Robert C. Randall (1948-2001)
“It was at this point, in the year 1975,that this young man, originally from Sarasota, Florida, where his father owned a furniture store, and with no education in law or medicine, began to become one of the single most effective reformers of drug-control practices in modern American history. He faced the entire federal drug-abuse control establishment head on and beat it to its knees.”
From The Great Drug War
by Arnold S Trebach, 1987
Robert C. Randall was a pioneering advocate for medical marijuana in the United States. Diagnosed in his twenties with glaucoma, Randall discovered that cannabis relieved the pressure in his eyes and helped preserve his vision. When he was arrested for cultivating marijuana in 1975, he fought back in court. In a groundbreaking 1976 case, Randall successfully argued the medical necessity of cannabis, becoming the first American legally allowed to use marijuana for health reasons.
His victory led to the creation of the federal government’s Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND) program, through which a small number of patients were supplied with medical marijuana. Randall and his wife, Alice O’Leary Randall, co-founded the Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics, the first nonprofit organization dedicated to legalizing medical marijuana. Together, they educated policymakers, supported patients, and raised national awareness about the therapeutic value of cannabis.
Randall’s courage and determination opened doors for countless patients seeking relief and helped lay the foundation for today’s medical marijuana laws. His legacy endures as that of a compassionate trailblazer who transformed personal struggle into a movement for justice and healing.
Further information
The following is a list of books written by Robert. Most are out-of-print but can be found on Internet Archive.
For clippings see the Archives Pages on this website.
Alternatively, newspapers.com is an excellent source for contemporaneous stories about the medical cannabis movement.
Randall, Robert C., and Alice M. O’Leary. Marijuana Rx: The Patients’ Fight for Medical Pot. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1998.
Randall, Robert C. Marijuana, Medicine & the Law (Vols. I & II). Washington, D.C.: Galen Press, 1988–1990.
Randall, Robert C. Cancer Treatment: The Legal Marijuana Movement. Washington, D.C.: Galen Press, 1985.
O’Leary Randall, Alice. Medical Marijuana in America: Memoir of a Pioneer. Gainesville, FL: Florida Academic Press, 2014.