A Reminder of Our Arrogance with Chemistry

[atomox]

So no surprise Heath's death is still on my mind this morning. I was reading further into it, and whatever the cause of death, he was taking a drug called Ambien [source], which has had many harsh side effectsThis is the very reason I am so distrusting of science, and our need for a quick fix for everything. How is something like this on the market

Comments

[t3knomanser]

Basically, your mistrust of science is that it wasn't applied in this case, and a bad drug got to market. If science had actually been done, properly controlled trials would have been used, and we'd have a higher degree of confidence about what kind of side effects there were.

This was a lack of science.

[atomox]

I'm totally with you. Science isn't completely what I distrust, but in fact the abuse of it. However, I still do not completely trust science in regards to the degree to which they test some of their creations. Even scientists are human, and sometimes their biases cloud their judgment for safety and precaution.

[t3knomanser]

Science doesn't create things. Science is a method for extracting truth from the world. The application of those truths to create things is technology, not science. Technology is the fruit of science, but is not, itself, science.

[apples491]

According to the site you're referencing, the trials did catch these symptoms.

"In controlled trials, <1% of adults with insomnia who received zolpidem reported hallucinations