Buried by the State: How the U.S. Government Suppressed Medical Marijuana Testimonies—and Gaslit Its Own Citizens

In 1976, a federal court quietly handed down a ruling that should have changed history. In Randall v. United States, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that marijuana was medically necessary to preserve the sight of Robert C. Randall, a glaucoma patient who had exhausted every legal pharmaceutical option. Randall’s successful case made him the first American to legally receive cannabis from the federal government for therapeutic use.

But instead of expanding access, the government buried the truth.

With the blessing of Alice O’Leary Randall, I’ve worked to recover and preserve official court records, affidavits, and medical testimony from that case and others like it—documents that make clear the federal government has known about marijuana’s medical efficacy for nearly 50 years. What they chose to do instead was systematically suppress the evidence, stall public research, and criminalize patients.

We  have the receipts.

The government didn’t just ignore cannabis’s benefits—it buried the testimonies of those whose lives depended on it. Sworn affidavits from Randall v. United States and related files include statements from physicians at top medical institutions—UCLA, Howard University, the Boston Eye and Ear Infirmary—who confirmed that cannabis effectively reduced intraocular pressure in patients suffering from glaucoma when nothing else worked.

These are not fringe opinions. They are the documented observations of licensed clinicians, backed by patient outcomes and filed in federal court. In one case, Dr. Robert S. Hepler of UCLA testified that he would have prescribed cannabis for Randall “as part of his regular glaucoma maintenance program” if it were legal to do so. Dr. John C. Merritt of Howard University reached similar conclusions through government-authorized studies. Other physicians and patients—many of them veterans—submitted similar statements to federal courts or the DEA.

Rather than acknowledge the growing body of evidence, federal agencies like the DEA and FDA obfuscated. Internal transcripts from the 1977 Drug Abuse Research Advisory Committee reveal open discussions about how to avoid dealing with Congressional pressure to reschedule cannabis. They knew the medical value. They chose suppression over transparency.

To this day, the pattern continues. Veterans—many of whom turn to cannabis after finding VA-prescribed pharmaceuticals ineffective or harmful—are gaslit with diagnoses like "Cannabis Use Disorder," weaponized to silence dissent and discredit lived experience. The system punishes us not for using drugs irresponsibly, but for seeking healing on terms outside the approved framework.

One patient, a veteran with AIDS, was quietly provided cannabis grown by the federal government and distributed through the Audie L. Murphy VA Hospital. He may be the only person (aside from Lynn Pierson) to ever officially receive federal marijuana through the VA system. Instead of making this a model of care, the government buried his story too.

This is not about nostalgia or history—it’s about accountability. These records show a pattern of deliberate neglect. They are not rumors or speculation. They are on file, signed by doctors, and rubber-stamped by the courts.

The federal government has had 50 years to make it right. Instead, it has chosen to hide the evidence, attack the credibility of patients, and obstruct reform. At what point does negligence become state-sponsored harm?

We are told that we lack scientific evidence. In truth, we’ve been drowning in it since the 1970s. We are told cannabis is dangerous. What’s dangerous is a government willing to let people suffer, go blind, or die, rather than admit it was wrong.

It’s time for the truth to come out of the shadows.

We have the receipts. Now we demand justice.

Ricardo Pereyda is a U.S. Army combat veteran turned cannabis truth-digger, political dissident, and reluctant archivist of America’s forgotten sins. He once walked the streets of Baghdad with a rifle and now roams the bureaucratic graveyards of federal cannabis policy with a flashlight and a middle finger.

After nearly losing himself to VA meds and government gaslighting, Ricardo didn’t just turn to weed—he turned to history. He unearthed a mountain of affidavits and medical testimony that the feds tried to bury, digitizing decades of evidence while helping Alice O’Leary Randall breathe life into Project 50. He didn’t ask for permission—he asked for the records. And when they gave him nothing, he found them anyway.

With one class left at the University of Arizona, he walked out to fight for truth in the shadows of broken systems. He’s tangled with think tanks, organized garden-based healing movements, and been blackballed from civic fellowships for saying what needed to be said.

Featured in Rolling Stone, VICE, CNN, and the haunted corners of your conscience, Ricardo isn’t here to beg for reform. He’s here to remind us that we already knew the truth—we just didn’t have the guts to read it.