The Human Experience · Episode
Episode 44 – Mr. Rick Simpson – The Healing Powers of Marijuana
A conversation with Mr. Rick Simpson
Rick Simpson is a legend in the cannabis community and he has become a catalyst for the way we see marijuana as a medicine. In this episode we spoke to Mr. Rick Simpson about his discovery, his life and his…

The full conversation continues here.
Watch this conversation
Episode field notes
Show notes
Rick Simpson is a legend in the cannabis community and he has become a catalyst for the way we see marijuana as a medicine.

In this episode we spoke to Mr. Rick Simpson about his discovery, his life and his journey to bring awareness to the healing properties of Cannabis.
The Rick Simpson story is an interesting one; In 1974 Simpson was driving his car in his native Nova Scotia when a radio report came on about a study that found marijuana reduced cancerous tumors in mice. Specifically, researchers at the University of Virginia had found that several chemicals in marijuana acted against both cancerous tissue taken from mice and on cancerous tissue in the mice.
Some twenty years after Simpson heard the radio report about cannabinoids slowing the growth of tumors in mice, he was working in the boiler room at a hospital when he had a head injury. He suffered a concussion and for years afterward had headaches, ringing in the ears, and trouble sleeping. In 1998, he saw the movie Reefer Madness II about the promise of marijuana as a medicine. He decided to try marijuana for his medical problems. He reasoned, the prescribed medicine he was taking wasn’t working. His doctor wouldn’t prescribe marijuana, so he grew his own. He eventually started experimenting with hemp oil that he made from the buds of his plants. After using hemp oil, he says, his headaches went away, the ringing in his ears got tolerable, he slept better, and his arthritis disappeared. “Within a few months,” he says, “people saw the difference. The oil controlled the pain, my blood pressure, and it allowed me to sleep. I lost weight and looked 20 years younger.”
in 2003 Simpson had one facial spot removed and biopsied. Before he got the results of the biopsy, he self-diagnosed himself as having an infection where the spot had been removed. He applied cannabis oil to two other spots that hadn’t been surgically removed and a few days later, he says, they were gone. He put the oil on his self-diagnosed infection and it too disappeared. He self-diagnosed that the cancer came back and again he applied cannabis and again he concluded that cannabis had cured his cancer. The biopsy had confirmed, he says, that the removed spot was basal cell skin cancer. The other two spots weren’t tested before they disappeared. Simpson seems to have concluded that since the spot removed was skin cancer, the other two spots were also cancerous.
From Rick’s Website:
My name is Rick Simpson. I have been providing people with instructions on how to make Hemp Oil medicines since 2004. The results have been nothing short of amazing. Throughout man’s history hemp has always been known as the most medicinal plant in the world. Even with this knowledge hemp has always been used as a political and religious football.
The current restrictions against hemp were put in place and maintained, not because hemp is evil or harmful, but for big money to make more big money, while we suffer and die needlessly. Look at a proposal such as this; if we were allowed to grow hemp in our back yards and cure our own illnesses, what do you think the reaction of the pharmaceutical industry would be to such a plan? Many large pharmaceutical companies that still exist today sold hemp based medicines in the 1800’s and early 1900’s. They knew then what I have recently found out. Hemp oil if produced properly is a cure-all that the pharmaceutical industry can’t patent.
I contacted the Liberals, the Conservatives and the New Democratic Party about this situation. I also provided them with evidence to backup what I was saying. No one lifted a finger, in most cases I was lucky to get a reply. I contacted the R.C.M.P. along with many other organizations and Public Interest TV shows, with little or no response.
Why are all these people trying to avoid such a simple truth? If I am in some way wrong in what I have been saying then I invite the system to come and prove it. I would be happy to put on a public demonstration of what this oil can do. That would answer this question for the Canadian public once and for all. It seems unbelievable that we have a law in Canada that will not allow us to cure our own diseases with a natural herbal remedy.
While much of the evidence for the effectiveness of Hemp is reports from patients and doctors, it is important to realize that this reporting leads to restrictions of drugs and their withdrawal from the market. Such was the case with doctors reporting the birth defects from Thalidomide and heart problems with the Fen-Phen combination of drugs. Further reports led to new uses for Thalidomide as a drug to treat leprosy rather than morning sickness. Anecdotal evidence (reports and observation by patients or doctors) usually indicates to a doctor that a treatment or drug should be altered, discontinued or changed.
In addition to the evidence, much research has been done and a list of a few of the researchers and their papers or publications is here. [Penicillin was approved for use with less experience and data than is available on the effectiveness of Hemp – only six patients].
