Guided by few questions of ours, in the first part Rick presented his story. The following text reveals his experience.

Reggae.hr: Is it sometimesstressful for you to do such an important job of informing public about the healing powers of hemp?
Rick Simpson: The work I have been doing, which concerns educating the public about the healing power of oils that can be produced from the cannabis hemp plant – sometimes it can get more frustrating than anything else I have ever been involved in!  But I am now on a mission and I want the world to know what this natural oil can do for our medical problems.  I have been doing this for over a decade now, and I have done hundreds of interviews and lectures about this subject.  I have also challenged governments and the medical system to prove me wrong! If the drug industry has anything more effective for any medical condition, show it to me! Show me your “miracle” drugs! Since no one has ever come forward to challenge my statements, I can only surmise that they do not exist! If you would like proof as to how effective this oil can be, then why don't we simply treat a small group of cancer patients, take six patients that want to go to the medical system and give me six patients who would like to be treated with the oil and let us find out once and for all, just who is telling the truth here. But our governments and the medical systems they control, do not want to go there, they just keep brushing the truth aside, as if it means nothing. But in the end they will all have to face the consequences of the crimes they have committed. For when the public finds out the truth about what has been done to them, there will be no place for these criminals to hide. What governments have done in the past in regards to this plant’s medicinal use and have continued to do up to the present time, almostdefies description. This is the reason it is so hard for many of us to comprehend why our trusted politicians, would behave in such a manner. But the facts speak for themselves and they prove that most of those who represent us, are nothing more than criminals of the first order, whose only concern is to please the mega rich, who are truly running the show.  When I discovered this plant’s true healing abilities, I went to government officials in Canada, since they had always told us that they were looking for a cure for cancer and many other serious conditions. In addition, we were always told that the medical system was interested in finding effective medicines, which could prevent many diseases from ever occurring. Since these oils could do all this and more, I contacted all the different political parties to make them aware of what I had discovered. I also made this information known to the news media, the Canadian Cancer Society and we even went to the United Nations, but none of them would do a thing. And that is when I started to see the world we live in, for what it is and how just a few mega rich families are controlling everything. These rich psychopaths have been running our lives forever and the simple truth is that due to their financial concerns, these individuals have been trying to irradiate the growing and use of this plant for a very long time. They were finally able to accomplish this in the early nineteen hundreds, with a little help from those they had purchased in political circles and elsewhere and they then used the term marihuana, a Mexican slang word for cannabis, to discredit its growing and use.  They told us that it was the most dangerous and deadly drug on earth and that it needed to be outlawed, because it presented such a danger! The real reason cannabis was restricted in the first place, hinged on the fact that it presented a huge threat to the pharmaceutical industry, the oil companies, the cotton industry and other powerful big money concerns. Due to this plant’s ability, to compete against industries that could turn huge profits for the rich elite, they wanted hemp gone! Well, they got their way... Big money goes in and buys the governments, who in turn put these absurd laws in place against this plant’s use and in addition they also happen to control the legal and medical systems. Considering the methods they employed in this deception, is it any wonder that it was so easy for them to deceive us all, into going along with their insanity? This happened in Canada in 1923 – 91 years ago,they outlawed the medicinal use of cannabis to the Canadian people. They took the most medicinal plant on earth out of medicine. They denied its use to those who were in need of its healing powers. Who has that right? This plant was used by the greatest healers in history, and cannabis was in medicinal use for thousands of years, before the time of Jesus Christ.  So who gave these clowns the right to restrict it from the public, do you think that god may have given them the right to commit such a travesty, when it is supposed to be god who gave us this plant to use, I strongly doubt it. Here I would also like to add that religion is again just another form of control and it too, has played a dreadful role in keeping the truth about this plant hidden.

