A little dignity, please - Tennessee nursing home drug-tests its elderly patients

Huntsville Times ^ | Dec. 18, 2002

[Wolfie]

A little dignity, please

A Tennessee nursing home shouldn't have drug-tested all its elderly patients

Growing old, they say, isn't for sissies. Physical problems abound. Mental capacity, for many, diminishes. Depression and anxiety loom. And, like Rodney Dangerfield, you sometimes don't get any respect.

Almost 100 elderly patients at the Claiborne County Hospital and Nursing Home in Tazewell, Tenn., found that out. They're being investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the local police.

Why? Because the son of one patient noticed his father was acting differently. Worried that it might be a medication problem, a doctor checked the elderly man. The physician ordered a drug screen. It showed the man had consumed marijuana in some form.

When a second patient showed similar symptoms, the facility's medical director, a spokesman said Tuesday, decided to test all 98 patients. About two dozen tests came back positive, although at least one test result is being disputed.

The issue here isn't legalizing marijuana or looking the other way when a group of people about to leave these mortal coils decides to party down. The issue is one of dignity.

The medical director was wrong to issue a blanket test of every patient. The director should have confined the testing to patients who were exhibiting behavior inconsistent with their previous actions. And the director should have consulted family members before ordering the tests.

Just because people are old and in a nursing home is no reason for them to be subjected to the indignity of drug testing. Just because they can't physically prevent the drug screening is no reason to force them to do it.

Officials at Claiborne County Hospital and Nursing Home, if they live so long, may some day find themselves in the position of being defenseless and relying on the kindness of strangers. Let's hope those strangers afford them more dignity than the 98 patients at the nursing home received.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

I just can't get the vision of some sort of geriatric Cheech and Chong movie out of my mind! Sounds like the kind of place I'd like to spend my final days...

[bigfootbob]

This makes me sick. Yesterday, (12/20/02), Canada put up a website sick people can order pot for approved illnesses and it comes with a money back guarantee. This issue is really dividing conservatives. Sooner we embrace the compassionate use of medical marijuana, the better.

[motzman]

It's been a long time since I've said it, but it's appropriate for this article...

Kevin Curry's America

[billorites]

There's the future for middle-aged pot heads.

They spent their youth getting stoned behind their parents backs.

Now, they're sneaking around trying not to get "busted" by their 12 year old kids.

Next, they'll spend their final years listening to Firesign Theater and trying to hide the seed burns on their hospital johnnies.

[motzman]

Next, they'll spend their final years listening to Firesign Theater and trying to hide the seed burns on their hospital johnnies

LMAO!! Too Funny!

[dljordan]

Why, these old geezer dopeheads ought to be arrested and thrown in jail for the rest of their lives. And thay ought to have all their property confiscated and auctioned off so the brave drug warriors can afford better cop toys. Traitor scum! Don't they know we're at war with drugs?

[motzman]

Why, these old geezer dopeheads ought to be arrested and thrown in jail for the rest of their lives.

No, that would be cruel. Just lock them up in a nursing home for rest of their lives.

Oh yeah, they're already in nursing homes.


nevermind...

[Jonathon Spectre]

We all know the devastating, unsustainable damage to the American Way of Life that can be caused by an old man in an old person's prison getting high.

[Wolfie]

I picture some poor WWII vet, pissing in a cup on demand, and wondering what the hell happened.

[Wolfie]

ping

[Sparta]

I'm thinking of a word for this. Would Jackboots do here?

[timydnuc]

So the old folks are getting 'toked up'. WOW!

I'm getting a mental picture of this and it's just priceless (FONTFLOLPMP). They're sitting around 'flaming a number' listening to 'In the Mood' and trying to find some transendental meaning in the music. Going to the cafeteria and eating everything in sight. Smuggling in Cheeze Puffs, Fritos, and a 6 pack to watch 3 Stooges reruns in the middle of the night. Old guys giving the old gals the line, "Hey, sweetie, ya wanna give those new hips a little work out in my room?"

Note to my Son: Send me to a Nursing Home like this one!

[mewzilla]

They'd be better off testing their employees...

[TightSqueeze]

There's the future for middle-aged pot heads.

On first blush it seems that they live longer than their alcoholic counterparts. In the bitter end... The-Weed-Will-Succeed tm. Might as well get over it while there is still a chance.

[MHGinTN]

Sounds like ingestion from a food source and it is therefore correct to test eveyone to get at the heart of the matter. Nursing homes routinely use drugs to control patients, to restrain patients via drug induced apathy. Drugs can aid the authorities efforts to control and account for the wards in their care. It stinks but it is very prevalent.

[Nick Thimmesch]

m

[jmc813]

Post of the week.

[muggs]

LOL! This could be more true than you know.