Editing Amygdalin (section)

=== Advocacy and legality of laetrile ===
Advocates for laetrile assert that there is a [[conspiracy theory|conspiracy]] between the US [[Food and Drug Administration]], the [[pharmaceutical industry]] and the medical community, including the [[American Medical Association]] and the [[American Cancer Society]], to exploit the American people, and especially cancer patients.<ref name=ConsumerReports/>

Advocates of the use of laetrile have also changed the rationale for its use, first as a treatment of cancer, then as a vitamin, then as part of a "holistic" nutritional regimen, or as treatment for cancer pain, among others, none of which have any significant evidence supporting its use.<ref name=ConsumerReports/>

Despite the lack of evidence for its use, laetrile developed a significant following due to its wide promotion as a "pain-free" treatment of cancer as an alternative to [[surgery]] and [[chemotherapy]] that have significant side effects. The use of laetrile led to a number of deaths.<ref name=ConsumerReports>{{Cite book | title = Health Quackery | place = Vernon, New York | publisher = Consumers Union |date= 1980 | chapter = Laetrile: the Political Success of a Scientific Failure | pages = [https://archive.org/details/healthquackeryco00cons/page/16 16–40] | isbn = 978-0-89043-014-9 | chapter-url-access = registration | chapter-url = https://archive.org/details/healthquackeryco00cons | url = https://archive.org/details/healthquackeryco00cons/page/16 }}</ref>
The FDA and AMA crackdown, begun in the 1970s, effectively escalated prices on the black market, played into the conspiracy narrative and enabled unscrupulous profiteers to foster multimillion-dollar smuggling empires.<ref>{{cite journal | vauthors = Herbert V | title = Laetrile: the cult of cyanide. Promoting poison for profit | journal = The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition | volume = 32 | issue = 5 | pages = 1121–1158 | date = May 1979 | pmid = 219680 | doi = 10.1093/ajcn/32.5.1121 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

Some American cancer patients have traveled to [[Mexico]] for treatment with the substance, for example at the [[Oasis of Hope Hospital]] in [[Tijuana]].<ref name=Moss2005>{{cite journal | vauthors = Moss RW | title = Patient perspectives: Tijuana cancer clinics in the post-NAFTA era | journal = Integrative Cancer Therapies | volume = 4 | issue = 1 | pages = 65–86 | date = March 2005 | pmid = 15695477 | doi = 10.1177/1534735404273918 | doi-access = free }}</ref> The actor [[Steve McQueen]] died in Mexico following surgery to remove a stomach tumor, having previously undergone extended treatment for [[pleural]] [[mesothelioma]] (a cancer associated with asbestos exposure) under the care of [[William Donald Kelley|William D. Kelley]], a de-licensed dentist and orthodontist who claimed to have devised a cancer treatment involving pancreatic enzymes, 50 daily vitamins and minerals, frequent body shampoos, enemas, and a specific diet as well as laetrile.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/15/health/15essa.html?ex=1289710800&en=8059981c17deec5d&ei=5088|title=McQueen's Legacy of Laetrile|newspaper=The New York Times|date=15 November 2005 | vauthors = Lerner BH | access-date=23 April 2010}}</ref>

Laetrile advocates in the United States include [[Dean Burk]], a former chief chemist of the [[National Cancer Institute]] [[cytochemistry]] laboratory,<ref>{{cite news | vauthors = Whitaker JD | url = http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1283487.html | title = Dean Burk, 84, Noted Chemist at National Cancer Institute, Dies | newspaper = The Washington Post| date = 9 October 1988 | access-date = 14 January 2007 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121105073833/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-1283487.html | archive-date = 5 November 2012 | url-status = dead }}</ref> and national [[arm wrestling]] champion Jason Vale, who falsely claimed that his [[kidney cancer|kidney]] and [[pancreatic cancer|pancreatic]] cancers were cured by eating [[apricot]] seeds. Vale was convicted in 2004 for, among other things, fraudulently marketing laetrile as a cancer cure.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = McWilliams BS |title=Spam kings: the real story behind the high-rolling hucksters pushing porn, pills and @*#?% enlargements |publisher=O'Reilly |location=Sebastopol, CA |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-596-00732-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/spamkingsrealsto00mcwi| url-access = registration | page = [https://archive.org/details/spamkingsrealsto00mcwi/page/237 237] | quote = Jason Vale. }}</ref> The court also found that Vale had made at least $500,000 from his fraudulent sales of laetrile.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/9825.php | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20101204113541/http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/9825.php | archive-date = 4 December 2010 |title=New York Man Sentenced to 63 Months for Selling Fake Cancer Cure |date=22 June 2004 |work=Medical News Today |access-date=8 July 2010}}</ref>

In New Zealand, laetrile was among the purported treatments for cancer promoted by [[Milan Brych]], who was later convicted of medical fraud.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/130651208/alternative-cancer-treatments--helpful-or-harmful|title=Alternative cancer treatments – helpful or harmful?|first=Nadine|last=Roberts|publisher=Stuff|date=3 December 2022|access-date=3 November 2024}}</ref>

In the 1970s, court cases in several states challenged the FDA's authority to restrict access to what they claimed are potentially lifesaving drugs. More than twenty states passed laws making the use of laetrile legal. After the unanimous Supreme Court ruling in ''United States v. Rutherford''<ref>{{cite court |litigants= United States v. Rutherford |vol= 442 |reporter= U.S. |opinion= 544 |court= United States Supreme Court |date= 1979 |url= http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=CASE&court=US&vol=442&page=544 }}</ref> which established that interstate transport of the compound was illegal, usage fell off dramatically.<ref name="NCIpdq" /><ref name="Curran1980">{{cite journal | vauthors = Curran WJ | title = Law-medicine notes. Laetrile for the terminally ill: Supreme Court stops the nonsense | journal = The New England Journal of Medicine | volume = 302 | issue = 11 | pages = 619–621 | date = March 1980 | pmid = 7351911 | doi = 10.1056/NEJM198003133021108 }}</ref> The US Food and Drug Administration continues to seek jail sentences for vendors marketing laetrile for cancer treatment, calling it a "highly toxic product that has not shown any effect on treating cancer."<ref name=usfda>{{cite web |publisher= FDA |date= 22 June 2004 |url= https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/2004/ucm108314.htm |title= Lengthy Jail Sentence for Vendor of Laetrile – A Quack Medication to Treat Cancer Patients |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090710102512/https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/2004/ucm108314.htm |archive-date= 10 July 2009 }}</ref>