Older Americans Overwhelmingly Support Legalizing Pot

Shuffleboard? Oh, Maybe Let’s Get High Instead
CN: NY Times By Alyson Krueger 3,23,13
For Cher Neufer, a 65-year-old retired teacher, socializing with friends (all in their 60s) means using marijuana. Once a week they get together to play Texas Hold ’Em poker “and pass around a doobie,” Ms. Neufer said. When company stops by her home in Akron, Ohio, she offers a joint, and when it’s someone’s birthday, a bong is prepared. She even hosts summer campfires where the older folk listen to the Beach Boys, Led Zeppelin and the Beatles; eat grilled steaks and hot dogs; and get high (not necessarily in that order). “It’s nice,” Ms. Neufer said. “It’s just a social thing. It’s like when people get together, and they crack open their beers.”

Statistics suggest that more members of the older generations, like Ms. Neufer, are using marijuana. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health reported in 2011 that 6.3 percent of adults between the ages of 50 and 59 used the drug. That number has risen from 2.7 percent in 2002.

And anecdotal evidence points to much of this use being sociable rather than medical.

When 70-year-old Robert Platshorn, a marijuana activist who was jailed for three decades after dealing the drug, moved into a gated community in West Palm Beach, Fla., three years ago, he said he “met people in my development who were looking strange at me.” Now, he said, couples invite him to their condominiums to get high together (Mr. Platshorn insisted he never accepts these offers).

Moms for Marijuana International, a pro-marijuana group that brings people together to socialize and learn about the positive aspects of the plant, has received so many queries from older people over the past year that it is creating chapters called Grannies for Grass in Illinois, Ohio and Missouri.full story continued

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS32QtGgBZ8"]Older Patients Turn to Marijuana for Relief - YouTube

Cannabis crusader Dr. Lester Grinspoon
on his 40+ years of marijuana reform (and meeting a Beatle)

Older Americans Overwhelmingly Support Legalizing Medical Pot



AARP Survey Says
December 22, 2004 - Washington, DC, USA

Nearly 75 percent of those age 45 and older support the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, according to a national poll of 1,706 Americans conducted for the AARP.

Overall, 72 percent of respondents agreed with the statement, "Adults should be allowed to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if a physician recommends it." Support was highest among respondents who resided in the West (82 percent) and the Northeast (79 percent), regions where several statewide medical marijuana laws have previously been enacted.

The AARP survey results are similar to previous findings, including a CNN/Time Magazine survey which reported that 80 percent of Americans backed the legal use of medical cannabis.

The AARP is the largest US advocacy group for seniors. The organization has not taken a political position regarding the medicinal use of marijuana.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of the NORML Foundation at (202) 483-5500. A complete summary of national and statewide medical marijuana polling data is available on NORML's website.

Poll Examines Medical Marijuana Support
Poll Shows Seniors Back Medical Marijuana
By ELIZABETH WOLFE, AP WASHINGTON (Dec. 18)
Nearly three-fourths of older Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use, according to a poll done for the nation's largest advocacy group for seniors. More than half of those questioned said they believe marijuana has medical benefits, while a larger majority agreed the drug is addictive. AARP, with 35 million members, says it has no political position on medical marijuana and that its local branches have not chosen sides in the scores of state ballot initiatives on the issue in recent elections.

"Marijuana, in its natural form,
is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man."
-- Francis Young,
DEA Administrative Law Judge
Docket No. 86-22. 1988.

Granny Storm Crow's MMJ List

Jack Herer’s “The Emperor Wears No Clothes”



Ganjabars in Vending Machines
Ain't that America, Home of the Free Baby.

Cannabis tea revisited: A systematic evaluation

Cuppa Gives A Better 'ooh'
Relaxing with a cuppa has taken on a whole new dimension for members of a city charity, who have spent the past three months testing out CANNABIS TEA.

With the use of cannabis tea
only a small proportion of THC in the cannabis is ingested

Cannabis butter to spread across Europe

Nabiximols: trade name Sativex
A patented cannabinoid oromucosal mouth spray.

