Episode 498: The Man Who Replaced 1100mg of Oxycontin with Cannabis

Welcome to Cannabis Health Radio, where we share powerful real-life stories from people around the world who are using cannabis as medicine. The goal of this podcast is to raise awareness of the healing potential of cannabis and is not intended as medical advice. And now, here's your host, Ian Jessop.

Welcome to the Cannabis Health Radio podcast. I'm Ian Jessop. A big thank you to Swan Apothecary for supporting Cannabis Health Radio and helping make episodes like this possible. Swan Apothecary isn't just about selling cannabis. They're committed to creating safe, lab-tested products that truly support your wellness. From tinctures and oils to topicals and capsules. Every product is carefully formulated for consistency, potency, and effectiveness. Not sure which product is right for you? Reach out to Swan Apothecary directly. Their knowledgeable team can guide you based on your goals, whether it's easing pain, improving sleep, or supporting overall wellness. To explore their products, go to cannabishealtheradio.com. And use the code cannabishealth to receive 15% off. Our thanks again to Spawn Apothecary because how it's made matters. Our guest today is a man one of his doctors referred to as Patient Zero after he became one of the earliest known pain patients to replace extremely high-dose opioid therapy with medical cannabis more than two decades ago. His journey began with a devastating workplace injury in 1992 that led to multiple spinal surgeries, hardware implantation, and ongoing degenerative disc issues. At one point, he was prescribed over 1,100 milligrams of OxyContin daily, along with a range of other medications. And joining us from California to tell his remarkable story is John Prince. John, thanks for doing this. I greatly appreciate it.

Yeah, you're welcome. How's it going?

Great. John, let's go back to the beginning and tell us about your workplace accident in 1992.

I was working at a paper mill called Simpson Paper in Anderson, California, and I— an operator relief— my operator actually had me— we had to lift this paper instead of rolling it back in the rolls and actually lifting it with the forklift. He was in a hurry, so we lifted it and he dropped his end. It was about 350 pounds. And it popped my back. I was only 31 years old. Went to a doctor in Redding, California. I listened to the insurance company and he almost paralyzed me. I went crooked. And then I had to go down to the Bay Area and I've been— I've had 5 back surgeries with Joe Montana surgeons to try to fix me. So That's what happened at work. I was really blessed to have an insurance company called Liberty Mutual. And so I've saved them the last 23, 24 years over $2 million by stopping OxyContin and Roxycodone and 13 other prescription drugs they never have to pay for.

John, the information you sent me, there's a little picture of you at the bottom and your spinal cord almost looks like it's bent.

Yeah, yeah. So what you got is the picture of me being crooked and then the picture of my MRI that's showing you the inside of my back. And they, they did what you call a 360 turnaround. They took 3 discs out of my lower back, they went through my stomach, they put plugs where my disc used to be. But I have 5 levels above that that are messed up and they're pinching into my spinal cord. And, uh, it's, uh It's, it's, uh, what they call a spinal cord injury patient.

Jesus, that looks, uh, it looks absolutely horrific when I take a look at it.

Well, if I— my one— if my medical story doesn't prove that cannabis can be used for pain, I, I don't know any out there. But I actually convinced United States Senator Dianne Feinstein to take OxyContin off the market because she started, uh, supporting my medical marijuana when I started writing her in 2009. Mm-hmm.

Now, what, uh, when you were undergoing treatment, what did the doctors tell you about your condition?

Well, what I had was, from Reading, I went down to a surgeon named Dr. Arthur White. He operated on Joe Montana in '89. I didn't know this, uh, but he had to do 4 surgeries to try to fix what the doctor in Redding did. And then they gave me a pain management doctor. I later on found out that he was a psychiatrist named Dr. Michael H. Moskowitz. And I have a DDS because I lost 20 teeth from OxyContin, and my work comp, Liberty Mutual, has paid, I don't know, half a million dollars in 14 implants so far.

Now, what was life like for you when you, after your accident?

