 Tweet Thirty-one years ago, a man wrote a book exposing the politics involved in cancer therapy. It painted a picture of a world in which an effective control for cancer existed but was outlawed because it couldn't line the pockets of the powerful pharmaceutical industry. In 31 years, little has changed. G. Edward Griffin's 1974 book World Without Cancer is as poignant today as the day it was written, and in some circles, just as controversial. That's because Griffin tells the story of a powerful substance that, despite its potential to aid in the fight against cancer, few cancer sufferers will ever know about, and that their doctors certainly will not offer them. That substance is vitamin B-17, also called Laetrile, and it is a naturally-occurring substance that has been banned for use in the control of cancer in the United States. Griffin was first introduced to the subject of vitamin therapy for cancer control while on a fishing trip with San Francisco physician John Richardson, he said in a telephone interview. Dr. Richardson told Griffin he had seen great success in treating his cancer patients with vitamin B-17, but he faced opposition from local medical authorities who, when they caught wind of what he was doing, balked at the fact he was using a treatment that was not FDA-approved. In an effort to protect his right to administer a therapy he had seen work on so many patients, Dr. Richardson turned to Griffin for help in advancing his cause, and thus was the beginning of World Without Cancer. Griffin, who knew nothing of the science of cancer when he began his project, soon learned plenty. His research led him to the conclusion that naturally-occurring Laetrile is indeed an effective treatment for cancer. In fact, from the time he started his research to today, Griffin says he has seen literally thousands of people benefit from treatment with Laetrile. He also learned that cancer is a disease linked directly to a deficiency of vitamin B-17, which is found in high amounts in apricot kernels. However, perhaps the most important and most troubling thing he learned was that Laetrile and its health potential were being kept out of doctors' hands for political not scientific reasons. According to Griffin, the 1953 California Report continues to be the basis of most scientific or legal opposition to vitamin B-17 today. The report, written by Dr. Henry Garland and Dr. E. M. McDonald of the California Medical Association's Cancer Advisory Commission, claims there is no proof Laetrile is an effective control for cancer. (It should be noted that these two particular doctors were at the time also insisting there was no link between smoking and lung cancer.) However, Griffin writes in World Without Cancer that Garland and McDonald actually falsified information from Laetrile experiments cited in the California Report. In fact, 10 years after the report was published, original documents surfaced that proved information had been falsified. Although the report was subsequently updated, additional problems such as insufficient vitamin dosages used in the experiments persisted, and the conclusions of the original California Report remained embedded in the literature and minds of many. Additional studies conducted by well-known groups like the Sloane-Kettering Institute have proven the effectiveness of Laetrile, according to Griffin. However, those study results have not been publicized. 'When you dig into the facts, and you read the reports by the people themselves inside those institutions, you find out they found in their testing that Laetrile was highly effective, but they received directives from the top to suppress that information,' Griffin said. So why would the 'powers-that-be' work so hard to suppress information that could benefit thousands of people dying of cancer? 'They do that because they're trying to make a buck, and something that is found in nature, like Laetrile, cannot be patented,' says Griffin. But the story doesn't stop there. The Hitler / Pharma connection World Without Cancer is divided into two parts, and in the second half of the book, Griffin goes on to reveal some disturbing information about an international drug cartel that came into being in the years before World War II that he says played a significant role in shaping the field of medicine in this country. This powerful cartel was created, Griffin argues, when I.G. Farben, a German-based chemical company and financial backer of Adolf Hitler, joined together with Standard Oil of New Jersey, founded by American business tycoon John D. Rockefeller, in an agreement not to compete. The partnership was largely concealed, since neither company wanted their countries to know about the relationship in the event of an inevitable second world war. In a lecture, Griffin once referred to the Farben-Rockefeller merger as 'the largest and most powerful cartel the world has ever known, even though most people have never heard about it.' And so the extremely influential Rockefeller came to be interlocked with the drug industry, and under the guise of philanthropy, began donating large sums of money to America's faltering medical schools. Of course, the catch was that such schools were told the money had to be used for drug research, which would create a great profit for Rockefeller interests. In their time of need, medical schools readily complied. 'When they accepted the money, they had to follow the dollar, and they designed their curricula so it favors pharmacy (and) pharmaceutical drugs,' says Griffin. This effectively gave birth to the conventional medical care system we know today, which is based almost entirely on prescription drugs and knows little to nothing about basic nutrition. 'The medical schools of the United States now teach the students everything there is to know about their product, which is drugs,' Griffin says, 'And so [doctors] come out as highly trained drug salesmen, and they don't even know it!' Even doctors are kept in the dark about B-17 It's no wonder then that natural treatments like vitamin B-17 remain banned or widely unknown in the United States; there is a long line of profit and power ensuring they stay that way. That's why doctors will not offer cancer patients vitamin therapy with vitamin B-17, and why most doctors, if asked about Laetrile, will say it has been proven ineffective. However, Griffin doesn't blame the doctors for conventional modern medicine's focus on drugs, noting, 'They're kind of victims of this whole system as much as the rest of us, and they and their families die of cancer just like everyone else. So it's clear that they're not holding back a control for cancer that they know works. If they knew about it, they would use it, just like Dr. Richardson. It's just that they're pretty well sheltered from that information, and they rely very strongly on the prestigious sources at the top.' Since Griffin's book hit shelves in 1974, awareness of natural health has increased, but little has changed in terms of the availability of Laetrile in the United States. It remains illegal for doctors to prescribe or sell Laetrile as a control for cancer. According to Griffin, however, some clinics continue to quietly use the substance, often only after the patient has obtained it. Many other patients travel to Mexico for treatment. Griffin worries that vitamin B-17 is not the only natural treatment for serious disease being suppressed because of political and financial reasons. 'I'm convinced, and this is just my opinion now; I can't back this up with facts, but on the basis of what I've seen, I think this whole AIDS field is just a rubber stamp of the cancer field,' Griffin states. He adds, 'I am sure that you'll find this thing all over the medical field because they follow the buck. They have to have something that's patented to do that, and patented medicines are usually toxic.' Today, Griffin says writing World Without Cancer dramatically changed his views and may have saved his life. 'It is like night into day,' he says. 'I am firmly convinced that had I not done this research and learned what I did, I probably would have been dead today because I was living the lifestyle of the typical American fast foods, no exercise (and) no awareness of the fact that I had any responsibility for my health.' The politics of cancer therapy On the first page of his book, Griffin openly acknowledges that what he writes is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, American Medical Association or the American Cancer Society and says that they in fact would call it 'fraud and quackery.' That is because, as Griffin has often said, the politics of cancer therapy are far more complicated than the science of cancer therapy. This core problem, according to Griffin, cannot be solved until we get the politics out of a lot of other areas as well. In the meantime, it is up to each individual consumer to take responsibility for his or her own health and wellbeing. 'I think it's important for people to understand that government, in most cases, is not the solution; it's the problem,' Griffin warns. 'As long as people think that the government is supposed to take care of them and protect them and that they can trust their politicians as long as they think that, they're in deep trouble. And, in fact, we are all in deep trouble because of that kind of thinking.' A second, updated edition of World Without Cancer was released in 1997 and can be purchased at Griffin's website, http://www.realityzone.com. You can also visit the Cancer Cure Foundation, an organization Griffin is a part of that promotes new information on the prevention and control of cancer, at http://www.cancure.org. 