardiac arrest between August to October 2024, led the baby’s medical team to carry out high risk surgeries on intra-cranial tumours caused by the child’s genetic condition, believing them to be the causal factor. However, after the surgery the woman’s conduct was discovered. Drug screening revealed “the presence of carbamazepine and other non-prescribed medications in the baby’s system”. Bail was granted on condition the woman have no contact with her daughter other than via supervised audiovisual visits.

This will prove an interesting case with respect to the woman’s defence or indeed the reasons behind her behaviour. No doubt Factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA), originally Münchausen syndrome by proxy, is an explanation that provides answers. But in the age of social media speckled with complex reasons driving individuals to behave antisocially, illegally or in pursuit of their own malignancies, might this be too simple an answer? Critical thinking and rationality are frequently jettisoned by influencers. Perhaps we should be seeking to understand how social media influences certain users, as much as we seek to grasp how they use it to influence others.

Religious cult guilty of manslaughter

Fourteen members of a religious cult that believed God would heal an 8 year old insulin dependent type 1 diabetic and later raise her from the dead, have been found guilty of manslaughter in a judge only trial in the Brisbane Supreme Court, report the ABC. Elizabeth Struhs was denied her insulin, became critically unwell over several days and died in Toowoomba 3 years ago this month. As she suffered, the cult “prayed and sang” rather than contact emergency services. After Elizabeth died, they waited for more than 24 hours before contacting police. The Court heard the group rejected modern medicine “and put their full trust in the healing power of God”.

Being questioned by police the child’s mother, Kerrie Struhs, told police she hadn’t lost faith in God, who could raise her daughter up regardless of where she was. In a classic example of biblical fundamentalist literacy, she rejected a funeral for her daughter because, “the bible says let the dead bury the dead”. Elizabeth’s father Jason Struhs was originally charged with murder, and also told police that he expected his daughter to rise from death. The deceased’s brother Zachary, told police:

We saw the healing and we know that she was healed from the diabetes. The sickness of her natural death could have been anything that comes up on anyone — that’s not for me to know, I’m not God.

Another member, Therese Stevens, sounded quite chuffed as she explained that Elizabeth will rise again and because of their beliefs they are not “as stressed out and freaked out and emotionally damaged as you would be if you knew you’d never see that person again”. In a ruling that should prove controversial, Justice Martin could not find the child’s father guilty of murder unless he had a full realisation his daughter would die from withdrawal of her insulin. The ABC reported:

Justice Burns said he was not satisfied of this beyond a reasonable doubt, stating there was a possibility in the “cloistered atmosphere of the church which enveloped [him] and which only intensified once he made the decision to cease the administration of insulin, he was so consumed by the particular belief in the healing power of God … that he never came to the full realisation Elizabeth would probably die”.

For a similar reason he did not find cult leader Brendan Stevens guilty of murder, but found his claim that he did not influence Jason Struhs to be “arrant nonsense”. Justice Martin also found all other members influenced Jason to withhold insulin and medical care and thus, “counselled and aided in the unlawful killing of Elizabeth”. Of the 14 members, 8 were from the Stevens family, 3 from the Struhs family, there was one couple and one individual. Elizabeth’s sister Jayde who had not been on trial spoke outside the court. Whilst happy with the outcome of the trial she said the “system failed to protect Elizabeth in the first place”. In a revealing comment Jayde added:

We are only here today because more wasn’t done sooner to protect her or remove her from an incredibly unsafe situation in her own home.

One finds it impossible not to agree.

Okay February, let’s see what you have in store.

Black Salve, The Australian Vaccination Network and the Therapeutic Goods Administration

Posted in Alternative "medicine" scams, Anti-Vaccination Lobby, Australian Vaccination-risks Network, AVN, General, Legal, Meryl Dorey by

As The Australian Vaccination-risks Network celebrate thirty years of spreading anti-vaccine and dangerous health advice to unsuspecting Australians, some satisfying memories of yesteryear have come to mind. Foremost is the delightful own goal scored by AVN founder Meryl Dorey, when promoting Black Salve as she bemoaned the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for taking action against the AVN for advertising a DVD, which itself promoted Black Salve. Let me explain.

It all began way back in 2012 with increasing interest in a fraudulently marketed so-called skin cancer “cure”. Namely, a corrosive salve known as an escharotic, being marketed as the near-miraculous Black Salve. A DVD sold by the (then) Australian Vaccination Network (AVN) titled One Answer to Cancer, was packed with anecdotal testimonies praising Black Salve and criticising Aldara, the medically approved treatment for keratoses and superficial basal cell carcinomas. I blogged about this at the time, and you can catch up here. It’s indicative of how quickly interest in Black Salve and the dubious DVD was spreading, to see that on 19 March 2012 the TGA published a warning about black and red salves in treating cancer. This included:

The recent use of  products marketed as containing ‘Black salve’ in Australia has resulted in serious harm to the skin of three Australian consumers who used the black salves for various skin conditions including the treatment of a skin cancer.