The results of the cases can be readily replicated by any practitioner, medical or otherwise, anywhere, to cure malignant melanomas and more importantly, save lives. The topical application of hemp oil salves or balms helps to control or cure various skin conditions. Taken orally, the oil tends to seek out and destroy cancer cells in the body, but as with any drug, too much can cause side effects; most notable with hemp oil is drowsiness. Unlike opiates and their derivatives, hemp oil is not addictive.
For those who may find it incredible that the medical establishment would ignore or even disdain such research we remind the reader that the history of the medical establishment includes examples of mule-like stubbornness, incompetence, mediocrity, greed, arrogance, and stupidity. Consider the case of Dr. Ignas Semmelweis:
In 1847, Dr. Semmelweis, a respected Hungarian physician who was concerned about the high mortality rate of women giving birth in hospital, instituted a procedure at one hospital whereby doctors washed and disinfected their hands before delivering babies. Immediately, the mortality rate dropped from THIRTY percent to near zero. Seven other hospitals followed suit with similar results.
The European medical establishment recognized Dr. Semmelweis’s achievement by blocking his applications for further research funds, vilifying and ostracizing him, and, ultimately, causing him to lose his prestigious positions at maternity hospitals. In America, the newly formed American Medical Association added insult to injury by threatening to revoke the license of any doctor caught washing his hands. Dr. Semmelweis was so distressed that women continued to die that he suffered a mental breakdown that eventually led to his death in 1865.
Don’t expect a doctor working inside the system to buck the system. The risks are still too great!
The advice she or he offers you is controlled by the large medical industry that makes its money from expensive cancer fighting drugs and treatments. It is an industry that doesn’t look favorably on natural supplements or other cancer treatments that they cannot patent or make a large profit from. Years from now the current conventional cancer treatments used by doctors will on the whole be viewed in the same light that we view the old medical practice of blood letting to cure illnesses.
Find Rick Simpson and purchase a copy of his book here: phoenixtears.ca
Ideas worth returning to
Quotes
Five substantial excerpts from the published transcript, lightly edited for clarity without changing their meaning.
“After seeing what I believed were healing effects from cannabis extracts, I expected governments to investigate and legalize them quickly. Years later, policy was still moving slowly, although more countries and states had opened access. Personal observation can motivate research, but it should lead to rigorous testing rather than being treated as proof by itself.”
From the conversation“As states legalized medical and recreational cannabis, I argued that federal policy had suppressed promising cannabinoid research. Preclinical studies had reported effects on cancer cells, but laboratory findings are not the same as proving a treatment in people. The responsible response is transparent research capable of separating hope from efficacy.”
From the conversation“The Shafer Commission recommended decriminalizing cannabis, yet the Nixon administration rejected its conclusion and later intensified the war on drugs. That history illustrates how policy can remain detached from the findings of the very commission created to inform it.”
From the conversation“Citizens have more power when they speak together and demand evidence-based policy. Changing cannabis law requires public pressure, education, and political participation rather than waiting for authorities to reverse course on their own. Laws that create more harm than protection should be openly reviewed and repealed through democratic processes.”
From the conversation“I see war and drug policy as connected to powerful financial interests, though claims about who controls every conflict require evidence. What is undeniable is that soldiers and civilians bear the physical and psychological cost. Policy should be judged by those human consequences, not only by the institutions that profit or gain power from it.”
From the conversation
About the guest
Mr. Rick Simpson
Rick Simpson is a legend in the cannabis community and he has become a catalyst for the way we see marijuana as a medicine.
Beyond the conversation
Selected work
Official sites, books, research, and institutional pages verified for this guest.
The complete conversation
Transcript
Archival transcript · Published on the canonical episode page
This archival source does not include reliable passage timestamps or consistent speaker attribution. The wording and any labels below are preserved from the original transcript page; no speakers or timing have been inferred.