How Cannabis Cures Cancer And Why No One Knows

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0psJhQHk_GI"]RUN FROM THE CURE - Full Version - YouTube

Feds Need One Million Joints June 24, 2000
The government may be waging a war on illegal drugs, but it continually has the need for marijuana a lot of marijuana. In fact, it has just placed an order for one million cannabis (marijuana) cigarettes and some bulk pot, both Mexican and Colombian.

Patients Out of Time
Irvin Rosenfeld's 115,000th joint
Cannabis Medicine

Maple Sugar Hashish Candy
Starting in the 1860s, the Ganja Wallah Hasheesh Candy Company made maple sugar hashish candy, which soon became one of the most popular treats in America. For 40 years, it was sold over the counter and advertised in newspapers, as well as being listed in the catalogs of Sears-Roebuck, as a totally harmless, delicious, and fun candy.



Ganja 4 PTSD & Depression
Grandma Says She Used Pot To Ease Pain
Toke-A-Day May Keep Old Memory Functioning
A Day in the Life of A Dementia Sufferer
"Coming up at eleven," local TV newscasters around the country were breathlessly promising: "how pot could save your life!" The disclosure that marijuana's prime active ingredients can shield human beings from brain damage...

 

Effects of smoked marijuana on food intake and body weight

THC improves appetite and reverses weight loss in AIDS patients

THC effective in appetite and weight loss in severe lung disease (COPD)

Drug Czar's Thalidomide v Cannabis for Wasting Syndrome

A study of 9,000 mothers and children in Avon suggested those who consumed less of the essential fatty acid Omega-3 had children with lower IQs.

Omega 3 EFA's make 'babies brainier' (hemp seed)

Characterization, amino acid composition
and in vitro digestibility of hemp (Cannabis) proteins

HEMP SEED: (1) *(2)
THE MOST NUTRITIONALLY COMPLETE FOOD SOURCE IN THE WORLD

Hemp seed oil: A source of valuable essential fatty acids

Occurrence of "omega-3" stearidonic acid in hemp seed

Hemp Seed Oil : The Wonder Oil For the New Millennium

According to the latest research, there are about 45 nutrients that humans can't live without and which their bodies can't manufacture: 21 minerals, 13 vitamins, eight amino acids and two essential fatty acids. No single food has them all. But when a food is discovered that is a rich source of several essential nutrients, such as hemp seed, it makes nutrition news. Its promoters bill hemp seed as the soybean of the new millennium. In addition to containing vitamins and minerals (calcium, iron, thiamine, niacin and riboflavin), hemp seed, like the soybean, is a vegetable source of complete protein, having all eight amino acids. Hemp oil (pressed from the hemp seed) is, according to many, the best source of the two essential fatty acids (or EFAs) we can't live without: omega 3 alpha-linolenic acid and omega 6 linoleic acid.
Many Essential Nutrients Found in Hemp Seed.
By Nancy Ross Ryan - Chicago Tribune July 27, 2000

Nixon Lie Keeps on Killing

One Drug Arrest Every 19 Seconds! D"oh Gilligan!

Marijuana Is Safer:
So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?

Granpa's Marijuana handbook



Sweeping Changes to Medical Marijuana from Lawyer for Federal Contractor?
Jan-21-2008Tim King Salem-News.com


One physician told Salem-News that the average age of the Oregon medical marijuana patient is 47. Few are under 25, and many are considerably older. Photo courtesy: NORML

Marijuana Greenhouses Set Up by SoCal Senior Citizens
Dennis Romero Mon., Jun. 13 2011 laweekly
We have much love for the weed-smoking seniors of Laguna Woods Village in Orange County, a retirement community that marks the epicenter of O.C. conservatism. About 150 of the 18,000 oldsters there have formed a medical marijuana club and, after their pot gardens were rejected by fellow retirees and then area cops, they've decided to go MacGruber on it. That's right, these gray-haired geezers got more weed than ...continued


Lonnie Painter, 65, rips one.


