Seniors Flock to Medical Marijuana

“Physicians who treat older adults expect their cannabis use to increase as the number of states legalizing medical marijuana keeps growing.”

Full transparancy- doctors are correct, the popularity of Medical Marijuana has outstripped the scientific evidence. But my guess is that people who use tinctures, salves, etc. for pain, sleep or just to relax don’t care too much about the science. They care more about what they feel.

Also, for the record, there are a fair number of studies that document the ability of medical CBD to moderate pain, anxiety, etc.

The father of a friend of mine is having some sort of problem with his speech. This man is 80 plus, healthy and sharp as a tack. But no one can tell him what’s wrong with his speech much less give him a therapy that will help. One of Mr. Smith’s (not his real name) efforts is to find and take a CBD strain that can help him speak normally again. Mr. Smith is desperate.

Many states have legalized MM. If a person suffers from mild pain and they don’t want to use a perscription pain medication, they might use a legal but non-conventional pain medication aka Medical Marijuana.

The idea that it is somehow a problem for people to treat themselves or are self-medicating is silly, at least in my opinion. People have always treated themselves if their doctor can’t offer a therapy that is effective and/or without side effects.

Which is not to say the cannabis is not without side effects. I am simply saying that seniors who try MM for pain or sleep may be doing so because they don’t want to risk the side effects of sleeping meds or opiods.

I am a long-term cancer survivor. Scroll down the page, post a question or comment and I will reply to you ASAP.

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David Emerson

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Older Americans Are Flocking to Medical Marijuana

Doctors warn that popularity has outstripped scientific evidence.

“Shari Horne broke her toes a decade ago, and after surgery, “I have plates and pins and screws in my feet, and they get achy at times,” she said.

So Ms. Horne, 66, applies a salve containing cannabidiol, derived from the cannabis, or marijuana, plant. It eases the pain.

The salve didn’t help when she developed bursitis in her shoulder, but a tincture of cannabidiol mixed with T.H.C., the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, provided relief…

“People in their 80s and 90s, even retired Air Force colonels, are finding such relief” with cannabis, said Ms. Horne. “Almost everybody I know is using it in one form or another” — including her husband Hal, 68, a retired insurance broker, who says it helps him sleep…

Physicians who treat older adults expect their cannabis use to increase as the number of states legalizing medical marijuana keeps growing.

After the midterm elections, when Utah and Missouri voters approved medical use, 33 states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana, along with ten states that also have legalized recreational use.

Though the federal government still outlaws cannabis, classified as a Schedule I drug along with heroin (meaning that it has no therapeutic value), public support has swung sharply in favor of legalization, polls have found.

That support may rise as the baby boomers, often no strangers to marijuana, succeed their more leery parents as the oldest cohort. People aged 50 to 64 are more likely to report recent marijuana usethan their elders…

“You might not like it,” Dr. David Casarett, chief of palliative care at Duke University Medical Center, tells fellow physicians. “You might not believe in it. But your patients are using this stuff…”

Their overview — along with a major report last year from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine — points out disorders for which cannabis does appear to have therapeutic effects.

But the researchers are uneasy about the fact that older people essentially are undertaking self-treatment, with scant guidance from medical professionals…

Cannabis consumers face a confusing array of options, including various strains and brands and many methods of ingestion: smoking, vaping, tinctures, edibles, topical creams or patches. Users can also experience potentially harmful side effects…

The strongest case, Dr. Casarett said, is that cannabis can reduce neuropathic pain, sometimes caused by diabetes, shingles or chemotherapy, without the toxic effects of opioids.

Studies have also shown that cannabis alleviates the nausea and vomiting that often follows chemotherapy. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration has approved two synthetic T.H.C. drugs for that purpose, though some patients insist that smoking the real thing works better…

Seniors Flock to Medical Marijuana

“Physicians who treat older adults expect their cannabis use to increase as the number of states legalizing medical marijuana keeps growing.”

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Older Americans Are Flocking to Medical Marijuana

Doctors warn that popularity has outstripped scientific evidence.

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