Ricardo "Rico" 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, 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.
A powerful true story of juvenile probation, cannabis criminalization, and the broken system that failed a kid still trying to survive.
A veteran writer reflects on civil disobedience, cannabis, trauma, and the “Burn Slow” doctrine that helped him rebuild a life inside his psychedelic war room.
A veteran’s raw account of survival, recovery, and how cannabis helped him rebuild his life—and confront the hypocrisy of civic leadership.
When I hit U.S. soil after playing soldier in Germany and tasting Baghdad’s dust in 2005, I came back with souvenirs: two ticking time bombs
A powerful true story of juvenile probation, cannabis criminalization, and the broken system that failed a kid still trying to survive.
A veteran writer reflects on civil disobedience, cannabis, trauma, and the “Burn Slow” doctrine that helped him rebuild a life inside his psychedelic war room.
A veteran’s raw account of survival, recovery, and how cannabis helped him rebuild his life—and confront the hypocrisy of civic leadership.
When I hit U.S. soil after playing soldier in Germany and tasting Baghdad’s dust in 2005, I came back with souvenirs: two ticking time bombs called pharmaceuticals and alcohol. They were courteous at first—pills like little government pamphlets suggesting calm, booze like a smiling grenade—and then suddenly you’re forgetting how to breathe between doctor appointments. Not a thing I’m looking
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