Marijuana Moment, one of the nation’s leading sources for news and developments in the cannabis industry, recently interviewed Pacific College medical cannabis faculty member Alice O’Leary Randall on cannabis reform. She is the widow of Robert Randall, who in 1976 became the first legal user of medical marijuana in the U.S. since 1937–to treat the case of glaucoma that threatened his sight–when he emerged victorious in the Superior Court of DC case United States v. Randall. This case paved the way for the ever-broadening access since, in no small part due to his and his wife’s relentless advocacy, for decades afterwards, for the legality of cannabis as an alternative treatment.
Alice O’Leary Randall says that, today, many think the fight for legalization is essentially over–but marijuana remains federally illegal, a Schedule I substance. Her latest project is compiling and releasing a digital record of the fight for legalization, to preserve the legacy of the advocates and pioneers that have gotten us this far. She will be releasing documents over time, including court records, voice and video clips, and letters, online, as they are digitized, and compiling annotations and guidance for the archive.