The TGA is not aware of any credible, scientific evidence which shows that any black or red salve preparation is effective in treating cancer. These types of salves have not been formally assessed by the TGA and are not included in the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods or exempted from inclusion.

All therapeutic goods, including those used for treating cancer, must be included in the Register unless exempted. Penalties of up to $5.5m apply to the illegal importation or supply of therapeutic goods.

The TGA was investigating importation and a complaint made about supply via the internet. The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority were also investigating sales purportedly proffered for pets. The TGA stressed that the problem with corrosive salves is that they “essentially burn off layers of the skin and surrounding normal tissue. They can destroy large parts of the skin and underlying tissue, and leave significant scarring.” The corrosive quality is unpredictable and almost impossible to control. Indeed Black Salve is also referred to as a pro-necrotic agent, which I blogged about in 2019. Once the process begins, widespread necrosis follows, leading to the release of enzymes which cause the breakdown of neighbouring cell membranes. A domino effect ensues causing widespread cell death. It brings to mind the “acid for blood” scene in the movie, Alien.

Necrosis of left nostril and surrounding tissue caused by Black Salve (Wikipedia)

Proponents misleadingly call it Nature’s Scalpel. The purpose of One Answer to Cancer was to promote Black Salve and offer instructions on how to prepare your own batch, using zinc chloride and sanguinaria canadensis, also known as bloodroot. This way the DVD producers could side step charges of selling the illegal corrosive. In December 2018, The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners published a comprehensive article on Black Salve, its history and use, noting that the main ingredient is the synthetic corrosive, zinc chloride. Thus claims of a “natural alternative” are inaccurate, and “catastrophic consequences can occur”. The dangers were well documented in 2012 and warnings were abundant. Nonetheless, in the AVN shop Meryl Dorey had included the following blurb with the DVD ad’.

50% of us will face cancer in our own lives at one time or another… we will have to face the choice of how to treat our illness – using toxic drugs or safe, effective, time-tested natural remedies… If you or someone you know is facing this issue or if you just want to be prepared for any future cancer diagnoses, this will be the best $25 you have ever spent!

The advertisement was in breach of the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 (the Act) and numerous sections of the TGA Advertising Code (the Code). The Code is an effective legislative device for drawing up complaints against the peddling of quack remedies. Once content meets the definition of an advertisement, that content is subject to a number of principles outlined in the Code. More so, persons who publish what meets the definition of an advertisement may be guilty of an offence if other other medications are criticised or if a risk of harm applies. To read the advertisement and understand how the Code and the Act applied in 2012 you can check out the complaint I lodged on 19 April that year.

TGA_complaint_Black_Salve_Australian_Vaccination_Network_redactDownload

Prior to 1 July 2018, advertising complaints lodged with the TGA were handled by a Complaints Resolution Panel (CRP). A media release announcing that the TGA would take on the role of complaint management is available here. Way back in 2012 my complaint was handled by the CRP, and their findings from December 2012, can be accessed here. Fifteen sections of the Code and one section of the Act were found to have been breached. The AVN were told to remove the advertisement and publish the notice below.

However long before this, the TGA informed Meryl Dorey that a complaint had been lodged, as is her right. Unsurprisingly, Meryl felt both the complaint and the request of the TGA to remove the offending advertisement was an abuse of her network’s rights. On 5 May 2012, which was about two weeks after being notified, Meryl gave an interview on Fairdinkum Radio, a production of Resistance Media. This was an early freedom fighter production, and host Leon Pittard opened the show announcing the title as, The Australian Government’s Assault on Health Freedom. For me, the highlight of the show was Meryl’s interview which you can access below, or download here.

Meryl waxed lyrical about the benefits of Black Salve and the horror of Aldara, which she falsely claimed was “banned in many parts of the world”. Meryl also managed to call the TGA Cost Recovery model, “a fairly evil policy”. She provided a dubious anecdote of her own apparent use of Black Salve and wrongly claimed it has a “two thousand year history”. She mentioned the DVD and wrongly claimed Black Salve was a combination of herbs and minerals. The interview went on for over five minutes and easily met the definition of an advertisement. An advertisement for Black Salve published in broadcast media, no less. I lodged a second complaint.