Just like any other pain patient, you follow the doctors, you, you listen to everyone. Well, in 1996, my Dr. Moskowitz, he, he gave me a prescription, well, recommendation for marijuana for depression. He sent me down to the first dispensary in San Francisco owned by Dennis Perrone, the Godfather of medical marijuana. It was called the Cannabis Buyers Club. And so I used from 1996 in California marijuana for depression, but then it all changed when I found a book in Haight-Ashbury from a professor named Dr. Grinspoon, and the book is called Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine. And I learned in that book that pharmaceutical heroin was replaced in 1914 with cannabis. So I had to ask myself, was I a heroin addict on opiates? And the answer was yes. I just didn't know my government legalized heroin by changing the name from heroin to OxyContin. So I, I think I sent you— if I didn't send you this, this other information— see, what, what I did was I took the Harvard professor's book And then I, I educated my Dr. Moskowitz, my pain doctor, and, and for years he would tell me, I'm not going to lose my practice over one patient. And but he did write in my medical papers, and, uh, that's what started it all. Dr. Grinspoon's book, Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine. I mean, who knew OxyContin was just legal heroin with a different name.

You know, at, uh, at the peak, you say that you were taking 1,100 milligrams a day, and, uh, I had no idea how much that was, so I had to Google it and found out that the average is usually between 20 and 40 milligrams, but you were taking 1,100.

This is back in 2004 when there was no opioid epidemic, 2005, before our federal government in America even knew about this opioid epidemic. So all the doctors were prescribing all patients this. What they wanted to do was do a morphine pump on me. I did what they call a spinal cord, uh, a spinal cord stimulator trial where they put this electrode into your spine right next to your spinal cord, and I— that was misery. But then they wanted to do a morphine pump, and when I decided not to do a morphine pump, then I had to start looking at— because I had family members You got to remember, back in 2000, 2001, 2002, I had brothers that were saying, John, you're, you're an opiate addict. And I would disagree with them. But it wasn't until I found Dr. Grinspoon's book, Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine, that made me look at my own case and go, wait, wait, wait, wait, was I? And guess what? I was. So I went through the withdrawals. And the way Dr. Michael Moskowitz found out I was off of his OxyContin is when he got a phone call. I was sitting in the Oregon jail for getting arrested with 5 pounds of marijuana, an ounce of hash. So this is when I found an advocate, a federal patient named LV Musica. And LV and another doctor, Todd Miccaria, basically were going to be a witness in my case. They dropped the case. And this is when Dr. Moskowitz found out I replaced all of his pills with one plant. And so it— he— I have since 2005 to 2021, every month, Dr. Moskowitz writing in my medical papers what I use for pain control over the opiates. And so it's his papers I use to educate other people because my medical papers of 34 years are mine to use. And believe it or not, Social Security in America, Medicare in America, they're okay with me using medical marijuana in lieu of opiates. They put it in my medical papers.

John, what was it like for you to transition off opioids?

It was hell. It took me about a year and a half to go through withdrawal. I didn't— I make a medicine now I call FusioTema. It's strong. It's about 2,400 milligrams if I take 4 tablespoons, um, twice a day, and that's THCA and THC. So I, I, I smoked it. I, I didn't know about edibles then. I started then making butter, but then I moved to olive oil, and instead of eating baked goods, I started drinking it just straight so I could get the milligrams in me. So I had My medicine tested at Steep Hill Labs back in 2016. 1 tablespoon of my olive oil fuchsia tincture is 300mg of THC and THCA.

So, and you had that twice a day?

I use that all the time anticipating different things. And so the last— I'll tell you what I did June 25th, 2025. I had my six-pack surgery in UC Davis in San Francisco. UCSF. UCSF. My doctor allowed me to drink my Fusiatima 4 days after surgery. I didn't have no opiates after surgery. I drank my formula. I told them I'm bringing it in. I had it in a safe. I administered it myself. And I also made these THCA pills, which is basically hashish pills, and I made about 300 of those. So I, in a 4-day period, I don't know, I was on thousands of milligrams of cannabis, but no opiates. And I proved to my doctor that this medicine, uh, is worthy. It's— I mean, I can use it after surgery now. That's huge.

What did the doctors think?

My surgeon said I needed to patent it, but you know, we can't patent it. America already has a patent on it.

Yeah, it's, uh, interesting how, uh, once they see how something works, uh, they become interested in it. At least some doctors do anyway.

No, no, no, listen, you gotta understand something. Dr. Michael H. Moskowitz, he wrote a book medical cannabis. He was the best psychiatrist. He was a professor at UC Davis for psychiatry and pain. And so in 2007, I can say this now legally, I can say it. In 2007, I found out my Dr. Moskowitz also had a messed up neck. Well, he was on opiates, and I educated him why he gave me the name, and he signed his book Patient Zero is because I taught him the power of this plant. He probably went to dispensaries. He learned how to use his own, and he got off of his own pills. So it blows my mind my doctor was able to prescribe me OxyContin, and yet he was on opiates himself. So if you watch a movie called Dopesick with Michael Keaton, I lived that, and a lot of American patients live that. And so My doctor Moskowitz, my surgeon today, and all of my doctors, they know and they knew who he was. He retired because he got tired of the DEA and he got tired of, of people not listening. Since 2021, he retired because it's hard to get opiate patients on board with cannabis. And it's, it's the craziest thing. Nobody believes it works for pain, not even Marijuana advocates will say that cannabis can replace your opiates. It's crazy. It's frustrating.