Reggae.hr: Can you tell me a bit more about the injustice that was happening during the trials?
Rick Simpson: I went through a Charter challenge first before we even had a court case... In Canada we have the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and in that Charter it says that we, as Canadians, all have the right to life. Well, if I have the right to life as the charter states, then these people in the legal profession, who were persecuting me, had no right to tell me that I cannot use this oil as a medicine! I went through the Charter challenge and even my lawyer told the judge that this was no joke and that I really did have all the evidence required, to back my position. Even though what I was stating about the oil was true, they did not seem to take this seriously, and the judge said that all those affidavits from 48 different people were anecdotal and did not mean a thing. He also said that I did not present any life threatening conditions. Well, I cured my own cancer and I had my pathology report as proof, right there in the courtroom! So, this judge was telling me that cancer was not life threatening! And then he turned around and stated the same thing about the other condition I suffer from. When I was injured, I had hit my head and as a consequence I was left with post-concussion syndrome. Most people cannot live with what I have. They commit suicide, because they cannot live with all that noise inside their heads. The noise drives them crazy! I would have wound up dead, too... But the oil makes it so I can live with this condition - it keeps my life in balance. When I went to doctors; I asked them for prescriptions, so I could use this medication legally. The only answer I got was that this plant’s medicinal use was still under study. How long do we have to study a plant? This is man's oldest known and safest medication and yet doctors were telling me it was still under study? We have to ask ourselves who is lying here and for what reason! It would be different if cannabis presented a danger to the public. If it was addictive, deadly or harmful in any way, then OK, they should uphold these laws! But cannabis presents no threat to anyone’s health, so why do these laws exist? Until just a few decades ago, there was no law against people smoking cannabis, or using it in whatever way they liked. Nobody cared and there was never a problem! So it is obvious to me that some very powerful people did all this, to suit their own agendas and what they have done has had a detrimental effect on our earth and all living creatures since that time! They have created this myth: by using propaganda films like Reefer Madness in the 1930s, to scare parents into believing that if their children smoked a joint, it would lead to their downfall. Of course, we all know now that this is ridiculous, cannabis has never harmed anyone. So, why are we still living with this assumption that cannabis presents a danger in some way, when there is no proof to that effect?

Reggae.hr: Can you describe how you started using cannabis for medical purposes?
Rick Simpson: I had smoked cannabis before, but I did not look at it as a medicine until about a year after I was injured. When I smoked some marihuana for my medical issues, I realized it was doing more for me than the medications the doctors were giving me. I went right back to the medical system and told them I wanted a prescription. We have the Marihuana Access Program in Canada, but under their program my condition was not covered - “It is not a recognized treatment for post-concussion syndrome.” was the excuse they gave me, or at least that was what I was told. The medical system was putting me on one medication after another, I was taking all these pills but my condition continued to deteriorate and it got to the point that I was having trouble, just trying to remember my own name. My condition was going downhill rapidly and all these substances they were giving me, were just adding to my problems, plus these medications were all addictive in nature. I remember one time they had me on 60 ml of Paxil every day. You do not start at 60 ml; you work your way up from 10 – 20 ml and so on, because it is a substance that takes some getting used to. I was on this drug for about three months, then the doctor called one day and asked me how I was making out with Paxil. I answered that its effects were horrible, so he simply told me to stop taking this drug, even though by this time he knew that I would have become addicted, to this substance he had prescribed. I was not scheduled to visit his office until about three weeks later and I had nothing else to take its place other than cannabis and I was very lucky that I did. When I went off Paxil, I did not understand what was happening,buteven just smoking cannabis made the withdrawal symptoms much easier to deal with. Then in 1999 I was in my doctor’s office again and by this time I was really getting desperate. I realized that smoking cannabis was giving me more sleep than anything that they gave me. But still, I was getting little rest with all the noise that I was experiencing in my head.  Since my condition would not allow me to sleep properly, I would pass out for an hour or an hour and half, and then the noise would wake me up again. I just could not get enough sleep. When I was at his office, I asked my doctor what he would think, if I produced some oil from the cannabis plant and ingested it as opposed to smoking it. The doctor got a funny look on his face and all he would say was that it would be a much more medicinal way to use the plant. So, I produced the oil using my own method, but I am ashamed to say I did not start taking it right then. I have to admit that I was afraid to ingest the oil, because I did not know what it would do and other than being sedative, I had no idea what other effects it might have. I knew it was a concentrate, but could it kill me or do me harm? I simply did not know. In 2001 I was called to the doctor’s office, and my doctor informed me that there was nothing further he could do to help me. They had tried everything they had at their disposal and nothing had worked, so I was now on my own. I asked again to be given a prescription for cannabis, but as usual my doctor refused my request. I am sure he knew that the only thing which had helped me was cannabis and he also knew that if I was caught using cannabis that I would be branded a criminal, even though I required its use as a medicine. So, having nowhere else to turn, I went home and decided to start using the oil.