TGA_BlackSalve_FairdinkumRadio_AVN_redactDownload

The complaint makes clear how both Meryl and host Leon Pittard were liable as advertisers. It also contains a transcript of the interview. Application of appropriate sections of the Code, the Act and the Therapeutic Goods Regulations 1990, justified removal of the interview/advertisement and publication of a retraction (below). By the end of January 2013 the CRP had published their findings which can be accessed here. Thirteen sections of the Code were breached along with two sections of the Act. No sections of the Code raised in the complaint were found not to be breached. More so, over five paragraphs the panel raised additional matters not in the complaint. These included a possible breach of the Act relating to the Register of Therapeutic Goods, and nine possible breaches of the Code relating to criticism of Aldara, promoting a dangerous compound for serious disease, comments about the TGA and more (see pp. 2-3).

Page 3 of the CRP report includes reference to a somewhat bizarre response to a member of the panel from both Dorey and Pittard. In essence they would cop to the findings of the panel if the member would, in his private capacity, present “true, complete and correct proof” that relating a personal condition to anyone constitutes advertising, that the person making the claim is aware of fees paid for advertising, that free speech is not an inherent right, that any corporation has the right to sue an individual and that the matter couldn’t be settled in private. Leon Pittard had long boasted of monitoring the New World Order, employed a watered-down sovereign citizen logic to his world view and, like Dorey, was a fan of conspiracy theorist, Senator Malcolm Roberts. Pittard no doubt penned the response attributed to both he and Dorey (summarised below).

To my surprise, a short time after lodging the complaint I stumbled across this ridiculous video from the USA which was defending the position of Leon Pittard and Meryl Dorey. I wonder if in the rush to defend free speech the producers did any serious research on Black Salve, or understood the danger their support posed to an unsuspecting public.

Ultimately it was rewarding to have these particular complaints upheld. The second complaint – a veritable own goal – was particularly satisfying. However as is often the case with groups beholden to anti-science ideologies and belief in a fight for “health freedom”, such advertisements aren’t always removed when requested. Non-compliance is met with further warning notices, whilst more serious penalties reflect the nature of the breach and risk to the public. There’s little doubt that Black Salve caused serious injuries at the time and a quick search reveals that it continues to cause harm and generate health authority warnings in developed nations. The TGA seized Black Salve capsules on the Gold Coast in May 2019 and again in Brisbane, in December 2023.

The TGA publish regulatory decisions and announcements and the outcomes of advertising compliance investigations. As members of the public it’s up to us to report harmful products and dodgy advertisements to the TGA. It may involve a bit of reading but not every complaint needs to begin with every potential breach.

You can report perceived breaches or questionable practices here. There’s more information on reporting, what you need to provide and accessing support to complete forms here.

Complaints & Findings:

Complaint to TGA re One Answer to Cancer advertisement

Complaints Resolution Panel findings December 2012

Complaint to TGA re Fairdinkum Radio interview

Complaints Resolution Panel findings January 2013

Complaint re One Answer to Cancer DVD

TGA_complaint_Black_Salve_Australian_Vaccination_Network_redactDownload

CRP Determination for 16 August 2012

TGA_CRP_2012-04-022_Black_SalveDownload

Complaint re Fair Dinkum Radio and Meryl Dorey

TGA_BlackSalve_FairdinkumRadio_AVN_redactDownload

CRP Determination for 20 September 2012

TGA_CRP_2012-05-013_Black_SalveDownload

Black Salve – The Pro-Necrotic Agent

Posted in Alternative "medicine" scams, Big Placebo, General, Health, Legal, Scam, Science, Skeptic by

Last April Questions for Pseudoscience published an informative video on the very nasty, dangerous, bogus skin cancer “treatment” known generally as Black Salve.

Main points might be summed up as;

  • It isn’t anti-tumour cream.
  • It is anti-skin cream.
  • It kills tissue via the caustic salt zinc chloride (listed by the FDA as a fake skin cancer treatment) and sanguinarine (a toxic alkaloid).
  • The combination of zinc chloride and sanguinarine is “incredibly lethal to living tissue”.
  • Apart from burning skin due to its caustic nature zinc chloride adversely effects other body organs and systems (eyes, G.I. tract, lungs).
  • Sanguinarine blocks sodium potassium pumps located in the cell membrane, killing cells.
  • The ridiculous myth peddled by proponents of Black Salve is that cell death can be controlled by removing the salve at just the right time so that only cancer cells are effected.
  • However once begun the process continues leading to widespread necrosis. As cells die, enzymes are released leading to the breakdown of neighbouring cell membranes.
  • A domino effect follows leading to widespread cell death.
  • Thus Black Salve is really a Pro-Necrotic Agent and will kill any tissue it comes into contact with.

In March 2012 we visited the issue of AVN selling the One Answer To Cancer DVD – a blatantly bogus promotion of Black Salve. The post included the banning of this dangerous product by Australia’s TGA, (Therapeutic Goods Administration).

The TGA at that time issued a warning on Black Salve, which was covered by the ABC’s The World Today.

