Many people believe the medical marijuana movement started with California in the 1990s, but one cannabis historian is hoping to shine a light on early pioneers with a research project to “preserve the history and memory of the many patients and lawmakers from the first two decades of the medical cannabis movement,” according to a press release.
Alice O’Leary Randall has begun work on Project 50, a three-year research project that will culminate in 2026, the 50-year anniversary of when her late husband, Robert C. Randall, became the first legal cannabis patient in the country in November 1976. Robert Randall died at the age of 53 in 2001.
“These critical years are getting lost in today’s world. I believe it has a lot to do with the emergence of the World Wide Web,” says Alice Randall. “The years we are celebrating — 1976 to 1996 — were either completely, or primarily, analog. As a result, it can be hard to find information on specific events or even to know what events to look for.”
California is recognized as the first state to legalize medical cannabis, which it did through Proposition 215 in 1996; however, several states decriminalized marijuana or implemented provisions for medical use long before the Golden State’s groundbreaking legislation.
In 1973, Oregon became the first state to decriminalize cannabis, with Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine and Ohio following suit two years later. New Mexico in 1978 enacted the country’s first medical marijuana legislation, the Controlled Substances Therapeutic Research Act, which allowed a limited number of patients to receive cannabis from the federal government. Lynn Pearson, the cancer patient who spearheaded advocacy for the bill, died before it could be implemented.
Alice Randall and a small group of volunteers will spend the next three years acquiring, scanning, retyping, editing, organizing and uploading the recorded history of the medical cannabis movement in the United States. Her archives so far include tapes of Robert Randall’s first appearance on national TV (“Good Morning America”, 1977) and his last (“Tomorrow with Tom Snyder”, 1996).
“I don’t want Americans to forget about the brave and selfless people who gave their last good days fighting for legal access to cannabis, nor the lawmakers and medical professionals who earnestly sought a compassionate solution to this public health issue,” she said.
— Garrett Rudolph