The Patients' Fight for Medical Pot

by Alice M. O'Leary and Robert C. Randall

Randall was 24 when told that he'd be blinded by severe glaucoma before he turned 30.
Four years later, he became the first American to gain access to marijuana for medical purposes; two decades later, he found the drug would also support his fight against AIDS. He and his co-author O'Leary's saga began in 1973 when Randall discovered, while smoking marijuana just for fun, that the glaucoma-related tri-colored rings obscuring his vision had disappeared. A search of the medical literature revealed the suggestion that marijuana could indeed return dangerously high intraocular pressures (caused by glaucoma) to normal levels, thereby relieving visual disturbances. Randall duly made the rounds of agencies and organizations, looking for lawyers and doctors to take on the government drug regulators. In the process, he became a key player in the fight for medical marijuana.

352 pages, paperback, 6x9