  • Listen to the audio in the player below;

-———

————————————-

Some AVN Stupid burns so much it REALLY burns

Posted in Big Placebo, Health, Legal, Scam, Science by

50% of us will face cancer in our own lives at one time or another… we will have to face the choice of how to treat our illness – using toxic drugs or safe, effective, time-tested natural remedies… If you or someone you know is facing this issue or if you just want to be prepared for any future cancer diagnoses, this will be the best $25 you have ever spent!

Meryl Dorey – farmer’s wife

If you happen to pass by the AVN Shop with a spare red back you could apparently spend it on an amazing secret.

So incredible that Big Pharma, Big Government and Big Medicine don’t want you to know about it. What is it that “they” don’t want you to know about? One answer to cancer. That “one answer” is based on testimonials about black salve combined with ridiculous claims about Aldara (Imiquimod). Imiquimod is accused of causing “systemic and fatal reactions” and actually causing cancer.

In fact imiquimod is successful in treating basal and squamous cell carcinomas, malignant melanomas, actinic keratosis and genital warts to name some conditions. The business about it causing cancer may well have it’s genesis in the fact imiquimod is used on subclinical lesions to promote visibility. It’s a painful approach but ensures all lesions can be successfully treated.

“They” don’t want you to know

Black salve is a type of corrosive salve known as an escharotic. If you’d like to see and read up on the sort of damage corrosive salves can do, check out Quackwatch‘s article aptly headed, Don’t Use Corrosive Cancer Salves (Escharotics). A discussion on the natural logic for their use can be found, I believe, in close proximity to the word “preposterous”.

Dorey’s copy/paste blurb includes the usual silliness about “nature’s scalpel” having been used for over 2,000 years “to treat skin cancers and other cancerous conditions, leading to a total remission of the disease.” Total remission! Wow. Of course putting profits “ahead of morality or their duty of care”, doctors and therapeutic watchdogs have ruined lives with proven Aldara all over the world, rather than promote Black Salve. Strange, because in their overview of Cancer Salves the American Cancer Society note in that killjoy Big Medicine fashion:

Available scientific evidence does not support claims that salves are effective in treating cancer or tumors. In fact, some ingredients may cause great harm. There have been numerous reports of severe burns, disfigurement, and permanent scarring from some of these salves.

That’s awfully negative and a little alarming. In Australia the TGA did publish a warning on it’s website on February 3rd. No doubt just showing off because they can bridge the gap between Big Pharma and Big Government whilst pretending to regulate Big Medicine, the immoral profiteers abandon duty of care to warn Patients and Consumers:

The TGA strongly advises consumers and patients against purchasing or using Black Salve.

Black Salve is corrosive and essentially burns off layers of the skin and surrounding normal tissue. It can destroy large parts of the skin and underlying tissue, and leave significant scarring.

In addition to the TGA warning about the purchase and use of Black Salve, the TGA is also investigating the supply of the product in Australia.

Further, a complaint about the advertising of Black Salve on certain Australian Internet sites is currently under consideration by the Complaints Resolution Panel.

Not long ago Janelle Miles of The Courier Mail reported on this ongoing global plot to ruin lives with toxic drugs and hide, “this safe, effective, time tested natural remedy”, as Meryl called it. Interviewing Cosmetic Physicians Society of Australasia president Gabrielle Caswell, they managed to catch her out saying it was “pretty horrific stuff”, capable of causing “gross scarring”. “It’s disturbing that this product is so widely available,’‘, she added.

Later, probably trying to drive suspicion away from Big Cosmo, Caswell added:

“I wouldn’t want it on my body. I wouldn’t put it on a dog if I had a dog because I think if you have a pet, you look after them.”

Which is rather telling because apparently it is being sold for animal use. Illegally. The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority are presently investigating five websites for peddling porkies to pooch. Many sites are quite happy to tell you the TGA advises against use for humans. But when you know “they” don’t want you to know, the sites may assume you know of another meaning entirely. You know?

The World Today ran a report earlier today on this issue [Audio MP3 here]. It’s clear there are appalling corrosive side effects that can ensue from using Black Salve. Yet the sheer predatory nature of those who contend that a localised agent could have any effect on a deeply invasive cancerous growth that also metastasises, (like melanoma), is appalling.

So is the claim that blood roots, zinc chloride and zinc oxide is a “safe, effective, natural” alternative being hushed up by organised conspiracy. The ABC confirm that many websites claim “that the medical establishment rejects alternative cancer therapies such as Black Salve because it’s too difficult to make money from them.”

TGA issues warning on skin cancer remedy © ABC The World Today

Despite promotion of anecdotal claims and testimonials, as Ian Olver from the Cancer Council said:

If you just have testimonials, you really don’t know whether, even if it said to work whether that is one in two, one in 20 or one in 200 and that makes a big difference to whether you suggest it to anyone else.

The best twenty odd bucks you’ll ever spend? This burning stupid really burns.