Book Review: Phoenix Tears – The Rick Simpson Story

Many people have heard a variation of “marijuana can help cancer”, even if they’re not medical marijuana patients or even recreational users. Research scientists have been studying the possibility that something contained in the cannabis plant could work against cancer since the early 1970s. Easing the suffering of cancer and AIDS patients was much of the impetus behind the nation’s first medical marijuana law in California back in 1996.

But it was Rick Simpson, a plain-spoken man from Nova Scotia, Canada, who managed to almost single-handedly raise public consciousness to the idea that a simple homemade extract of cannabinoids might actually cure the dread disease. “Rick Simpson Oil” has become a familiar phrase among people knowledgeable in the cannabis world, and the method Rick Simpson uses to create his oil has become a model for many patients and researchers to work from. I’m not going to cover the oil, the controversy about it, or the results of its use in this particular article, because this is a book review of Rick’s autobiography Phoenix Tears (which is also the name of his website, http://PhoenixTears.ca).

Anyone who’s followed the work of Rick Simpson knows that he says exactly what’s on his mind, so it’s not surprising that, when given the opportunity to talk about his own life and experiences, he pulled no punches here either. He describes his early life growing up in a small mining town, and learning everything from boxing to engineering.

Simpson goes into great detail about some incidents, yet his first marriage is introduced and mostly summed up by a single sentence: “In the 1970s, I fathered three children, but my wife and I were having more and more trouble putting up with each other.” I’ve only seen this kind of writing in one other book, which was Chuck Yeager’s autobiography; Yeager is also an old school, no-nonsense-or-drama type of individual.

In any case, Simpson describes numerous important milestones on his way towards becoming the inadvertent activist he’s become: his first negative experiences with cannabis; his close cousin’s death from cancer at an early age; his reintroduction to cannabis; the neurological injury that ended his career; the day he came close to suicide and what finally stopped him; his discovery of the oil and how it helped him cure his own skin cancer.

And I’ve only summarized up to page 30 or so of this amazing 175+ page book! In the rest of it, you will see that Rick Simpson does not suffer fools gladly. He is not afraid to name names, dates, and details of the many people and organizations that have attempted to silence, discredit, and even scam him; some of these are well known to anyone even slightly involved in the cannabis movement.

However, don’t make the mistake of thinking that Phoenix Tears is about doom and gloom and bad-mouthing people. You’ll learn how Rick Simpson went from being laughed at, to persecuted by the police, and finally to an under-the-table supplier of his oil to the very same police and their families! You’ll hear firsthand how he made his medicinal oil available for hundreds of cancer patients; the stories of the people he saved; his work with Jack Herer; and plenty of hard-nosed philosophy from Simpson himself. And you’ll be disgusted at the way he’s been hounded out of his own country for the “crime” of saving people’s lives.

Phoenix Tears is a fascinating and eye-opening book that is a must-read for anyone interested in the politics of cannabis or who wants to help support Rick Simpson’s work. You can buy a copy of Phoenix Tears in PDF format directly from Rick’s site or as a Kindle book from Amazon.

Bonus: Here’s a recent video interview with Rick Simpson: