MAN WHO WON MEDICINAL POT CASE DIES

SARASOTA, Fla.--Robert Randall, who made history in 1976 when a court
gave him access to government supplies of marijuana to treat his
glaucoma, has died at 53.

Randall died Saturday at his home of AIDS-related complications.

A federal court ruled 25 years ago that his use of marijuana was a
medical necessity.

Two years later the government cut off his access to marijuana. He sued
for reinstatement of the drug and won. He kept on smoking pot with
federal permission until his death.

Randall developed glaucoma in his teens. An ophthalmologist told him in
the early 1970s that he would go blind within a few years. He never lost
his sight.

He grew his own pot until he was arrested and prosecuted. He then
underwent exhaustive tests that indicated no other glaucoma drug
available lowered his intraocular pressure and halted deterioration of
his eyesight. He used that argument in demanding legal access to
marijuana.

In 1981, Randall and his wife founded ACT, Alliance for Cannabis
Therapeutics, an organization to reform laws prohibiting medicinal use
of marijuana.

Recently the Supreme Court ruled that the federal law controlling
narcotics makes no exception for therapeutic use of the drug.