🌿 Compassion by the Ounce
What the Original Compassionate IND Program Reveals About Today’s Cannabis Hypocrisy
By Kit | Burn Slow Doctrine Division, IVLC
📜 A PROGRAM THE GOVERNMENT DOESN’T WANT YOU TO REMEMBER
Before dispensaries.
Before state laws changed.
Before pharma tried to patent pot…
The U.S. government was already growing, processing, rolling, and mailing marijuana to patients—under a federal program.
It was called the Compassionate Investigational New Drug (IND) Program.
It began in 1976.
And technically, it still exists.
So why haven’t you heard about it?
Because it detonates the biggest lie in drug policy:
❌ “Cannabis has no accepted medical use.”
🧓 Robert C. Randall: The First Legal Cannabis Patient
In 1976, Robert Randall—diagnosed with advanced glaucoma—became the first person in the U.S. to receive federally sanctioned medical cannabis.
He didn’t get it by asking nicely.
He sued the federal government.
In United States v. Randall, the court accepted a then-novel defense: medical necessity.
The DEA and FDA were forced to admit—under oath—that marijuana helped preserve his vision.
Randall’s victory didn’t just help him—it kicked open a door the federal government has been trying to weld shut ever since.
🏛️ YES, THE GOVERNMENT GREW WEED—AND MAILED IT TO PATIENTS
Thanks to Randall’s precedent, dozens of patients accessed cannabis through the feds.
Grown at the University of Mississippi.
Rolled into 300 joints a month.
Shipped in metal tins labeled:
“Caution: New Drug—Limited By Federal Law.”
Approved conditions included:
Glaucoma
AIDS-related wasting
Multiple sclerosis
Chronic pain
…and others
By the early 1990s, the program was serving scores of patients.
And that—not the science—was the problem.
Because how can you arrest someone for cannabis
…while you’re mailing it to someone else?
đź”’ 1992: George H.W. Bush Slams the Door Shut
As AIDS activists surged and IND applications exploded, the Bush administration panicked.
In 1992, they froze the program to new applicants.
Their excuse?
“Public health concerns.”
The real reason?
Optics.
The government couldn’t keep its drug war going
while also shipping weed in federal tins.
Today, just a tiny handful of patients—maybe three or four—still receive federal cannabis.
But the program was never repealed.
It just became a secret with a shipping label.
🧪 THE LIE OF “NOT ENOUGH RESEARCH”
Every time a DEA or VA official says:
“We need more studies before we can support cannabis...”
Remember this:
The U.S. government has held a master safety file on medical cannabis since the 1970s.
Researchers used it to fast-track protocols for AIDS, glaucoma, MS, and more.
NIDA compiled decades of patient data.
That data still sits in FDA records.
They have the research.
They just won’t acknowledge it.
Because if they do, the entire foundation of prohibition collapses.
💊 What This Means for Today’s Patients—Especially Veterans
If Robert Randall got federal weed in 1976…
If AIDS patients got it in 1991…
If a few still get it today…
Then what the hell is the VA’s excuse?
Why are veterans still denied cannabis by the same government that once shipped it with a prescription number?
Why are patients in legal states still losing:
🏠Housing
👶 Custody
đź’Ľ Employment
đź©ş Benefits
…for using a plant the federal government has already called medicine?
đź’Ł The Compassion That Exposes the Cover-Up
The Compassionate IND Program proves—on the record—that cannabis has:
✅ “Accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”
That means:
Schedule I is a lie.
The Controlled Substances Act is broken.
The VA’s policy is indefensible.
Every arrest and punishment since 1976 is built on a legal fraud.
This isn’t a footnote in history.
It’s an active betrayal of public trust.
đźš« It Was Never About the Science. It Was Always About Control.
They didn’t shut it down because cannabis didn’t work.
They shut it down because too many people realized it did.
They feared:
đź’° Disruption of pharmaceutical profits
🧱 Collapse of the drug war narrative
✊ Empowered patients demanding rights
So they locked the doors.
Buried the data.
Gaslit the public.
And they’ve been playing keep-away with the cure ever since.
🗣️ Final Word: The IND Is Our Precedent—And Our Promise
We’re not asking for special treatment.
We’re demanding equal treatment.
We don’t need another study.
We don’t need another hearing.
We don’t need permission.
We need what Robert Randall had:
Federal recognition.
Federal protection.
Federal supply.
If it was good enough in 1976,
it’s good enough in 2025.
🧾 Bring back the compassion.
đź’Ą End the delay.
đźš« End the denial.
🩸 End the lie.
We’re not asking.
We’re reclaiming.
🦷 Postscript:
Let this piece be bite-marked and bloodstained. Print it on VA letterhead. Mail it to every official who mumbles about “more research.”
Then ask them one question:
“Where were you when the government was mailing weed to patients—and lying to the rest of us?”
