I'm going to go down the conspiracy route here and introduce you to John Potash and his work uncovering why The CIA killed Tupac.
Now I forgot the other guy who exposed the CIA selling crack to fund proxy wars in Latin America, but if you tie both of these investigation with the opioid epidemic you start to see a connection.
I'm more worried about Veterans today because they prescribed opiods to my mother and her husband. And good thing they refuse to take that prescription because they didn't wanted to be addicted. My mother suffered from addiction and she stays clear away from that stuff.
Another thing is that science seems to avoid is the plecebo effect yet the reason why they can't test drugs in the USA is because the plecebo effect is greater here than overseas.

People are emotional creatures. That is as true of atheists as it is of Druids. Having embraced a community of thought we all tend to "gather the wagons" in its defense. Having said that, "blind devotion" is profoundly unscientific. We are quick to note the unchristian beliefs of main-stream Christians. I agree that we should be just as critical of our fellows.

Being a skeptic is part of being a scientist. People can make all kinds of claims, but you have to look at the evidence that either support or rejects the claim. There are people who are just as authoritarian when it comes to science as there are when it comes to religion. "Well, all scientists say",,,blah, blah, blah, but never take the time to read papers of the studies or read arguments against the conclusions of the researchers.

Devotion to science and faith in religion aren't comparable in my book. I don't know anyone that has faith in science.

True science is evidence based and open to being proven wrong and challenged. There is a lot of dogmatic pseudoscience these days and it's another form of rigid fundamentalism masquerading as science. Follow the money. There is huge profit to be made by fear mongering and brain washing folk with pseudoscience.

Skepticism is integral to science. Science begs that we question it, and scientists should as well. While I think it's natural for lay people to question science, some of it is so specialized, especially when it comes to medicine, that even grasping the basics can be difficult, and therefore hard to question. Still, we can't blindly trust those areas of science that appear largely driven by profits.

The first thing that came to mind, Medical Marijuana offers better relief over pharmaceuticals in many cases.

I agree with you 100%. The person you were talking to was not listening to what you were saying, you said you try to control your health with diet but if it becomes necessary you will take the medication. Most medications have some side effects and you have to weigh the benefits over the harm they do with the side effects to what good they are doing for you if you need prescription drugs or over-the-counter drugs. An example high cholesterol there are people that cannot take Staton drugs like Lipitor because of the side effects. It is much better to control your cholesterol with diet. I'm speaking from experience.

Medicine is a business. And I’m skeptical whenever someone is trying to sell me something. I think science as a pursuit of knowledge is perfectly reasonable, but when you mix in business and politics, the value of the pursuit becomes diluted. There is plenty of evidence where the scientific results of drug trials have been either falsified or slighted in the favor of business concerns. Sorry, I’m kinda cynical.

also science is in bed with the pharma industry so depending on whose research one reads there are many rivers to cross

i have the feeling most contributors are skeptics so even science [as cold as it can be ] may be up for interpretation

Yes. Fundamentalism of any sort is a blind faith. Critical thinking is hard. Picking an ideology of any sort and following it without question is lazy at best.

Jeez, they must not pay attention to the side effects on most medication !
And all the opioid addiction from prescription medications.