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LAGUNA WOODS, Calif. – The group of white-haired people – some pushing walkers, others using canes – are arriving right now at the gates of Laguna Woods Village, a community of luxury retirees in the hills scenic that frame this southern suburb of California. miles from Disneyland.
There, they board a bus to quickly get to a building that, with the exception of the green sign of the Red Cross, looks like a trendy café-bar. Most people, usually between the ages of 70 and 80, spend the next few hours enjoying a light lunch, playing a few bingo games and choosing their supply of cannabis products.
"It's like an ultimate experience for seniors," laughs Ron Atkin, a retired 76-year-old beauty retailer, as he attends the bingo behind the Bud and Bloom marijuana clinic in Santa Ana.
Most states now have legal medical marijuana, and 10 of them, including California, allow anyone 21 years of age or older to use the pot recreationally. The federal government still bans the drug even though acceptance is increasing. The 2018 General Social Survey, an annual sample of American opinion, recorded a record level of legalization of 61%, and those aged 65 and older are increasingly in favor.
Indeed, many industry leaders say the fastest growing group of customers is Atkin's – aging baby boomers or even slightly older boomers looking to treat pain. Insomnia and other diseases related to old age with the same grbad as many of them once pbaded around at parties.
"I would say that the average age of our clients is about 60 years, maybe even a little longer," said Kelty Richardson, registered nurse at Halos Health Clinic in Boulder, Colorado, who offers medical examinations and sells cannabis recommended by online store.
Its medical director, Dr. Joseph Cohen, organizes "Cannabis 101" seminars in the nearby Balfour Senior Living community, for residents wanting to know which strains are best for relieving arthritis pain or improving sleep .
Relatively few scientific studies have verified the benefits of marijuana for specific problems. According to a report published in 2017 by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine, the evidence can relieve chronic pain in adults, but the study also concluded that the lack of scientific information posed a risk for public health.
At Bud and Bloom, the winners of the bingo games carry new pens for vape, but Atkin is not really there for that. For the past two years, he has been regularly buying cannabis-infused chocolate bars and sublingual drops to treat his painful stenosis in his spine since taking prescription opioids he stopped working.
It was the "desperation" that brought him here, he said, adding that his doctors had not suggested he try marijuana for medical purposes. But they did not discourage him either.
The clinic is filled with 50 people on the bus who run counters and coolers containing everything from capsules to drops, to cannabis-infused drinks, not to mention many weeds in the old.
Adele Frascella, leaning on her cane, buys a packet of gummy candies that will help her control her arthritis pain.
"I do not like taking an opioid," said Frascella, 70.
Dressed in the fashion of glittering silver earrings, Frascella confirms with a smile that she was a pot smoker in her youth.
"I did it when I was 18, 19, 20," she said. "And then I had a baby, I got married and I stopped."
It took over a few years ago, even investing in a "volcano", an expensive and high-tech version of the old-fashioned bang that Gizmodo calls "the ultimate gadget for stoner". But these days, like many other seniors, she prefers foods to smoke.
Renee Lee, another baby boomer who smoked when he was young, took over the torch more than a dozen years after the clinical psychologist had undergone a brain operation and of other medical procedures which, according to her, made him "10 drugs a day, four times a day. "
"And I was not doing better," she said, adding that she had asked her doctor if she could try marijuana for medical purposes as a last resort. They said go and she found that it ended her pain.
In 2012, she founded the Rossmoor Medical Marijuana Club in her community of high-end retirees in San Francisco Bay.
"We started with 20 people and we were silent for about a year and a half," she said, noting that although California legalized cannabis for medical purposes in 1996, it was still considered in some circles as a forbidden drug.
Her group has more than 1,000 members and regularly organizes events, including lectures given by cannabis-friendly doctors and nurses.
People age 65 and over, Lee, make up the fastest-growing segment of the marijuana-consuming population, said Dr. Gary Small, Professor of Psychiatry and Aging at the University of California, Los Angeles. Angeles.
He thinks more studies on the effects of the drug on the elderly are needed. And while it may improve the quality of life by relieving pain, anxiety and other problems, he said, careless and unsupervised use can cause problems.
"We know that cannabis can have side effects, especially among the elderly," he said. "They can have their heads spinning. This can even affect the memory if the dose is too high or if new ingredients are incorrect. And dizziness can lead to falls, which can be very serious. "
Richardson said Colorado had seen a slight increase in the number of hospital visits soon after the state legalized cannabis in 2012. The problem, he said, was often caused by novices who consumed too much food.
This is a lesson that Dick Watts, 75, learned the hard way. The retired New Jersey roofer who is guarding a winter home in Laguna Woods Village began having trouble sleeping all night while he was 70 years old. He attended a seniors' seminar where he learned that marijuana could help, so he bought a cannabis treat. He immediately ate everything.
"It was almost deadly, man," laughed Watts.
Now, when he has trouble sleeping, he just takes a little piece of candy before bed. He said that he wakes up lucid and rested.
"And I have it on a shelf so my grandchildren can not go," said Watts.
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Associate Editor Krysta Fauria contributed to this story. Follow the full coverage of marijuana by AP: https://apnews.com/Marijuana.
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