The Granny Purps dispensary offered a complimentary marijuana cigarette for every four cans of food a patient brought during the holiday season. Reports show that Granny Purps took in 11,000 pounds of food and handed out 2,000 joints between November and Christmas Eve, when the promo ended. All the food was donated to the Second Harvest Food Bank.

Redding Charity Turns Down Pot Dispensary’s Food

“The Lord impressed on me to tell him thanks, but no thanks,” he said, adding that he does not regret that decision. “I feel good about the decision. It felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders.”
~ Chris Solberg, director of Loaves and Fishes

Ancient Temple Hashish Incense! Did Jesus Inhale?
Not surprisingly, records of the use of cannabis as both a drink and an incense can be traced back to some of the earliest civilizations and cultures, as we shall see with a look at cannabis incense in the Ancient World.

Studying Marijuana and Its Loftier Purpose

Aging? Got Ganja?

 

Teaching Seniors the Benefits of Medical Marijuana
The Goal - To educate and inform seniors on the benefits and exciting discoveries in the medical cannabis field. To encourage activism for legalization and create demand for safe access. Seniors vote and they talk to their representatives.

Media
Old Toke Home: Al Madrigal investigates medical marijuana's effects on America's most vulnerable, Jazzy-riding citizens.

Poll: As a senior, what is your opinion on medical marijuana?
I'm for it 99% Total votes: 80

seniors and cannabis google * bing



Membership
Every Underwriter and Membership helps put "Should Grandma Smoke Pot?" on the air one more time. Like public broadcasting, we need Underwriters and Members to support us in ending cannabis prohibition once and for all. Momentum is on our side, now is the time push harder than ever to reach our goal.

In the News

WSJ: Joint Effort:
Reefer Roadshow Asks Seniors to Support Medical Pot

CBS12: MY GENERATION -
Seniors push for pot on South Florida 'Silver Tour'

CNN: Getting Grandma to try pot

WTSB: Seniors push for pot in South Florida



KSDK:
Turning grandmas onto marijuana

Miami New Times:
Pot smuggler schools seniors on medical marijuana

Sun Sentinel:
Tour promoting medicinal pot legalization among seniors makes synagogue stop

NBC Miami:
Former Drug Smuggler Leading "The Silver Tour" for Medical Marijuana

TOTT: tokeofthetown
The Secret Weapon That Can Get Marijuana Legalized Nationwide



Marijuana Use By Seniors Goes Up As Boomers Age

MIAMI — In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of red wine. A crisp copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night like clockwork, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes marijuana.

Long a fixture among young people, use of the country's most popular illicit drug is now growing among the AARP set, as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and '70s grows older.

The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The rise was most dramatic among 55- to 59-year-olds, whose reported marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent.

Observers expect further increases as 78 million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age. For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma it did for previous generations, and they tried it decades ago.

Some have used it ever since, while others are revisiting the habit in retirement, either for recreation or as a way to cope with the aches and pains of aging.

Siegel walks with a cane and has arthritis in her back and legs. She finds marijuana has helped her sleep better than pills ever did. And she can't figure out why everyone her age isn't sharing a joint, too.

"They're missing a lot of fun and a lot of relief," she said. continued...

Each night, 66-year-old Stroup says he sits down to the evening news, pours himself a glass of wine and rolls a joint. He's used the drug since he was a freshman at Georgetown, but many older adults are revisiting marijuana after years away.

Whether they resume the habit of smoking or whether they simply understand that it's no big deal and that it shouldn't be a crime, in large numbers they're on our side of the issue."

