Rick Simpson Oil (RSO) in Lake County, Colorado: The Complete Guide by OilWell Cannabis

We know the mountain air up here in Lake County hits different. At 10,000 feet above sea level, our bodies work harder—whether we’re powering through another shift at the Climax Mine, guiding tourists up Mount Elbert, or just trying to get a good night’s sleep when the thin air keeps our hearts racing. When you’re living at the top of America, you learn to be self-reliant. You learn to research what you put in your body. And you learn that sometimes the best solutions come from unexpected places.

That’s why we’re reaching out to our neighbors in Leadville, Twin Lakes, and every remote corner of Lake County with something that might change how you think about plant medicine. We’re OilWell Cannabis, a Houston-based company with a story that starts where many Lake County stories do—with desperation, with love for a companion who was suffering, and with a refusal to accept “there’s nothing more we can do.”

Who Actually Needs RSO in Lake County?

Let’s be honest about who searches for Rick Simpson Oil in our mountain community. We’ve seen the patterns from serving high-altitude regions across the West. You’re likely dealing with one of these situations:

• The cancer patient at St. Vincent Hospital who’s heard about RSO from support groups but wants to understand the science before making decisions about their treatment plan
• The veteran at the Lake County Veterans of Foreign Wars post managing PTSD and chronic pain from service injuries, looking for alternatives to the VA’s medication cycle
• The ski patroller at Ski Cooper who took a hard fall and can’t afford another week off work, searching for serious anti-inflammatory support beyond ibuprofen
• The retired miner with decades of joint pain from swinging a pick in the Climax operation, whose liver can’t handle another NSAID
• The caregiver watching a loved one waste away from chemo-induced nausea, willing to try anything that might help them keep food down

We see you. We are you. Our founder Colin grew up in the dangerous borderlands of McAllen, Texas, where survival meant understanding plants as medicine long before dispensaries existed. He learned this not in a lab, but while desperately trying to save his dog Bentley from paralysis and a veterinarian’s euthanasia recommendation. That desperation—mixed with a software engineer’s precision from his work at Baylor College of Medicine—created what we believe is the most thoughtfully formulated RSO available today.

The Truth About Traditional Rick Simpson Oil (And Why Lake County Needs to Know)

Rick Simpson wasn’t a doctor. He was a Canadian power engineer—a blue-collar tradesman like many who built Leadville’s mining infrastructure—who got hurt on the job in 1997. When doctors couldn’t fix his post-concussion symptoms and denied him cannabis, he started experimenting. In 2003, he claimed that applying homemade cannabis oil to what he said was basal cell carcinoma made his skin lesions disappear in four days.

Here’s what matters for Lake County: No biopsy confirmed this. No doctor documented it. No clinical trial validated it. The story spread because people wanted to believe—and because “Run From The Cure,” the 2005 documentary about him, captured the desperation of cancer patients who’d been failed by conventional medicine.

Simpson started giving away his oil for free. He helped people with cancer, chronic pain, glaucoma, arthritis, diabetes, and depression. But he was raided twice by Canadian police, charged with cultivation and trafficking, and eventually fled to Europe. He never charged patients, never patented his method, never standardized anything. Every batch was different—different strains, different potencies, different outcomes.

The 60-Gram Protocol Simpson Recommended

Simpson’s famous treatment plan was simple: consume 60 grams of oil over 90 days. Start with a dose the size of half a grain of rice, three times daily. Double it every four days until you’re taking 1 gram per day. That’s approximately 600-900mg of delta-9 THC daily—far beyond anything studied clinically.

Lake County, this is critical: At those doses, you’d be consuming 20-40 times more THC than the FDA-approved drug dronabinol. The risks are real: severe anxiety, panic attacks, tachycardia, blood pressure drops, and cannabis use disorder. For someone already dealing with altitude-related cardiovascular stress, this could be dangerous.