when jack setters i should check why you’re catching my name to this is Oil as well argue it simpson you are you jack there but that it all and then it just caught on from there and now my name is synonymous know… oil or rso and at noon that term is actually synonymous synonymous with the highest most medicinal know great benefits around great extracts possible know that the best of you all the best of cannabis medicine that’s what that term actually represents now and going now everyone is using it and i paid the finished years but by the beginning but that that term is almost become obsolete math you you’ve written a couple of warnings on your website about people selling it has rick rick
simpson will and the link it to you when in fact it’s not link to your you advise people to make the will themselves so has that been infuriating unit has that has that that meet malingering well-rounded very angry but that i mean there is little or nothing you can do about it is no placing of the internet ideally website that i’m connected with is my own website that phoenix tears.ca i do have my own official facebook page an immediate the internet you’ll see all kinds of pages about me and not connected with any of these people i have no affiliation with any foundation for drug companies know that so like i have connection with any of these people but getting although see what they’re
doing using my name to sell their substandard oils in many patients and acting on i hate it in a way because there are people there are some suppliers of their that are actually trying to supply these patients with the highest quality oils possible but for everyone you find like back you find 10 that are just trying to make money out because of this vital great extracts a very big prices and they even have enough statement of medications that are directly affiliated with me arrived i am working with them know this is nothing but lies and i’ve got all only told the public you know about this not have been able to supply oil since 2009 is since that time-traveling from country to countrythe
word about this and i can’t even stay in any one country long enough now to to robot so you know it’s impossible for me and it was never my intention to supply the world anyway my intention was just to show people and that’s what we did when i put up@thesears.ca website 2004 we told know that the type of cannabis you need to medicinal cd stated in the constraints know we told the dosage instructions we told how to make the oils through the extracts and then in 2008 we brought out brunswick you’re in the produced by christian rap best viewed by hundreds of millions now worldwide idea that documentary is a great deal of impact and but it just never happened i thought you know myself when i see
when i went is the healing power of these extracts with my own eyes i i thought like know the year two years of the moment they have to look into this and they have to legalize but here is Years later were still running around in circles although doors opening known in many different countries now and states are legalizing and medicinal use but trouble is that these governments are saying why not indicate that will matter cannabis moment they going around for decades going smoking people stations that never got a letter because anywhere know it’s a healing power of these extracts that are attracting all the attention and that’s the reason cannabis is now being legalized is only different
countries and i would say within the next year your have to years every state in america is no will be legal the third i believe there’s 23 states and washington dc itself they legalized recreational use along with the medicinal use so holiness back but it really was united states the united states government that for the most part that really were responsible because they can 1975 when the medical school in virginia study group that the cannabinoids like hc were actually killing cancer cells the american government had that study shot back in the journal when out all universities in the us that they been doing research and cannabis and confiscated much as much of this research as possible
and it back in the hands of the pharmaceutical industry guys is this is been a political blogging and i think actually richard nixon he was even worse i you he took power informed of what they call this the shape or commission get to the bottom in august cannabis issue was the shape or commission came back and told him legalize this plant once more entity to even consider this plant linear narcotic nation do it and took the second report he himself had ordered extra contrasting and that come years later started war on drugs and ultimately what focus on the cannabis plant the very same plan the shape or commission told him to make legal diming you talk about dissection so i reading this
proves the back the american government and it been hiding the truth from their own people and the rest of the world brother very years now arrange for the american government to meeting them unite i just you know it’s it’s it easy for a loss words that how much you know is involved to trick the american people worldwide actually having directly getting back to your story in your success with this it is there any single lesson through everything we’ve been through in everything that you had to endure is there any single thing that you’ve learned that you can save he that you learn that is that is carried with you well one of the main things i learned i be nice to put a lot of trust in
education is to put a lot of trust and researchers it on people like that because you know what these people is being experts all the experts were involved with cannabis research they know about the medical school in virginia study but you know they said very quietly took the research grants and it kept her mouth shut now at first i was very enraged with these people because you know why was it left the someone like me back to bring this to the public’s attention it should of been them but then i finally realized that know that been many instances where nobody people tried to do what’s right and they’ve stepped up in all and they been you know made it known to the public and minute they did
back then basically their careers were wrong and they were ostracized from their own professions elevated destroy the careers of these people so when you look at it that way you know it’s understandable but the the government said today i mean i’m not blaming the government said today the crimes to governments of in all the past have committed against us but for god sakes with the body of evidence is now exist know what you to use and hundreds of people with all of these document medical conditions suddenly well you know could be the cannabis extracts the basic need you they get the government say ignore that you ignored know we need more research we need more people in white coats know what
we need now is common sense and the common sense should very bring us together and make us stand as one can tell he’s been governments that we had more and other nonsense and if they’re not willing to represent is properly the goodbye 99 i done the same thing canada you can trust these political parties you know it could bring canada we had the liberals and conservatives the ndp green party losing the marijuana party and i have contacted most of these parties and corrupted way to the core doesn’t make any difference who gets elected same damping in the last know was debated republican doesn’t really matter because whoever goes in there is president these opportunities represent you properly
