MAN IN MEDICAL POT CASE DIES

Robert Randall of Sarasota, 53, the first person in the United States
to receive legal, medical access to federal supplies of marijuana,
died June 2 at his home of AIDS-related complications.

Randall made legal and medical history in 1976 when a federal court
ruled that his use of marijuana for treatment of his glaucoma was a
medical necessity. "This was the first time that the common law
concept of necessity was applied to a medical condition," said
Randall's wife, Alice.

"But two years later the government terminated his access to marijuana
despite evidence that he would go blind."

He sued for reinstatement of the drug and won. He kept using marijuana
with federal permission until his death.

Randall was born Jan. 23, 1948, in Sarasota and received bachelor's
and master's degrees in speech and rhetoric from the University of
South Florida.

He developed glaucoma in his teens and an ophthalmologist told him in
the early 1970s that he would be blind within a few years. He never
went blind, however.

In a February 1999 Herald-Tribune interview, he recalled the night he
realized the benefits of marijuana: He was relaxing in his apartment,
smoking a marijuana cigarette a friend had given him. Looking out the
apartment windows, he realized that the telltale halo around a nearby
street light had disappeared.

He grew his own plants until he was arrested and prosecuted. He then
underwent exhaustive tests that proved no other glaucoma drug
available lowered his intraocular pressure and halted the
deterioration of his eyesight. Randall used that argument in appealing
to the federal government to gain legal access to marijuana.

In 1981, Randall and his wife founded ACT, Alliance for Cannabis
Therapeutics, the first nonprofit organization dedicated to reforming
laws prohibiting medical marijuana use.

Randall drafted legislation calling for a federal program of
controlled access to the drug. The legislation was introduced in
Congress, but failed.

In the early 1990s, Randall concentrated on the medical use of
marijuana by those afflicted with AIDS and established the Marijuana
AIDS Research Service, or MARS, which helped AIDS patients apply for
access to marijuana.

The efforts provided the basis for AIDS patients to access promising
but unapproved drugs such as AZT.

After initially approving dozens of marijuana requests, the federal
government closed the program and cut off the only means of legal,
medical access to marijuana in the country.

However, Randall and seven others who had brought their cases to the
courts continued to receive federal supplies of marijuana.

Public outrage at the closure of the MARS program led to state ballot
initiatives such as California's referendum in 1996 that allowed
cooperatives to distribute marijuana to patients with chronic
illnesses such as AIDS, multiple sclerosis and cancer.

But on May 14, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal law
controlling narcotics makes no exception for therapeutic use of the
drug.

Randall's wife said he and the seven others who had been granted use
of marijuana were not affected by the ruling, though other users were.

"Robert was quite upset but not surprised by the decision," his wife
said, "because the concept of medical necessity, which is how he won
his case in 1976, is a very strict legal determination and the people
in California were essentially a marijuana supermarket. We would have
have preferred having marijuana being made available through a
doctor's prescription."

In 1999 Randall and his wife chronicled their battle to legalize marijuana
for medicinal use in an autobiographical book, "Marijuana Rx: The Patient's
Fight for Medicinal Pot."

Lyn Nofziger, a prominent Republican and former director of
communication and speech writer in the Reagan administration, wrote
the forward for their book. Nofziger's family had turned to marijuana
when his daughter was fighting the effects of chemotherapy for lymph
cancer.

After growing up in Sarasota, Randall moved to Washington, D.C., in
1971. He returned to Sarasota in 1995.

Survivors also include a sister, Susan, and a brother, Dick, both of
Sarasota.

A celebration of life will be from 5 to 7 p.m. June 23 at Baywood
Colony Community Center, 5895 Tidewood Ave., Sarasota. Wiegand
Brothers Funeral Home is in charge.

Memorial donations may be made to Hospice of Southwest Florida, 5955
Rand Blvd., Sarasota, FL 34238.