Simpson’s oil was also made with naphtha (lighter fluid) or industrial isopropyl alcohol—neither food-grade—and heated in rice cookers to evaporate the solvent. This destroyed all terpenes and left the final product as a black, tar-like substance with no lab testing, no standardization, and no way to know what you’re actually getting.

We respect Simpson’s contribution—he opened the door for cannabinoid research when nobody else would. But we’re not trying to sell you 2004’s solution to 2025’s problems.

How OilWell’s RSO Solves Problems Simpson Never Could

Living at altitude changes everything. The air is thinner, your metabolism works faster, and your body processes substances differently. A product that works in Houston might not translate to Leadville’s environment. That’s why we built our RSO differently.

Seven Cannabinoids, Not Just One

Our sublingual oil contains:

• 4,500mg CBD – For anxiety, inflammation, and baseline wellness
• 3,000mg CBG – For neuroprotection and gut health (critical at altitude where digestion can be sluggish)
• 6,000mg Delta-8 THC – Pain relief with less anxiety than delta-9
• 1,500mg THCa – Raw, non-psychoactive anti-inflammatory power
• 90mg Delta-9 THC – Just enough for legal compliance, not enough to impair your ability to handle mountain roads
• 750mg CBN – For sleep architecture (crucial when altitude insomnia keeps you up)
• 750mg CBC – For neurogenesis and mood support

Total: 16,590mg across 30mL (553mg/mL)

Compare that to Simpson’s unknown, unmeasured potency. Our formula is lab-tested with Certificates of Analysis available for every batch. We know exactly what’s in every bottle—and so do you, because we publish the complete formula publicly.

The THCa Advantage for Lake County Living

Here’s what makes our product revolutionary for high-altitude communities: THCa is legal, non-psychoactive, and converts to THC only when you heat it.

Three ways Lake County residents use this:

1. Daytime raw use: Take it as-is for anti-inflammatory benefits without any high. Perfect for ski patrollers, miners, or anyone who needs to stay sharp on the job. The COX-2 inhibition helps with altitude-related inflammation.

2. Fully activated for serious relief: Heat the oil at 260°F for 45-60 minutes, and that 1,500mg THCa becomes ~1,315mg delta-9 THC. Combined with the existing 90mg, you get ~1,405mg total THC—comparable to traditional RSO, but 100% legal because you did the activation yourself after purchase.

3. Vape for breakthrough pain: Our 1-gram vape cartridge auto-decarbs THCa with each puff, delivering relief in 1-2 minutes. When you’re at 10,000 feet and pain hits hard, you don’t have time to wait 45 minutes.

Live Terpenes Preserve What Simpson Destroyed

Traditional RSO’s high-heat process eliminated all terpenes. We include 5% live terpenes because they matter for the entourage effect:

• Limonene (citrus) – Mood elevation for those long, dark winter months
• Myrcene – Relaxation after a day on the slopes
• Caryophyllene (pepper/spice) – CB2 activation for inflammation without high
• Pinene – Respiratory support and mental clarity at altitude
• Linalool (lavender) – Calm for anxiety and PTSD
• Humulene – Appetite control and inflammation
• Terpinolene – Complex, uplifting aroma

These are the same terpenes that give Lake County’s pine forests their distinctive scent. We’re bringing that mountain medicine back to you in concentrated form.

Solvent-Free Production: What Miners and Outdoorsmen Understand About Purity

Anyone who’s worked in the Climax Mine knows what toxic solvents do to your body. Simpson used naphtha—essentially lighter fluid—to extract his oil. Even with best efforts, residual solvents remain.

We don’t extract at all. We start with pure cannabinoid distillates and isolates, then blend them in organic MCT oil. No solvents, ever. Every batch is third-party tested for:

• Potency (±2% accuracy)
• Heavy metals (arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury)
• Pesticides (400+ compounds)
• Residual solvents (FDA Class 3 limits)
• Microbial contaminants

The result? A golden oil that tastes clean, not like tar. A product you can trust will do what it says, whether you’re using it at home in Leadville or taking it with you on a backcountry expedition.

