When his cancer returned a couple of years ago he didn’t want to go through the ordeal again and turned to Simpson oil. “I’ve had my fair share of modern medicine at this time,” says McShane. “I started doing oil and after about 10 days I could see that it was doing something (to the tumors). The edges started breaking up and stuff.”

McShane applied the oil directly to the lesions on his skin. There is nothing visibly wrong with his skin at this time. He says, “I really got the success out of the oil, wiping away the cancer spots.”

Over the past several months McShane has stopped taking conventional medication for cancer and HIV. “The doctors told me I was going to die,” says McShane. “I’m not dead. I don’t feel bad. I look good. It’s a night and day difference. I’m just not paying attention to those guys.”

Like some other medical marijuana activists, McShane has taken to advising others in how to make and use the oil. A number of them are women with breast cancer, some of whom use the oil in concert with conventional therapies. In laboratories, cannabinoids have shown promise in at least keeping breast cancer from spreading to other areas.

This column is not advocating the use of cannabis rather than conventional therapy to treat cancer. Its intention is to describe how some people are choosing to use preparations of the plant to treat themselves. In the next column I will discuss some other preparations that people are using topically to treat various conditions.

Larry Gabriel is a musician, writer and former MT editor. Contact him at letters@metrotimes.com.

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