"The kids are grown, they're out of school, you've got time on your hands and frankly it's a time when you can really enjoy marijuana,"

"Food tastes better, music sounds better, sex is more enjoyable."
Keith Stroup,
the founder and lawyer of NORML,
a marijuana advocacy group.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxj4aL0OCSw"]Florida Seniors Lobby for Legal Marijuana - YouTube

Slide Show:
Medical Marijuana and the Seniors Who Rely on It
Medical marijuana and seniors (1 of 8)

The biggest users of our medical system are senior citizens, and it should therefore come as no surprise that when medical marijuana first became available in California, seniors were some of the first to try it out. Seniors are finding that medical marijuana works on a large variety of illnesses that modern medicine has yet to effectively treat. They claim it’s effective for everything from asthma to the recurrence of polio. However, being legal and effective doesn’t make it any less controversial. Seeing a grandparent smoking marijuana can be a shock.

Chris Hermes of Americans for Safe Access says that 50 percent of medical marijuana users are over the age of 50 and fifteen states currently have medical marijuana laws. In the images that follow, by photographer Steve LaBadessa, meet the seniors who use medical marijuana and read them explain, in their own words, why they rely on it to lead pain-free and productive lives.
Credit: Steve LaBadessa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVmbEaRAYRY"]First Person: Seniors Using Medical Marijuana - YouTube

Senior Medical Cannabis facebook
The Seniors Guide to Medical Marijuana by Dr. B. Fisher. This page is dedicated to providing seniors (50 years +) with medicinal, legal and legislative as well as social information regarding medical cannabis.

NORML’s Eleven Surprising Things About Marijuana That Seniors Need to Know
By Laurel Dewey November 3, 2012
Editor's note: by Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director
During the nearly two years I spent researching my book, Betty’s (Little Basement) Garden, I met a lot of seniors who were intrigued with the idea of using marijuana to either replace their prescription medications or eliminate them completely. The problem was that most of these people had either never used marijuana or had bought hook, line and sinker into the fervent propaganda campaigns against the herb. Many of the seniors I interviewed told me they’d be open to using the herb if they knew it was effective and safe. Based on my conversations with them, I complied a list of the most common questions and concerns they had. In addition, some of the seniors shared their observations and reactions with me when they used marijuana for the first time. continued...

Medical Marijuana for Seniors
Welcome to Americans for Safe Access' (ASA) online community. ASA is the largest national member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research. ASA works to overcome political and legal barriers by creating policies that improve access to medical cannabis for patients and researchers through legislation, education, litigation, grassroots actions, advocacy and services for patients and their providers. ASA has over 30,000 active members with chapters and affiliates in more than 40 states. continued...

Aging and Medical Marijuana
Doctors and scientists have found medical cannabis effective in both managing symptoms and treating illness associated with aging.

The Silver Tour

AARP poll on Medical Marijuana

ASA Medical Marijuana Condition-based Unions Survey
In order to better serve you and the movement for safe and legal access, Americans for Safe Access has put together a Condition-based Union Survey. If you are a member of an ASA condition-based union, a person who uses medical cannabis to control or manage symptoms of an illness or injury, a caregiver, friend, health professional or physician, please take a few minutes to complete this survey.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYf82gmDYLo"]Seniors turning to Medical Marijuana - YouTube

 

B.C. Seniors Are Using Medical Marijuana To Get A Good Night's Sleep
CC: By Thandi Fletcher, The Province - Monday, May 27 2013

Before Cherie Scott goes to sleep every night, the 86-year-old has a sweet bedtime snack: a marijuana cookie.

With her chic bob hairstyle and tweed blazer, Scott — who prefers to be addressed as “Mrs. Scott” — doesn’t exactly fit the stoner stereotype. Admittedly, before she tried it, she was totally against the drug.

“I thought the whole system, it was evil and addictive and you were a little cuckoo with it,” the Burnaby senior told The Province.

But when she found herself in a dire situation, unable to sleep after her husband died of lung cancer in 1980, Scott said she was desperate for relief. Fearing she would become addicted to sleeping pills, Scott’s son suggested she try marijuana.

Mitch D’Kugener, who has a doctor’s prescription, smoked pot to alleviate symptoms of his attention deficit disorder and arthritis pain, and he thought it might also help his mom.

