Lance Lambert, Director of Media Operations for Weedmaps, and acting publisher of Marijuana.com.
OC Weekly: You just invested $40,000 of your life savings to launch your own business. You have an amazing girlfriend and are ready to live the American dream. Then you lose your father to pulmonary fibrosis and get diagnosed with cancer, and lose a testicle in the process. And all this happens when you’re just 27?
Lambert: Yes, I consider myself more of an advocate than an enthusiast. And the advocacy comes from being a cancer survivor. In September this year, I will be 14 years cancer free. I have the same cancer as Lance Armstrong–testicular cancer–and it’s just enough to still have kids. But it’s something that changes your perspective, that really makes you appreciate finding those healthier alternative medicines to the mainstream, Western medicine. It’s just so natural and the side effects are either nominal or actually pretty good.
OC Weekly: How does cannabis improve the quality of your life?
Lambert: It’s a natural remedy. Cannabis helps with sleep deprivation and lack of appetite, so it’s benefit, especially when going through chemo.
OC Weekly: Did you ever consume cannabis before your diagnosis?
Lambert: Growing up in Northern California and being a little surfer kid and being in Santa Cruz, cannabis was always around me. However I wasn’t focused on it until I went to college and I wanted to help people from a legal standpoint. My major is actually criminal justice, so, uh, at that point in my career [nostalgic chuckling], I had to give up certain things.