Reggae.hr: Can you tell us something about what this oil did for you?
Rick Simpson: Within a month, I was taking a dose at night which equaled a quarter of a ml/g of oil and this caused a radical change in my condition. Suddenly instead of passing out for an hour I was getting a solid 8 – 9 hours of sleep, my arthritis disappeared, my thinking process cleared from the chemicals the medical system had given me, and my blood pressure went down to normal levels. The oil was doing so many things for my medical issues that it was almost unbelievable. But, one of the things it was doing concerned me, because my appetite for food had decreased. That really scared me, because I started to lose a great deal of weight. But when I got down to 155 – 160 pounds (70 – 73 kg) all of a sudden my weight loss came to a halt. It was almost as if the oil knew how much I should weigh, because for a man of my height I was now at about the right weight and to this day I remain the same. This discovery kind of blew my mind. But even if I was feeling great, I had to continue ingesting the oil, to help keep my medical issues under control. About a year afterwards, in late 2002, I had to see my doctor about three lesions I had been suffering from for years that would not heal. I had always suspected that they were probably skin cancers, so I visited my doctor’s office to get his opinion. The doctor also thought that it was skin cancer, so he arranged to have the lesion which was close to my right eye removed first and they were going to remove the other two lesions at a later date. About a week after the surgery had been performed, I was examining the area they had operated on, when suddenly I remembered a report I had heard almost 30 years ago on our local radio station CKDH in Amherst. When I had heard the report, the announcer was laughing like a fool, but he had stated that THC - the active ingredient in marihuana, had been found to kill cancer cells. And even though I thought the report I had heard was a hoax at the time, for some reason I remembered what he had stated.

The oil I was ingesting had a very high THC content, so I decided to apply it to the other two lesions and then cover them with bandages. I left the bandages in place for four days and when I removed them, the lesions were completely healed and this came as a great shock to me. Afterwards I told friends what I had done, but no one would believe that oil from the cannabis plant, had healed my cancer. Within seven weeks, the lesion which had been surgically removed returned and in a few days, it became clear to me that the cancer was back. So I applied oil and a bandage and four days later this lesion was also completely healed as well and all three lesions have remained so, to the present day.

I then went to my doctor’s office to get a copy of my pathology report, which stated that it was basal cell carcinoma that they had surgically removed. I now had proof that it was cancer which I had been suffering from, so I asked the receptionist if I could come back in the evening to discuss something I had been working on with the doctor. The receptionist asked what this was all about, so I told her that the cancer which had been surgically removed had returned and I had used hemp oil, to heal this and the other two lesions as well.  Suddenly she became angry; she stated loudly that the doctor would not go there and that the doctor would not prescribe this. Her behavior towards my request shocked me and on the way home that day, I thought if I was a doctor and a patient of mine had cured their cancer with something natural, I would certainly want to know all about it. Something did not seem right about all this and in the months to come, it became clear to me that our medical systems are little more than a fraud.

Reggae.hr: How did you start treating other people with the oil?
Rick Simpson: My mother had a weeping psoriasis on her lower leg and foot, so I decided to supply her with the oil to treat the condition topically; in no time she was healed. Then friends started to use the oil to treat all different types of skin conditions and the results were stunning. It was even taking scar tissue away that had been there for years and it seemed to make those who mixed it with skin creams look much younger. Then in 2004 I began to supply oil to patients who were suffering from serious internal conditions like cancer. The results were beyond belief, this simple oil was healing or controlling every condition it came into contact with.This oil has proved to be so effective on all the different conditions that I have encountered over the years that there is no medical condition I know of, which the oil does not have a positive effect upon. Eye problems, severe burns, chronic pain, aids, MS, cancer, etc. – you name it and I doubt you will ever find anything that will treat these conditions more effectively.

