🎭 CONGRESSIONAL BRIEFING EDITION

“A Soldier’s Sight Restored by Nature’s Hand”

Filed in the Public Interest | Delivered in Iambic Pentameter | Annotated for Legislative Review

By the IVLC Players & Ricardo A. Pereyda San Nicolás
📜 With embedded policy clarifications, historical footnotes, and legislative implications

🏛️ PURPOSE OF BRIEFING

This edition is crafted specifically for state and federal policymakers, staffers, educators, and advocates engaged in reforming federal cannabis policy—especially regarding veterans’ health care, research integrity, and archival justice.

It preserves the original theatrical structure but embeds actionable legislative cues throughout.

ACT I: PROLOGUE OF A BLINDING LIE

CHORUS
Attend thee now, ye keepers of the law,
And mark this tale, both wondrous and in awe:
A soldier, true, of service and of pain,
Found in the leaf relief from searing strain.
Yet though he swore before the court and King,
His truth was buried—silence was the sting.

📝 POLICY NOTE: This soldier’s sworn affidavit was filed in federal court (U.S. v. Randall) and describes cannabis as the only effective treatment for trauma-induced glaucoma. His report was not refuted—merely buried.

ACT II: TESTIMONY OF THE VETERAN

JOHN SMITH (aside)
At twenty-eight, with service on my name,
And Peace Corps days behind my Army frame—
A ball struck hard did shatter eye and sight,
And plunged my days in shadow, robbed of light.

They tried their best—epinephrine, Diamox still,
Yet pressure soared, no pharm could break its will.
The doctors watched, my vision near the brink,
While I grew blind with every drug and blink.

And so, in hush, I broke the bounds of law—
And from the herb, I found what none else saw.
My pressure fell. My sight returned in part.
What science failed, the green leaf did impart.

📝 LEGISLATIVE IMPLICATION:
This firsthand testimony reveals a therapeutic gap in federally sanctioned care—a recurring theme in both historical IND cases and modern VHA restrictions on cannabis.

ACT III: THE DOCTOR’S SILENCE

DOCTOR (to himself, as he closes a file)
I saw the cure, but dared not make it known.
For policy did cage my voice and tone.
Though healing stood before my very eyes,
The law forbade my truth—lest I chastise
The sacred codes that bind our oaths in red,
And thus I spoke not. I complied instead.

📝 PROVIDER SHIELDING RECOMMENDATION:
Congress must protect medical professionals who recognize the efficacy of cannabis through whistleblower protections, clinical discretion clauses, and rescheduling pathways. Doctors should not be punished for honesty.

ACT IV: THE CROWN’S DENIAL

KING’S SCRIBE (reading from scroll)
Filed was the affidavit—locked and sealed,
For such a truth the Court would not reveal.
To let it stand would rend the War on Weed,
And undermine their interdiction creed.

So quietly they shelved the soldier’s claim,
And left his healing rotting under shame.

📝 CONSTITUTIONAL CONCERN:
Evidence supporting medical necessity was deliberately suppressed. This case prefigures ongoing ethical issues with VA gag rules, Schedule I intransigence, and undisclosed government research findings.

ACT V: RECKONING & REFORM

CHORUS
O Congress, hark! For now the scroll returns,
Unearthed by hands whose justice brightly burns.
No longer buried in the courts’ old chest,
This veteran’s voice now calls for you to wrest
The statutes from the lies that kept him blind,
And shape new law with courage unconfined.

📜 PROPOSED ACTION ITEMS:

Deschedule cannabis federally

Authorize VHA cannabis prescribing

Re-establish the federal Compassionate IND Program

Mandate full release of suppressed archival documents

Implement Veterans Cannabis ID & Safe Harbor protections

INTERLUDE: THE HERALD’S ANNOUNCEMENT

HERALD (with USB drive in hand)
Lo, Congress! This is no mere bard’s delight—
This file was filed, its contents brought to light.
The IVLC hath scanned and digitized,
And now this record speaks where once disguised.

“Digitus ex machina,” it doth proclaim—
The archive speaks, and it doth name the game.

📝 TECHNOLOGY & TRANSPARENCY:
The digitization of federal medical cannabis affidavits provides new opportunity for AI-assisted legislative oversight, public education, and data-driven reform.

EPILOGUE: JUSTICE UNBLINDFOLDED

LADY JUSTICE
Ye made me blind, but not to soldier’s plea.
The scales I bear are not for tyranny.
Remove the rope, and balance now the beam—
Let science speak, and end the failed regime.