In the timeline of HIV/AIDS at the start of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s there were not available pharmaceutical treatments to address the disease or provide relief of the symptoms. Many people could use medical cannabis to get relief that they could not get in any other way. However, at that time cannabis was illegal in many places. Because LGBT+ people were disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS, the LGBT community had a new and urgent need for access to cannabis. activism for LGBT+ rights began to overlap with activism for access to cannabis. This LGBT activism for cannabis sometimes organized as clubs or social networks through which people with cannabis would distribute it to people with AIDS. In 1990 a news report claimed that many people with HIV use cannabis for palliative care.