Reggae.hr: In your book “Phoenix Tears: The Rick Simpson Story” lays a pretty detailed description of how much stress police forces, and the system generally, have caused you. I think you have been really through a lot with them! Here I would stress out the similar situation in Croatia as well - I have heard of and been a witness to countless irregularities here, too. During your trial, some of your personal rights were violated - they denied you the right to call your patients as witnesses to give testimony about what you were really doing?
Rick Simpson: In 2005. I planted 1620 plants in my backyard and I even told the police that they were there, months before I was raided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). I had informed them that these plants were being grown for medicinal purposes, but three months later the police came and raided my property – they took the plants that I intended to produce the oil from. I was charged with cultivation, trafficking and possession even though I was giving the oil to patients free of charge. By definition, trafficking means the exchange of goods for monetary gain, but I made no profit. So how could I be guilty of trafficking? As far the charges of possession and cultivation, how could I possibly provide this medication, unless I grew and possessed the plants required to produce it? All these charges were nothing more than legal double talk and when I came before the legal system, I told them that this issue did not belong in a court of law.I then went on to have my case dealt with in the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia and I had chosen to have a jury decide my fate. I had already provided videotaped evidence to the news media, the legal system and the police, but the judge put a publication ban in place, to protect the truth from coming out, even though I was later to find out that he had no right to do this without my consent. I was truly discouraged by what was taking place, but with no formal training in law, I was left at the mercy of our corrupted legal system.

In 2006. before my case came to trial, I planted another 1100 clones in my backyard, but the police came again and confiscated my crop, although this time they did not lay charges. When my case came to trial in September 2007. I had brought in 10 patients and 6 doctors to testify, plus I had gathered all the scientific evidence that should have been needed to back my position. The prosecutors involved in my case, first put some of the officers on the stand who had taken part in the raid which was conducted on my property. They sat on the stand and told the jury their version of why I was now being tried on these charges. I have to admit that they put on quite a show, but when I cross-examined them, they all ended up testifying on my behalf. I had gone to our local newspaper a year before I was ever charged and they had done a full page article, which detailed my activities. So I asked each of these officers if they had ever heard of a criminal that was breaking the law, who would do such a thing. They all had to admit that a person, who was committing real crimes, would never consider making it public knowledge in a newspaper, as to what they were doing. I then asked them about the videotaped evidence I had provided three months before I was charged. All the officers stated that they knew about this evidence, but that they had never viewed it. My next question was, if it was a common practice for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to ignore evidence they had been presented with, but they all just sat there with a stupid look on their faces and refused to answer. If the judge had been doing his job properly, he would have forced these officers to reply to my question, but he made no attempt to do so.

Then it was my turn to present my case, so the judge asked me how I intended to proceed. I told him I was going to put the patients on the stand first. Then I intended to put their doctors on the stand, because then it would be impossible for the doctors to hide the truth, but the judge would not allow this to happen. Their testimony would have proven to the world that indeed we do have a very effective medication, for the treatment of cancer and just about every other medical problem you can name. In addition, the judge then informed me that I could not introduce the scientific evidence I had gathered, because the researchers who had published these papers, were not present in the courtroom. So to this I replied, then this case cannot proceedeither, because those who had put these absurd laws in place, were also not in the courtroom. The judge paid no attention to what I had said. During my trial, some of the statements which were made by the prosecutors and judge completely enraged me, and I could not remain silent. At one point the judge said: “Mr. Simpson, you should not take what is being said personally.”. I replied that due to the raids the police had conducted in 2005. and 2006. thousands of people did not obtain the medication they required from me, to ease their suffering and this had brought about the death of many who should have lived. Do I take this personally? You're damn right I do! Even though the court system never allowed me to introduce the evidence, which would have caused my charges to be dismissed, I was still sure that it would be impossible for the jury to find me guilty of any wrongdoing, because I had treated family members of some of those who had sat on the jury.

