“I HAVE to cure myself and if I can’t, I die”.

Toney Fitzgerald is 55 years old and he was recently diagnosed with cancer for the fourth time.

He has had surgeries, radiotherapy and chemotherapy and now, he says, doctors say there is no more they can do.

“Three weeks ago I was told there’s nothing more they can do,” he said.

Mr Fitzgerald is the first to admit that with time not on his side he is in “emergency mode”.

During his research into alternative treatments he stumbled across medicinal cannabis and now believes it could drastically change his prognosis.

Mr Fitzgerald has since attended last month’s Australian Medicinal Cannabis Symposium that was held in Melbourne and he has also been in touch with medicinal chemistry researcher at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Professor Raphael Mechoulam.

Through his research, Mr Fitzgerald believes that medicinal cannabis will not only relieve him of his symptoms, but cure him.

“When you are in the fight of your life, you pull out all steps to get a cure, you become so resourceful and empowered,” he said.

“I decided to go on a journey to see if cannabis can cure my cancer once and for all.”

In the documentary, A Life Of Its Own: The Truth About Medical Marijuana, Prof Mechoulam explains he that has undertaken medical research with cannabis for almost 50 years, but large clinical trials on humans were still needed.

“One needs a lot of backing, there is a lot of background knowledge in the cannabinoid field, but one needs also a lot of clinical trials. Clinical trials cost a lot of money,” he said.

Prof Mechoulam said the world’s pharmaceutical companies are not doing research into medicinal cannabis.

In an email to Mr Fitzgerald, the professor shared the medical cannabis dosage amount he had used in “clinical conditions”.

Prof Mechoulam’s email continued: “Do I recommend cannabis as an anti-cancer drug? Quite frankly I do not know. In many individual cases high THC [psychoactive molecule in cannabis], high CBD [cannabidiol] oil seems to work, but until we have seen good clinical work, there is a big, big question mark”.

Mr Fitzgerald said he has been so inspired by the positive impacts of medicinal cannabis that he has read and heard about, that he is now planning to help Prof Mechoulam crowd fund to ensure a large-scale clinical trial is conducted.

“I want to see the world’s largest clinical trial where we can get cannabis into humans to see if it can cure cancer,” he said.