Pride
LGBT+ activists fought for medical cannabis
access at the height of the Aids crisis. We
examine the community’s history of
canna-activism.
Cannabis activism has a
long history intertwined
with the LGBT+ community.
While access has improved, so too
has interest from pharmaceutical
companies. This in turn threatens to
erase the contributions made by the
community who fought for access,
legislation and helped to draft laws.
As the Aids crisis of the 1980s
worsened, gay men
demanded access to
medicinal cannabis as
they watched people
pass away from the
disease. The fi rst
diagnosis of what
was then referred
to as Gay Related
Immune Defi ciency
Disease (GRIDS) came in
1981 as healthcare workers
began to see more cases of rare
diseases in young gay men.
Human Immunodefi ciency Disease
(HIV) is a virus that attacks the cells
that help the body fi ght infection.
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This makes the person vulnerable
to disease or infection. It is spread
through the bodily fl uids of person
with HIV through unprotected sex,
blood or sharing needles. A person
living with HIV is considered to have
Aids if their CD4 cell count falls below
200 per cubic millimetre of blood,
or if they develop an opportunistic
infection despite a good CD4 count.
Azidothymidine (AZT) an anti-retroviral
drug was one of the only medications
available in 1987. It was
originally developed for
cancer treatment in the
1960s but failed to work
during tests. It was
controversially rushed
through Food and
Drug Administration
(FDA) testing in the
US and was made
available in under two
years. Costing $8,000 a year
at the time, ($17,000 in today’s
money) AZT was out of reach to most
US patients, especially those without
insurance. The side effects could be
intense, with reports of skin peeling,
nausea, severe intestinal issues and
extreme tiredness. Aids patients
suffered from different opportunistic
diseases which meant no one could be
sure if AZT was working.
The community turned to cannabis to
help deal with the symptoms and side
effects of AZT such as neuropathic
pain which is where the exterior
sheath covering nerve cells is stripped
away exposing nerve endings, causing
intense pain. It helped ease mental
health distress such as depression and
anxiety brought on by the diagnosis.
Denis Peron opened the fi rst
medicinal cannabis dispensary
after his partner, Jonathan West
was diagnosed. Peron was arrested
following a raid at his home in San
Francisco but was later released after
West testifi ed on his behalf. Jonathan
passed away from the disease in 1990.
“Jonathan was taking many prescribed
drugs,” Dennis recalls. “There were
severe side effects, including nausea
and loss of appetite. Marijuana was the
only drug that eased his pain, restored
his appetite and gave him some
moments of dignity in that last year.
I had hundreds of friends with Aids
who relied on marijuana for the same