So, when the jury came back with their verdict, I was shocked when they had found me guilty of all three charges. I instantly told the judge that he had better lock me up right then, because I intended to go on treating patients until I was sentenced. Even though I had made the judge aware of this, he never instructed me to stop what I was doing. I could not imagine how this jury could have found me guilty of anything, but the very next day I became aware of how this had occurred – a lady who had been present in the court that day, informed me that she had seen the crown prosecutor Dough Shatford leave the jury room, just minutes before the jury rendered my verdict. Then it all began to make sense, the crown prosecutor had tempered with my jury, in an effort to insure that I would be found guilty. All this was reported to the judge and although they could not disprove what this lady had witnessed, the legal system refused to do anything about it. Judge then went on to state that in his 34 years in the legal system, he had never seen a case like this, for there was no criminal intent. I could have been sent to prison for 12 years over the charges I had been convicted of, but in the end the judge gave me a 2000 dollar fine and I was not even put on probation. Some would say that I had been let of easy by the legal system, but since I had been given a criminal record, in the eyes of the public I was now nothing more than a criminal, who had been brought to justice. What a sad statement for the civilization we have created! For in truth, the individuals, who have given me this criminal record, were the ones who were guilty of crimes themselves.

Reggae.hr: What happened after the end of the trial?
Rick Simpson: As you can well imagine, I was now totally disillusioned with the country in which I had lived all my life. To me, even the word Canada was now a joke, so I began to look for other countries, where I might go to find some peace, which would allow me to get on with my research unhindered. But the patients kept coming, so I abandoned my search for a better country in which to live and for the next two years the police did not interfere with my work. We had released our documentary “Run from the cure” just before my sentencing and this had focused a lot of attention on the information we had provided on our website. In the summer of 2009., I was invited to come to the Czech Republic to do a speaking tour with Dr. LumirHanush, who is regarded as one of the top experts in the field of cannabis research. We did the tour in October 2009. and it was very successful. After the tour, I returned to Canada to deal with all the patients who had been waiting for me. I only had three weeks to accomplish all this, because I had been invited to return to Europe, so I could put on a lecture at the Cannabis Cup in Amsterdam. I was also informed that while attending the Cannabis Cup, they intended to give me the Freedom Fighter of the Year award. I was to be presented with this honor, on the last day of the event, but the day before this was to take place, I received a call from my son telling me that the police had just staged another raid on my property. Later I received a word that the police had found 70 pounds (around 30 kg) of cannabis in my home and they also had found restricted weapons and booby-traps. I knew all of this was nothing more than nonsense and that the police were simply trying to set me up, at the government’s request. So, even though I had little money to live on, I decided to remain in Europe, rather than go home and face the corruption of the Canadian legal system again.

Looking back on all this now, I think that stranding me in Europe was one of the dumbest things the Canadian government ever did. For when I arrived in Europe in 2009, people here had little knowledge about the healing powers of the cannabis hemp plant.  With the help of friends and supporters, I then traveled from country to country spreading the truth and as time went on more and more people became aware of what was truly going on and my name became much more widely known everywhere.

In May 2012., the legal system in Canada withdrew the charges they were trying to bring against me. So in the summer of 2012. I returned to Canada for about six weeks and no one came near me. It appears they had finally realized that attacking me, would only bring more attention to the cause I was fighting for, so the authorities in Canada decided that I should be left alone. I had been asked to speak at the World Hemp Congress, which was being held in Slovenia, so I returned to Europe to attend this event in August 2012. After the World Hemp Congress was over I returned to Croatia and with some help from Max Igan, we were able to do two more lectures in Croatia, which had a very positive effect. During the years I had spent traveling, I was able to write a book about my experiences and in July 2012. it was finally released in the form of an e-book that we made available on our website. Now at last, the public would learn the truth and I was aware of the fact that in a short time everything would change, concerning this plant’s medicinal use. By the time I returned to Canada again in November 2012., we had put together a second book on this subject and in the summer of 2013. we released it as an e-book on our website. Thus far both e-books have been well received and now I have the resources to finally bring them to print and I am sure that their contents will have a very big impact on the future of us all. I recentlyspent eleven and half months in Canada and I became aware of the fact that I was no longer comfortable in my own country. I can honestly say that now I am no longer proud to call myself a Canadian and at present I am looking for another country to call home. On November first 2013., I again returned to Europe and after the time I just spent in Canada, I must say that I find just being here, where people are not so brain washed about this subject, to be very refreshing.