and i think people like george w bush and barack obama have pulled that i mean republican were approaching the end here but when what in your opinion can people do to help change the minds of the people in authority that are regulating the use of cannabis well you what people have to realize that that the real power in any country is united with one voice our governments we had this annual and demand that they know that they do the right thing and repeal all of these absurd laws trashcan what you love know those who are authority will have to start listening if enough of us do this and i honestly believe brother that if we don’t do this in the near future i mean our planet you know these
rich industrialist are poisoning our planet at such an alarming rate and act is compromising the in our immune systems because we were not designed to live in a pleasant environment so i mean i was look at it it is common sense we we have to stand we have to put a stop the industries that are killing the planet and basically all a all features that exist on this planet and we have to start using) we him know cannabis cannabis is the answer and you know jack areas wonderful documentary the emperor That was part of 1999 towards the end of that documentary jack care about any states she said i i don’t know what will save the world but i do know that cannabis is the only thing that can and no
truer words wherever smoking there spoken i mean you can produce over 50,000 different things from this plant today… applied it to put them into starvation is build a stage of some of the greatest roadrunner which is why energy needs we can we can make so many different products and we can convert these harmful industries that we have today and that-based industries and really what question we should be living in a him-based economy noticed minutes of fossil fuels know late always overlap the bigger the greenhouse effect you know co2 levels are going through the room is at the because were digging up also fuels the contain high levels of co2 which of been buried for hundred of thousands or
millions of years and then when we were a skills all last co2 is released into the environment but when you go cannabis as a fuel supplier anything when you go cannabis it takes in co2 and it gives off a share and then at the end of the psychoactive taken the seeds and everything,
and you turn it back you can turn it” people a very we may elect nowadays of these new enzyme processes they had you can produce as much as 1800 gallons of ethanol one little acre of him and that’s enough to run your car in general you have a few hundred gallons let the salad you wish to be energy independent know and as soon as they don’t want and think it with cannabis and especially with these extracts know what sometimes even the smoking aspect know people this market they start questioning this is another thing to governments afraid of because the question you know what’s holding this together know what’s wrong in our world and then all of a sudden we used are doing of these are doing a
little simple research on the internet like i did all you have to do is connect the dots and the picture becomes totally clear running they call people like needle conspiracy nuts and all at once undulate now brother it i feel sorry for anyone cannot see the same thing that i see any is one of the conspiracy governments are working against us i reading a control is working against us like is that the big-money rockefellers rothchild people like that they’re the ones were really running our earth and that one family the rothchild understand that one family is it it has actually actually as assets of over $500 billion the ring control the money on this planet is the show is in the government
interests and for the last 200 years this is a well-known back to the rothchild banking concerns and others have bonded every major conflict on this planet and they didn’t just one side they bonded both sides so all these soldiers undergoing off toward coming back with posttraumatic stress disorder or wounded or killed know having these people are suffering and dying for nothing fighting for these big industrialist so they can have the power is fighting are based in on right and wrong is just all based on money and i don’t think that’s a very good reason delusion like you paid i agree with you completely serve is there is everything that i could ask you tonight that i that i didn’t well
positioned tell the public i mean if you go to my website be steered.ca i do have two books available of sensors unique the steers the simpson story that my first book and and be steers rick simpson oil majors answer the cancer and are both available in on on my website in e-book versions and you can also get e-book versions through amazon amazon kindle and then i’ve been here a few months ago three months ago i actually get the first my first book in print so that’s also available on my website and you know it’s a funding from these books that allow we carry on with this crusade you know and i hope it’ll help on my research in the future so i know please support this cause naughtiness my
inbox all over the place on the internet for nothing you know i mean totally minutes after i put it out as an e-book that it was up on tour so you know these people are and what i do have a copyright on these books myself but these people have no regard to copyright laws in if you know encounter my books available in other places that you know that in all related being put there illegally sold on massey as you know please support what i’m doing in your like like establish unite and was do something rational worldview journey gone back in 2003 know a lot of people say all you know i was so brave to go ahead and do this knowing that the bottom line was when i seen the healing power of these
extracts three children myself and three grandchildren and i realized that in these extracts are not available my own children don’t really have a future and neither does anyone else it’s so that’s the reason i took on the struggle and dog fighting for everyone’s healthy like it will grow this plant especially for medicinal purposes but i think we should have the freedom years this planet anyway we choose because you know we we need to do like jack harris says no this plan everywhere and use it in every conceivable way to make a better and then we had our him-based economy and then we would wish when we start to be able to lead a sensible way of light i reached we appreciate your time serve
and we will deftly make all those links available when we post this and thanks much for being here really enjoyed brother and anytime you’d like me go back and talked to laura be more than happy to absolutely does the human experience and we will catch you guys next time
Independent conversations
Help make the next one possible.
Membership sustains ambitious, unhurried interviews and keeps the complete archive open to curious listeners everywhere.
Become a member

