Robert C. Randall (1948 – June 2, 2001) was an American advocate for medical marijuana and the founder of Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics. Life and activism Robert Randall was the first legal medical marijuana smoker in the United States since 1937. Randall successfully used a medical necessity defense when he was charged with illegal possession of cannabis to treat his glaucoma. The case, United States v. Randall, is "The first successful articulation of the medical necessity defense in the history of the common law, and indeed, the first case to extend the necessity defense to the crimes of possession or cultivation of marijuana". Writings Randall, who wrote Marijuana & AIDS: Pot, Politics, and PWAs in America, also documented his accounts in his book, co-written with his wife Alice O'Leary: Marijuana Rx: The Patients Fight for Medical Pot, . See also Compassionate Investigational New Drug program References External links High in America by Patrick Anderson (chapter on Robert Randall) Robert Randall at the Drug Policy Forum of Wisconsin New York Times obituary 1948 births 2001 deaths American cannabis activists