The Evidence: What Works for Lake County Conditions

We won’t make promises the science can’t support. Here’s what the research actually says about our formula’s applications for life at altitude:

Altitude-Related Inflammation and Joint Pain

The thin air at 10,000+ feet increases systemic inflammation. Our combination of THCa (COX-2 inhibitor), CBD (broad anti-inflammatory), and beta-caryophyllene (CB2 agonist) targets multiple inflammatory pathways simultaneously. For the miner with decades of joint wear or the skier with chronic knee pain, this multi-pathway approach often works better than single-cannabinoid solutions.

Chemotherapy Support at St. Vincent

If you’re receiving treatment at St. Vincent Hospital, chemotherapy-induced nausea and appetite loss can be brutal. The delta-8 THC in our formula (6,000mg) has documented antiemetic properties [9], while delta-9 THC at lower doses helps with nausea without overwhelming psychoactivity [1][13]. Take 0.5-1.0mL sublingually an hour before treatment, or use 2-3 vape puffs for immediate breakthrough relief.

Sleep at Altitude

Lake County’s extreme altitude disrupts sleep architecture. At 2mL dose, our sublingual oil delivers 50mg of CBN—the dosage level investigated in recent sleep research [16][17]. Combined with myrcene and linalool terpenes, this helps with both falling asleep and staying asleep through those thin-air nights when your body feels like it’s working even while resting.

PTSD and Anxiety in Remote Mountain Communities

Isolation and harsh conditions intensify mental health struggles. Our CBG content (3,000mg) supports neuroprotective pathways [7], while CBD provides documented anxiolytic effects [3]. For veterans at the Lake County VFW or anyone dealing with trauma, the raw THCa option allows daytime functional relief without impairment—crucial when you need to stay sharp for mountain driving or operating equipment.

Open-Source Formulas: The Lake County Way

Simpson gave his oil away for free. We publish our exact formula because we believe knowledge should be open. If someone in Lake County can’t afford $129.99 for our sublingual oil or $49.99 for the vape, they can see exactly what’s in it and source the ingredients themselves.

This is the mountain way—self-reliance, sharing knowledge, helping neighbors. We sell a professional, lab-tested product for those who want convenience and quality assurance. We give away the recipe for those who want to make it themselves. Both paths honor the same principle: healing shouldn’t be locked behind corporate gates.

The Bentley Story: Why We Do This

Bentley was Colin’s dog. When veterinarians said euthanasia was the only humane option for Bentley’s paralysis, Colin refused. He created a CBD golden paste that got Bentley up and walking again. That dog lived ten more years, and during that decade, Colin developed formulas for every age-related condition Bentley faced—neurodegeneration, dementia, glaucoma, arthritis.

That desperation-born innovation became the foundation of every product we make. When you use our RSO, you’re benefiting from a decade of real-world testing on a patient Colin loved more than anything. Dogs don’t respond to placebo. The formulas work.

Colin’s Personal Experience: From Addiction to Recovery

Colin also knows pharmaceutical dependence. He quit Xanax cold turkey using the same cannabinoid knowledge that saved Bentley. Our Peace Gummies were born during midnight experiments while fighting benzodiazepine withdrawal. Our vape formula is what Colin personally uses for PTSD and severe insomnia.

This isn’t theoretical. We lived it. We survived it. Now we share it.

Media Recognition: Independently Verified Credibility

Between 2019 and 2023, ABC13 Houston—the ABC affiliate in America’s fourth-largest city—featured Colin in seven news segments. Five different reporters sought him out. No other Houston cannabis operator has that track record.

They covered our Delta-8 analysis, our $35,000 COVID vaccine giveaway (1,000 free products to encourage vaccination), and our proactive ethical action when Delta-8 became Schedule I overnight (we removed products before enforcement and warned other operators who were unknowingly shipping narcotics).