So, you know, the pre— I want to tell you, John, the previous interview we did with a woman in Oregon who suffered an injury similar to yours, she had a a misplaced disc, and she underwent an operation for the spinal cord stimulator. Uh, it was successful, but she's letting that wear down because cannabis relieves her pain and, and got her off all her pharmaceuticals. So there's, there's some similarities there between what you're talking about and her issue as well.

Now wait a minute, let me back it up. In 1992, when I got hurt, from '92 to 1996, there were no OxyContin. There was no long-acting opiate. All there was is morphine pumps and spinal cord stimulators and the barbaric medical stuff that they do. And so OxyContin went away in 2011 when I started telling Feinstein to take that drug away. She started using the DEA, and Congress took that drug away from all the doctors. By 2015, pain patients lost their opiates, and they don't understand why. They think the doctors took it from them. Just like after June 29th, when the DEA says to everyone in America, if you own a marijuana store, you got to close down. That's how powerful they are. And they closed OxyContin down And so the patients had to get down off of their opiates, not because they wanted to, because they had to. They were forced to. And this is why fentanyl is so everywhere on the streets, because we have a lot of addicts that won't go to cannabis unless they're forced to. And how are they going to get forced to? Believe it or not, President Trump signed executive order making marijuana a Schedule 3 drug. And that's because he's listening to some of us advocates like Bobby Kennedy. He's listening to my medical papers. And so if we got 9 United States— we got 9 pharmaceutical companies that have patents on the cannabis plant, who has won? People haven't seen it yet. The doctors have lost their opiates, so they've lost their practice. They need to bring the replacement to help all of the healthcare system in America, and that's going to happen And believe me, Jazz Pharmaceutical, they have 105 patents. Pfizer has 25. Bristol-Myers and Squab in Chicago, they got like 36. And so who made a deal with the drug companies the next day after he signed executive order changing marijuana to Schedule 3? Trump made a deal with the damn pharmaceutical companies. And so I don't care, uh, how it gets there because there's pain patients like that lady and like other people that will only go if it comes to the doctor and the doctor whispers to them and says, hey, this fuchsia tea will help you. And so it doesn't matter how it gets there. I'm an advocate that lives in a county that doesn't make any money off of this plant. I live on my Social Security. I'm blessed to have my garden. I live in a county that supports me. And, uh, you know, it's all changing. And so 10 years ago, California used to have— and they moved to adult use. They completely forgot about patients, and they thought that they won. Well, right now it doesn't look that way. And so there is no such thing as the industry. There's patients And there's a medicine, and how we get it, that's on everyone else. See, California has the best state law for patients. Why? Because we get to grow it. You can't grow it in Florida. You can't grow it in a lot of these states because ASA normal never wanted that. They didn't want that. They want the stores to sell it to you and they can control it. Well, it sounds like they're in control, right? So who are these people? Are they possibly the undercover DEA in this big-ass movement? Because Jack Hare, he said don't tax a damn dime. Dennis Perón, he believed it's all medicine. And those two guys, they had to die first before what we got today. And so I don't know what else to say to you other than America looks great for patients because the opiate patients have lost And there's gonna come a day where we get cannabis medicine prescribed to us.

John, where, where do you think you'd be today if it wasn't for cannabis?

I'd be dead. Hmm. The opioids would have never went away. I would be dead.

Yeah, because you were just taking an astronomical amount.

No, everybody was. Everybody was. And this is— I, Ivan, this is what no one understands. Do you hear about the opioid epidemic in America? But nobody says who—

I know, John, but we're talking about your story. We're not talking about everyone else.

