Posted on 01/15/2019 8:57:26 AM PST by Mariner
Older people are the fastest-growing group of cannabis users, as stigma fades and some seek an alternative to prescription drugs
As attitudes towards cannabis shift, the fastest-growing group of users is over 50 – and marijuana’s popularity among seniors is beginning to change the American experience of old age.
Why are more seniors getting high? It might make more sense to ask: “Why not?” As adults reach retirement, they age out of drug tests and have far more time on their hands. Some feel liberated to abandon long-held proprieties.
Elegant vape pens and other attractive, discreet products have helped de stigmatize the drug among older Americans. “Legalization seems to make non-users seem a little less scared of it, and perhaps less judgmental,” says Jo, a 56-year-old cannabis user who preferred not to use her real name.
The seniors using cannabis today aren’t your parents’ grandparents. The generation that camped out at Woodstock is now in its seventies. They’ve been around grass long enough to realize it’s not going to kill them, and are more open to the possibility it will come with health benefits. (By contrast, in a survey of one, my 100-year-old grandmother recently said she had no interest in medical marijuana.)
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Dear FRiend.... HEMP is cannabis. It is NOT, by definition, THC psychoactive containing. Rather than bombard you with the biochemistry (my field)... suggest you read up on it.
You might find it interesting that the original controller of the Press, Mr. Citizen Kane himself, William Randolph Hearst— was responsible for aligning hemp with the scourge he loved to print stories about... marijuana (and the jazz musicians).
Reason?: Hearst’s vast newspaper empire utilized pulp paper wood/lumber sources and there were competitive newspapers coming out in HIS monopoly that were printed on the much cheaper HEMP paper stock, usually acquired from Canada (along with real brand hooch, btw). He used his political influence to both print absolutely false stories about “high on hemp” and also to change the Pure Food and Drug Act to beef up the status of Hemp as a “narcotic”.
Hemp farmers in the US are gearing up to supply a THC free supply of hemp plant fiber... for clothing, paper, cloth, and a host of other useful products (including ship’s hawsers, as in WWII). Specific legal seed sources of the genetically specific hemp plant.
Also— and this IS a breakthrough as a drug, the intense interest in the non-psychoactive cannabinoid, Cannabidiol, as both an anti-seizure agent component as well as a effective NON-opioid pain agent. Peer reviewed Journal trials in neurology and in post operative pain. The Israelis have patented a genetic manipulated hemp that produced NO, zero THC and massive amounts of CBD oil. You could smoke true hemp all day and never get high. You might get cancer though.
Please research. “Medical marijuana” WITH THC IS a Scam— and totally agree with you. And that— true marijuana is being sponsored by Big Tobacco, to hook us all on something else that is even more carcinogenic than tobacco. True that.
A good end to an a-hole’s monopoly from years ago. Citizen Cocaine, and let’s not forget— the man who manufactured the attack on the USS Maine and the Spanish American War.
“——butt missed this one. It’s like my keyboard has been takin over by the government or Google or something. “
—
It’s been taken over by a real pain in the butt.:-)
.
I would comment but I wouldnt want to sound like an immoral creepy old man.
Laz would though.
Smokin’ a little Maui-Wowie before we typed, eh? :-)
Conservatives are perfectly ok with big government, as long as it's THEIR big government.
Hey, pot is being legalized. Isn’t that resulting in less government?
I think you know legalized pot results in MORE government. You've seen the threads where underground (nontaxed) marijuana is cheaper (and stronger) than what you get at the dispensary. And so the State is cracking down on that. And so the War on Drugs continues.
And you definitely know the primary reason to legalize pot if for the tax revenue. And as the State collects more taxes, they do what? That's right - Spend more.
I could not tell if your comment about "less government" was sarcastic or facetious, but I thought I'd interject some relevant info on how that is not the case.
I like it, my wife likes, my kids like it. The women ooh and aah over it.
The only people who don't like it are old men who can't grow it themselves. I think they call that jealousy.
It was such pain in the arse to grow it out, I'm not cutting it off anytime soon.
Legalizing pot was meant to keep people from rioting? That’s pretty boring.
Do they happen to have anything available like alcohol, for those who enjoy fighting, looting and rioting?
So the conservative position is that we should ban everything that is or could be taxed?
They're not conservatives, they're right-statists. Conservative is our word and they can't have it.
That is not my position. I’m simply pointing out the libertarian hypocrisy about legal dope.
_____
LOL................ never trust anyone under 65.
The state-tested marijuana leaf in our stores now is in the range of 16-32% THC. (This is excluding the high-CBD, low-THC strains). Most are around 19-23. I think the 10X is a little exaggerated, but 5 or 6 would not be.
154 posts on a Seniors and Pot thread?
On Free Republic?
My times, they are a changin’.
“I’m over 60. I smoke a little weed (4-6 hits) every day”
Same here, except only one to three times a week. Same 4-6 hits (this is vape, not smoke) and for the same reason — insomnia, and also, yes, escaping the “end times” and feeling uplifted for a couple hours before falling asleep. Still feel good the next morning.
Note: If I vaped every day I would need more than 4-6 hits due to tolerance. But I never deliberately do more — hate the over-intoxicated feeling.
Try telling that to an Intractable Pain Patient, cancer patient who can’t get a prescription opioid, while the Illicit Street drug user is now getting clean needles, shoot up rooms with a Narcan Monitor.
US Sen from KY is going to Canada for his hernia surgery. As he’d be lucky to get pain meds and he voted for that.
Vets were the first cut off any pain meds. Younger war wounded are committing suicide as are many civilians. Many who once were capable of taking care of themselves are now bedridden or in a wheel chair. Have major surgery you get the lowest dose for if your lucky 5 days. Any other 3 days. Having just had 11 lower teeth pulled for a denture as FDA drugs damaged them. I had 3 days of 5 mg Oxycontin. 14 pills. Then had to have bone spurs removed same drill. Still waiting for healing process, took 2 weeks before the pain was down. That is considered minor.
“I assume it’s indica. Sativa has too much upside”
It doesn’t seem to matter for me. Either type, or hybrids, put me to sleep in 2-3 hours. Only one time ever did I not go to sleep for four hours or so ( yes, it was a sativa).
Well said. I worry about needing surgery someday and not getting adequate pain meds.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.