Most personally, in October 2022, ABC13 revealed Colin’s own marijuana conviction history—transforming every quote about therapy and education into something grounded in lived experience. When we say “we understand what you’re going through,” we mean it literally.

Farm Bill Compliance: Legal in Lake County

Colorado has legal recreational cannabis, but Lake County’s dispensaries are limited. Our product offers something different: a hemp-derived, multi-cannabinoid formula with THCa that you control.

• 90mg delta-9 THC total in the bottle (3mg/mL) = <0.3% by weight = Farm Bill compliant
• 1,500mg THCa = legal acidic precursor
• After decarboxylation: ~1,405mg total THC = comparable to traditional RSO, legally activated by you

We ship to Lake County with full documentation, COAs, and receipts. International customers accept customs responsibility. This is the legal pathway Simpson never had.

Delivery to Lake County

We don’t have same-day delivery to Leadville—yet. But we ship nationwide via USPS Priority Mail (2-3 business days) and FedEx/UPS Ground (3-5 days). For Lake County’s remote addresses, we recommend Priority Mail for reliability.

Every package is:

• Discreet (no cannabis branding)
• Temperature-stable for mountain transit
• Tracked from our Houston facility to your Lake County doorstep
• Includes full COAs and legal documentation

How to Use Our RSO in Lake County’s Environment

For altitude-induced inflammation: Start with 0.25mL raw sublingual daily. The anti-inflammatory cascade takes 3-5 days to build.

For acute mountain injury: Vape 2-3 puffs for 1-2 minute onset relief, then follow with 0.5mL sublingual for sustained support.

For sleep at elevation: 1.0-2.0mL sublingual 1 hour before bed. The CBN and myrcene help counteract altitude-related sleep disruption.

For daytime PTSD/anxiety management: 0.3mL raw sublingual in morning coffee. Zero impairment, full functionality for operating snowcats or guiding trips.

Always start low, go slow. At altitude, everything hits harder. Your metabolism is faster, your blood is thinner, and cannabinoids may feel more potent. Adjust doses downward if you’re new to high-altitude cannabis use.

Lake County Resources and Support

We encourage you to work with local healthcare providers. In Lake County, that includes:

• St. Vincent Hospital (Leadville): Discuss cannabinoid use with your oncologist or pain management team
• Lake County Public Health Agency: For questions about drug interactions and safety monitoring
• Lake County Veterans Services: For veterans navigating VA benefits and alternative therapies
• High Mountain Health (Leadville dispensary): If you prefer local pickup for other cannabis products

Our products complement medical care—they don’t replace it. Don’t stop proven cancer treatment for RSO. Don’t operate vehicles under psychoactive doses. Keep all products out of reach of children and stored securely from mountain wildlife.

The Bottom Line for Lake County

You live where the air is thin and the expectations are high. You need medicine that works as hard as you do. Our RSO isn’t traditional Simpson oil—it’s better. Multi-cannabinoid precision, lab-tested purity, patient-controlled potency, and legal accessibility shipped directly to your mountain home.

We’re not here to sell you snake oil or false hope. We’re here to give you the best possible version of cannabinoid medicine so you can decide if it’s right for your situation—whether that’s supporting chemotherapy at St. Vincent, managing pain from decades in the mines, or finding sleep when altitude keeps you awake.

Bentley got up and brought his ball when conventional medicine said it was impossible. That’s our promise to Lake County: real science, real transparency, real results.

Order today at oilwellcbd.com or call (832) 416-2816. We’re here Monday-Thursday 10AM-7PM, Friday-Saturday 10AM-10PM, Sunday 10AM-4PM CST. Lake County orders ship within 24 hours.

This product has not been evaluated by the FDA. Not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Consult your healthcare provider before use, especially if you have altitude-related health conditions. Must be 21+. Buyer assumes responsibility for local compliance.