Cannabis for Elders (Those who would benefit most have the least access)

[RainDog]

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/07/cannabis-for-elders-a-precarious-state/278004/

Margo Bauer was desperate. Dealing with chronic nausea and frequent bouts of vomiting -- both attributed to her multiple sclerosis -- the retired nurse was constantly exhausted and in pain. That was, until she attended an informational meeting where she was introduced to medical marijuana.

Under California's Medical Marijuana Program, she received a medical marijuana card and now legally grows her own plant at a Southern California assisted living facility where she lives with her husband who suffers from Alzheimer's. She smokes a rolled joint occasionally, which she says keeps her nausea at bay, and her pain lifted to the point that she joined an all-female synchronized swimming team, the Aquadettes.

While California remains at the forefront of the country's tumultuous relationship with the marijuana industry, medical marijuana usage is on the rise amongst seniors like Bauer.

Ailments ranging from chemotherapy side effects, arthritis, glaucoma, chronic pain and even malnutrition are being treated with cannabis, a promising alternative for seniors who are increasingly susceptible to the dangerous side effects and growing dependency of multiple prescription medications. The fastest growing population in the U.S. also comprises a significant portion of medical marijuana users, amounting to as much as 50 percent, according to Kris Hermes of Americans for Safe Access, the nation's largest member-based medical marijuana advocate group.

more at the link.

a really interesting article about issues for seniors regarding their legal status to use cannabis related to changing living situations (i.e. assisted living facilities and licensing, medicare and guidelines for those who provide patient care and more.)

[enough]

1. As an elder myself. this just infuriates me, almost more than all the other infuriating things

that are coming over us all, wave after wave.

[RainDog]

2. do you live in a medically legal state?

I guess those for-profit prisons all over the nation will be the retirement homes for people who are losing their pensions, next...

sorry to sound so negative, but, yeah, with the mean-spirited govt. that's the rage these days... I guess I should look on the bright side and say, "well, at least no one in Congress is talking about Solyent Green as a pension option.

[Trillo]

3. That woman is "allowed" to grow only one plant?

One plant is no where near enough, though it's better than none. One reason is that the plant could express male flowers, presuming it was grown from seed instead of being a clone. Another is that growing outdoors there's usually only one crop per year (with the exception of "ruderalis" strains) so a self-grower would need to grow enough bud to last an entire year.

What follows has nothing to do with elderly folks, but it's tangentially related. It's about the Santa Rosa neighborhood raid of 2012. Another blogger characterized it as police terrorism.

Mejia, who wasn’t being detained like many of her neighbors, said officers had indicated they weren’t going to arrest her. She had paperwork to grow medical marijuana and said her garden was legal, with 30 plants, as is locally allowed. But Mejia, who held a receipt issued by officers, was upset her garden still was yanked.

[RainDog]

4. why not let retirement homes have medical gardens?

why not?

well, because that would be a reasonable position and we all know the federal govt. does not want to be reasonable when they can make money by putting the boot to the neck of grandma in an assisted living facility.