Given 18 Months to Live, Man Cures Cancer With Cannabis Oil-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
A British man named David Hibbitt was given 18 months to live before he cured cancer with cannabis oil.
The Truth:
Many holistic health websites have featured the story of the man who cured bowel cancer with cannabis oil after being given 18 months to live. Unfortunately, 34-year-old David Hibbitt died from brain cancer in 2016, a year after stories about his miraculous recovery first surfaced.
The story surfaced in the U.K.’s Metro newspaper in April 2015. The paper reported that Hibbitt had been “cured” after purchasing cannabis oil from a local dealer. But the initial story noted that there was no clinical evidence that cannabis oil could actually treat cancer:
Cancer Research UK said it was aware of patients using cannabis extracts to treat themselves but there was ‘no good evidence’ from clinical trials to prove it was safe and effective.
Natural health websites quickly picked the story up. It was held up as an example of the medicinal potential of cannabis oil, but Hibbitt died of cancer just one year after reports that he’d been “cured,” the Daily Mail reports:
Last January the father-of-one revealed he was cancer-free and put the class-B drug down to his miracle recovery.
But the cancer returned in March this year and spread to his lungs and brain. It claimed his life earlier this month.
David Hibbitt’s family vowed to pursue research into the ability of cannabis oil to treat cancer after his death. There have been lots of studies about cannabinoids’ ability (or lack thereof) to treat cancer. But Cancer Research UK reports that there’s no definitive proof of that, despite numerous studies claiming to confirm that cannabis oil treats cancer.