Fifty Years of “Medical Marijuana”: A Conversation With Alice O’Leary Randall
Cannabiswire
Thu, Sep 10
Key Points
- The term "medical marijuana" has been in use for about 50 years.
- Cannabis has been used medicinally for thousands of years prior to this term.
- The phrase traces back to Robert Randall's 1976 case in Washington, D.C.
- Randall successfully petitioned the federal government for cannabis to treat his glaucoma-related eye pressure.
While the use of cannabis as medicine dates back thousands of years, the phrase “medical marijuana” is turning just 50. A lexicographer traced it back to the case of Robert Randall, a young man living in Washington, D.C. who convinced the federal government in November 1976 to give him cannabis to ease eye pressure caused by glaucoma.
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