Yeah, everyone else, but it was all funded. I didn't have to pay a dime for my drugs. Right now there's 6 states in America— I got hurt at work, so my insurance company is what you call work comp. Liberty Mutual Insurance is funding 6 states. 6 states get to have reimbursement for their marijuana. They can go into a store, they can pay for it, they get reimbursed by their insurance. Uh, California doesn't have that, and these other states don't have it because nobody has moved towards that. So to get the president to sign executive order changing it to a Schedule 3, I wrote— I got a letter I wrote Senator Obama in 2007 asking him to change it to a Schedule 2. He never listened. And so everybody wants it out of the schedule. You know what, Jack Heron, what I want this cannabis plant to be like? Corn and the tomato plant. So we need a 28th Amendment to the Cali— I mean, America's Constitution, just like they got alcohol, and it'd never go away. But nobody wants that. Everybody wants to control it. No one controls the tomato plant or the corn plant in America. You can go buy it, you can grow it, you can sell it on the corner. That's what the cannabis plant should be. But instead, they tried to think— make the government think they're going to tax and regulate, and all they did was teach them the value.

John, what, uh, What's the one message you want listeners to take away from your story?

You asked me earlier how many plants I grow. The patient, no matter where they're at in America, if they don't grow, they will not have. So learn to grow to have.

John, you have a very interesting story. I appreciate your advocacy and I would like listeners to to listen to your story, because what you're talking about is something that very few people talk about, and I appreciate you doing this. Thank you.

Hey, Ivan, ask me what my recipe is and I'll tell you what the OxyContin replacement is.

Okay, fire away.

Well, see, I, uh, I have made this medicine for quite a while now, and I have written many— like, you know who Purdue Pharmaceuticals is? Yep. Okay. Well, I have a little lawsuit because I got damaged by them. But can the Sackler family open another company up and start making a drug called Fuciatima? So I don't care who makes this drug. As long as it gets to the pharmacy and patients get to have it, because once the drug gets to the pharmacy, our insurance will pay for it. So what I do, I take 3 liters of Costco olive oil, I cook it at 180 degrees in a crock pot with a pound of high quality bud. And so the more bud you use, the stronger the medicine. I'm trying to get this down to where like 1 teaspoon is 1,000 milligrams, but I can't seem to get that. So I can get, uh, 195 milligrams of THCA and 130 milligrams of THC. And so the science behind when you heat up this olive oil, if you heat it up less, you get more THCA. You heat it up more, you get more THC. And so the actual drinking this olive oil is the cure and replacement for the opiates. So when a doctor says, here, take this drug Oh, and you come back and they say, how was it? I don't know. Well, take this one and get rid of that one. All I'm done is taken— got rid of one drug, opiates, and replace it with cannabis, very strong. And what I mean by strong, if you took 900 or 1,100, 1,200 milligrams of THC and THCA, it does something to your brain. And so I live in a small county patients that have learned from me. I've taught them how to make this formula. I've taught them how to make THCA capsules. If you don't want to get high, make THCA capsules, and that's just the raw bud before you put heat to it. Heat it up— I mean, you cook it, you got THC. So I make popcorn, and like I said, I've educated 2 district attorneys, 3 sheriffs, and many Board of Supervisors, because actually I don't live in California. I live in one county out of 58. So if I went to some other county, I'm not from there. I'm from Tehama County, and if you come here, you'd be an outsider. So the people that are from here are what you call good old boys. And so, you know, just because I got hurt doesn't mean that, uh, um, in this little area I'm from, there's many, many of us that went to high school here that we've loved weed ever since high school. So is it a crazy journey I've been on, and now I'm back on the plant that I've loved since I was 12 years old? Nope. So knowledge is power, and I appreciate you giving me the platform to hopefully teach other people. But, you know, it's, it's real medicine. And like I said, if you don't grow it, you'll never have it. You know what it costs for me to, to have my marijuana? Nothing.

No.

And Social Security and Medicare, they're okay with it since 2009. I have freedom, and that's what I want everyone else out there to understand. Fight for your freedom and get your freedom, because once you're off of opiates, I'll never go back. And will I ever go to pharma? Probably not. I'm, uh, I'm satisfied with my whole plant. I love, um, there's a movie out there that your viewers can watch. Dr. Moskowitz in, and another doctor, Uma Dhillon, it's called CBD Nation. Check it out.

Great. Thank you, John. I appreciate it.

Thanks for tuning in. You can find more information and check out all our past episodes at cannabishealtheradio.com. Don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss future episodes and follow us on social media and our Rumble channel. This podcast is listener supported, so if you've found it helpful, please consider making a donation donation, big or small, right on our site. And if you know someone who could benefit from this episode, please share it with them. Leaving a quick review also helps others discover us. We really appreciate you being here. Thanks again.