Above: right to left Brian McCullough, Cher Ford McCullough, Richard Rawlings, Heidi Drake and Ronnie Smith aka Roland A Duby, taken at Reefer Rumble in Cincinnati circa 2001
One of the all-stars of the cannabis counter culture, Ronnie Lee Smith ranks right up there with Rick Simpson, Jack Herer, and many others. Ronnie, at the age of 47 regretfully passed away in Colorado, on April 3rd 2014. The cause of death is said to be complications from leukaemia.
That’s why Ronnie’s case is particularly important. That’s because Ronnie died of a disease for which he has supposedly treated others in similar situations. Ronnie, with his rocket-scientist in-the-rough intellect, was as familiar to You Tube viewers as Rick Simpson.
I watched several of his videos months earlier. He was the go-to person when a patient needed help in either obtaining Rick Simpson Oil (RSO), or getting safe, reliable advice for their condition. He was also a professional comedian and a radio-show host. He was as compassionate as he was generous.
If you had a cancer and needed RSO, he would provide it at no charge. The true sign of selflessness is giving. He certainly gave and claims to have treated hundreds of patients over the years. He even ran for sheriff in 2010 in Gallatin County Kentucky; indicating that if elected, he would provide free, on demand, cannabis oil to anyone in the county who needed it.
Yet, everyone is asking the same question. If cannabis helps treat leukaemia, why did it fail to treat Ronnie, one of the most ardent supporters of health freedom using cannabis and other alternative strategies in America?
As we know, some families seem particularly prone to cancers of many types. In Ronnie’s family cancer was running wild; his brother Lester died of lymphoma in 2003, his mother died of brain cancer—metastatic from decades of smoking and the development of stage IV lung cancer—which had spread to her brain, three days after his brother died. A couple of years after that, his father died of prostate cancer. Had any of them tried cannabis oil? It did not appear to help, if they had tried it. Which is very disappointing to say the least. But I’m only guessing since there are no further details.
It would be of great benefit to know. I personally am trying to gather a database on the efficacy of marijuana in treating cancers but the existing data is so meagre and disorganized that, for the time being, I cannot make a determination. Those that make wild claims of treating cancers, especially those that actually run dispensaries or “clinics” like the ones located in the Bay Area of California, here in the US, are not willing to share their stories save for a few cases that end up on the internet. They say that they have treated hundreds of end stage cancer victims. If so, please provide the proof we need. Reveal these cases so that others may learn of these treatments. Being secretive does not help our cause.
Ronnie Lee Smith was born on August 20, 1966 at the old St. Elizabeth North Hospital in Covington, Kentucky.
Ronnie and Rick Simpson met around 2006. In 2007, Jack Herer enlisted Ronnie’s formidable brain in editing his now classic forthcoming book The Emperor Wears No Clothes. It was around this time when something odd happened.
After Jack and Ronnie became friends, Ronnie would help out making bubble hash with trimmings from Jack’s grow operation. It was then that Ronnie Lee Smith had discovered cancerous lumps “in between each knuckle”, and “a lump hanging out of my rear.” He next describes an astonishing event. Ronnie continues:
“While making the hash I would eat a spoonful on occasion, and I did that four or five times a day for a couple months. I noticed after a month that the lumps between my knuckles got softer and after 2 months, they were gone. Jack said that he wrote in his book about a college study where they killed cancer in rats with THC in the 70’s. His wife Googled the article and in the search, she found Rick Simpson and the story about the oil. This was 2006, and we called Rick, and Rick turned out to be a big fan of Jacks, so Jack had him on the Jack Herer TV show every week. Rick said he needed someone in America to make oil and I volunteered. He sent me referrals for 3 years before he got stuck in Europe. By 2010, I had cured over 200 people. I decided to run for Sheriff and make the cure available for free to anyone in my county. Ronnie Lee Smith co-starred in the hemp documentary about Jack Herer called [[The Emperor Wears No Clothes]], which was based on his popular book.”
At this point it appears that Ronnie’s leukaemia was in remission. From discovering the nodules between his knuckles in 2006 to the year 2010 he was doing great. By his own admission he had treated over 200 people by then.
Note, before we go any further, that Ronnie had initially used bubble hash which does not involve cooking or the use of heat. Therefore, Ronnie’s initial treatment stemmed from using the carboxylated (the acid) form of THC, CBD and the remaining cannabinoids. This is in sharp contrast to RSO which is a cooked formula and therefore de-carboxylated, and presumably the most powerful variation to take for medical conditions.
In other words, these are very different oils, yet they may possess similar powerful effects. There is continuing debate on the use of acidic forms such as fresh-squeezed marijuana and hashish (eaten) versus the decarboxylated RSO-type preparations. They both seem to have potent curative properties but many insist that cancers be treated with RSO analogues. Most of what I have written about involves RSO or RSO-like essential oils.
So what went wrong? Let’s examine what took place in the months preceding his premature demise.
On April 24, 2013, while driving through Yavapai County, Arizona, Ronnie was pulled over, searched, and arrested for possession of marijuana. The Arizona State Patrol found 2 ounces of marijuana in the trunk of Ronnie’s car, plus cannabis oil (Phoenix Tears AKA RSO). It was during a protracted jail sentence that he was not able to use RSO and this ultimately may have led to his death. Sometime between April and June of 2013, while Ronnie was in the Yavapai County Jail for over 3 months, the State of Arizona never allowed Ronnie to take his medical marijuana to prevent his leukaemia from regenerating.
On February 25, 2014, during a Bobby Pickles podcast, Ronnie Lee Smith explained how his cancer regenerated while he was in the Arizona jail. “I got arrested in Arizona and went to jail for my medical marijuana, which I told the cop was for cancer. So I was in jail for 3 months and developed hardcore leukaemia while I was in there, and then they had rushed me to Emergency Room and got me a [blood] transfusion. That was the only way I got out of jail, because they released me because I was dying and they didn’t want to pay the hospital bill.” … “They finally had to rush me to the hospital for a blood transfusion where they diagnosed me with leukaemia and said I would be dead in 2 weeks.”
As I have written previously some forms of leukaemia appear to be treatable using cannabis oil. The acute leukaemia being more difficult while the chronic forms and the paediatric leukaemia are the easiest to put into remission.
Do not underestimate the power of stress to induce illness or to reverse remissions in cancers. It’s the one problem that most people do not emphasize enough. Stress kills. Here’s a man with a deadly leukaemia which he had been able to keep in remission for at least six years. Now take away his medication and throw him into probably the unhealthiest, stressful, squalid condition possible and watch your cancer grow.
Prison food is notoriously unhealthy. Lacking in micro-nutrients, high in pesticide residues, high in sugars and carbohydrate—the preferred food for cancer cells to grow, and lacking in living nutrients. It’s not too much of a leap to suggest that three months of processed junk food contributed to decreasing his immunity. Add to that lack of sunlight exposure. Vitamin D is a potent anti-cancer hormone.
What I find astonishing is how law enforcement withheld his medication in a medical marijuana state. They knew that it could lead to a regrowth of his cancer and an early demise, yet did nothing.
Lastly there is some speculation that some of the last cannabis oil Ronnie took may have been tainted. Ronnie’s ex-wife presumably had some analysed but there is no further information.
Dr. Christopher Rasmussen MD,MS, an anesthesiologist with a Master’s degree in traditional Chinese medicine, is a professor, lecturer, seminar provider, and world authority on preventive medicine. For more information on preventive medicine see http://www.inflaNATION.com.
U.S. Marijuana Party 