Rick Simpson gives his news

Since his stroke in May 2018—which was made public in 2020—things have been quiet around Rick Simpson.

For many people, Rick Simpson is a hero because of his activism in the field of medical marijuana but above all for raising awareness of its method for extracting cannabis oil, also known as Rick Simpson Oil (RSO).

Earlier this week, he posted the video below, in which he updates viewers on his progress following his stroke.

Below is a translated transcript of his message:

«Hi everyone, I'm Rick Simpson. It's been a while since we've had time to shoot another music video, so I wanted to do one today to express my gratitude to those of you who have contributed to my GoFundMe campaign and also to those who supported me by buying a book to help me.

I recently heard a story—I think it’s from Ireland—about my death. Something about me and dying of cancer is ridiculous. As you can see, I’m not dead, and these rumors have been circulating on the Internet for years. For example, I was in Chile in 2014, and people thought I was dead, but as you can see, that’s not the case. It’s 2022 now, and I’m still here. For the past few years, I’ve been living here in Europe, in Croatia. But we recently received an email from a woman in the United States who said she had spoken to someone who had met me several times in Florida years ago while I was giving lectures there—and that’s not true. I’ve never given any lectures in the United States. The last time I was in the United States was around 1970 or 1971, so it’s been 50 years since I’ve been there.

I wanted to let you know that I don’t live in the United States, and right now there are a lot of people selling oil and using my name—they call it RSO, but it’s not RSO. Genuine Rick Simpson oil is made from the flowers of potent strains of Cannabis indica. That's what real oil is made of. It has nothing—or very little—to do with the CBD or anything else. But people are still using my name, you know, to sell their products. So I just wanted to warn the public that this is happening—so be very careful and don’t waste your money buying oil from others because you don’t know what you’re going to get.

I can’t supply the oil myself because here in Croatia, you’re still not allowed to grow your own plants, but I hope that will change in the near future. As you know, many countries are legalizing it now. For medical use, it’s desperately needed, so all we can do is wait for these governments to change their minds on this issue. We need this plant—and we need it desperately. So many people are suffering for no reason right now, and the medicinal properties of this plant can do a lot for people. I’m still recovering from my 2018 heart attack, but it’s been a long, slow process, and it’s very expensive—physical therapists and all that. All of that costs money, but I’m slowly getting better. I hope to get back to normal in the near future. I’ve been lucky in many ways because, I mean, a lot of people who suffer from strokes can’t even speak properly anymore. So, in some ways, I’ve been lucky. Although I still suffer from some paralysis, as I said, things are slowly getting better.

Most people around the world know my name and think I’m a rich man, but as you can see, that’s not the case. I live right here in an apartment in Zagreb, but there are other rumors that I live on an island here in Croatia. That’s not the case at all. I live in an apartment here in Zagreb, the capital. I’m not affiliated with any NGO or company that produces the extracts. I hope that one day I’ll be able to produce them myself again soon and make them widely available at a reasonable price. The cost people currently have to pay for cannabis oils is outrageous. If you grow the plant on a large scale, you could produce it at a very low cost, and that’s what this world needs—a medicine that works.»

Rick Simpson attended Cannabis Liberation Day in Amsterdam in 2016 and 2017

In 2016 and 2017, Rick attended the festival Cannabis Liberation Day organized by VOC Nederlands. Cannabis News Network captured the following footage.