Elvy Musikka is the stoned grandmother I always wanted, and if you meet her, you’ll feel the same. The OG cannabis activist lives in Eugene, and she’s the definition of a firebrand. She’s also something of a rarity in this country—someone who receives cannabis from the federal government, at no charge. Uncle Sam is her weed dealer (although he’s maybe not the best weed dealer).
Born in Colombia in 1939, Musikka moved in 1953 with her parents to the States, where surgery for her congenital cataracts left her partially blinded and eventually led to glaucoma. She was arrested in 1988 for cannabis cultivation, and decided to petition to the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), and requested to be added to an Investigative New Drug (IND) program. She was approved, which resulted in her joining Robert Randall and Irvin Rosenfeld as participants in the program. Because of their tireless efforts to help others, 18 additional patients were also enrolled, each one having to submit extensive medical records from a “reliable doctor” to the Department Enforcement Agency (DEA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and NIDA.
Musikka receives some of that infamous, federally-approved, University of Mississippi-grown cannabis—300 joints per month in a large tin, which she picks up all at once each January in Florida. (Fun fact: Over the years, that’s 104,400 joints she has smoked from the feds alone. The next time someone brags how tough they pull, drop that truth bomb.)
However, the fed’s weed leaves something to be desired, to say the least.