“Now she’s having the best sleep that she’s had in the last 30 years,” he said. “Her quality of life has improved.” - Read the entire article at The Province.



Senior Americans Overwhelmingly Support Legalizing Pot

Aging? Got Ganja?
Cannabis protects the brain.
Toke-A-Day May Keep Old Memory Functioning
Granny Storm Crow's MMJ List
Sleep & Relaxation
Blasphemy and The Tree of Life
Ancient Temple Hashish Incense! Did Jesus Inhale?


Teddy Kennedy RIP
Ganjawar Prevents Brain Tumor Treatment
Cannabis Shrinks Tumors: Government Knew in 74

Seniors Home Care! has become a huge growth industry along with other for profit over people enterprises. Urine testing, rehabilitation and incarceration or arrest and job loss. Eviction and government assistance even medical care denied due solely to Prohibition. Such a waste for the profits of a few. How we treat our seniors tells a lot about a society. Warehousing and denying one of the oldest safest remedies and relief is beyond reason. Closer to mechanical or processed thought without regards to reality and the devastation prohibition is causing. Especially to the most vulnerable, making the duty-bound enforcers as guilty as the profiteers behind the bogus laws. I make a Ganja toddy for seniors with 100ml milk 1g/bud and a tad of butter, simmer and chill. A teaspoon or two before bed for a restful sleep, without the hangover of pharmaids. Or the chemically induced nightmares from Big Pharma white powders. I've had families praise the difference between incoherent zombies of ambian, even at the lowest doses. Compared to a refreshed talkative loved one sharing old memories after a good nights sleep. As a hospice Home Health Aid I've seen that is sometimes the final chance. I also discovered that it preserves the milk.



Patients Don't Need Politicians or COPs...Buzz Off
Cannabis: The Next Diabetes Drug?
Drug Czar linked to deception

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KS32QtGgBZ8"]Older Patients Turn to Marijuana for Relief - YouTube

 

Kansas Silver-Haired Legislature endorses medical marijuana
By Scott Rothschild — Lawrence Journal-World October 3, 2013
Topeka — The Kansas Silver-Haired Legislature, a senior-citizen advisory group, has approved a resolution in support of medical marijuana.


Photo by Scott Rothschild
Jim Snyder, 80, president of the Kansas Silver-Haired Legislature, seated in the Kansas House chamber after the group's meeting. The Silver-Haired Legislature approved a resolution supporting medical marijuana.

"We know it's controversial, but so is getting up in the morning when you get to be our age," said Jim Snyder, the 80-year-old president of the group.

The non-binding recommendation, which supports Senate Bill 9, will be forwarded to the Kansas Legislature.

SB 9 would allow people who have certain medical conditions, such as cancer, and have received recommendations from their physicians to use marijuana. It would also have the state regulate and license medical marijuana centers to provide the drug.

Similar measures have been filed in the Kansas Legislature over the past several years, but the issue has gained no traction.

Snyder, of Topeka, said Thursday that may change because of the Silver-Haired Legislature's endorsement and the increasing number of states that have approved medical marijuana.

He said older people are simply looking for ways to manage pain."When you get old, you get creaky, and you hurt," he said. And Snyder said sometimes prescription drugs that are currently available are too powerful.

Earlier, the Silver-Haired Legislature heard from Jack Cole, who leads the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. Cole, a retired undercover narcotics officer from New Jersey, told the group legalizing drugs could actually reduce crime and violence and not increase use.

The Silver-Haired Legislature is a unicameral legislative body consisting of 125 representatives. All members of the group are age 60 or older. Members submit forms to be candidates and are elected during elections run by local area agencies on aging. The group's recommendations are then forwarded to the Kansas Legislature and Gov. Sam Brownback.

The group provides an educational experience in the political process and an opportunity to identify policy concerns for Kansas’ older adults.

Older/Senior Americans Overwhelmingly Support Legalizing Pot
Teaching Seniors the Benefits of Ganja
Seniors Using Ganja For A Good Night's Sleep