Green Grass And The Grey Tide
I Thought I Told You To Control Your Titles
No one really pays these posts too much attention, anyway. I’m pretty sure I made a joke two posts ago about the rise of fascist Germany and no one really called me out on that. Carte Blanche, folks!
I’m not even sure that my title makes sense, I was going for a play on Green Grass and High Tides. That already sounds like a euphemism for cannabis, so I hope I didn’t stretch it too far by using ‘The Grey Tide’ instead of ‘High Tides’.
I hope the reason for my change is clear, because according to google I might be the only one referring to our planet’s aging population as the Grey Tide, or the Silver Tide. Seniors, people! I’m trying to write about seniors and cannabis here.
That Was Easily Your Lamest Intro Yet
It’s been a rough week.
Back to my point, though, I do want to talk about seniors and cannabis. They’re currently the fastest-growing cohort of cannabis users, and there’s a good chance that within a few years they’ll be the age group smoking more than any other.
There are a lot of good reasons for that: many of the ailments people look to cannabis to treat are more common in senior citizens, and typically more pronounced. Conditions like arthritis and chronic pain only worsen as you age, to the point that many seniors have to take multiple medications every morning just to flex their knuckles more than ten degrees to either side. Rather than swallow a handful of pills, many of those senior citizens are instead electing to swallow a cannabis edible.
CBD (cannabidiol) is especially popular among more senior cannabis aficionados, as many of them would prefer to not get high. Older users typically report that the main reasons they use cannabis are pain relief, to treat chronic conditions, and to relieve anxiety from isolation. Many seniors desire these effects without the psychoactive properties of THC, which has provided CBD a nice, new, comfy market to enjoy and settle into.
Whether they use THC or CBD, the fact is that seniors are trying more weed than they ever have. Another barrier to senior use, historically, has been the need to smoke the stuff. Seniors have more respiratory problems than the population at large, so many likely wrote off cannabis as being too harsh on their lungs. Rightfully so, at the time! Today, however, we have products like tinctures and edibles that completely circumvent the problem for potential users with concerns. The world of cannabis has changed so much since legalization that a number of seniors who might have once turned up their nose are instead sniffing out of a big bag of grey market weed before bed.
Old People Smoking Is Weird, Though
It’s gonna blow your mind that seniors also have a lot more sex than any other age group, then. Old people know how to party! They’ve been doing it a long-ass time.
Personally, I think that older people smoking cannabis is great. Older folks get a bad rap for being too conservative, especially on subjects such as cannabis. I’m willing to take almost any sign of progressive moral development in older generations as a victory, because there haven’t been too many of those for a while.
Just the fact that a whole generation of people who lived through the likes of Reefer Madness and the outset of The War On Drugs can turn it all around in later life and just sit down to smoke a joint, well, it fills me with hope for the future. That shit is fairly scarce right now, so I’ll take hope where I can get it. Even if it’s in the form of an octogenarian vape lord giggling on a park bench with his bag of weed just close enough to where he keeps his bag of bird feed that he might just get too high and mix them up if I watch long enough. Just maybe.
I wonder how long you could try to smoke bird feed before you would notice that something was wrong. I guess it would depend how much you’d smoked beforehand (cannabis or bird feed, either/or).
Kind Of A Weird Aside, There
Let’s get back on track, then.
It just so happens that ingesting cannabis can solve a lot of the most common issues adults face as they grow older. It’s a happy little coincidence that’s led a lot of greying matriarchs and patriarchs to dabble with the devil weed they once abhorred in youth! What a sentence that was.
Even for seniors who aren’t suffering from chronic health conditions, there are lots of draws to trying cannabis. Research suggests that so-called ‘cannabis clubs‘ for seniors have been popping up across Canada and parts of the US where adult use of cannabis is legal. Whether they’re organized by local recreation centres, or even run on-site by the staff at retirement homes and assisted living facilities, events run by these clubs are getting more attendance than most other outings aimed at senior residents.
In some states, there are even enterprising groups of seniors organizing field trips to dispensaries and making an entire day out of learning about, purchasing, and trying cannabis. I don’t care how old you are, that sounds like a shitload of fun. I would love to spend a day smoking pre-rolls with 80-year olds and talking about music that I’ve never heard before. Honestly, that sounds a hell of a lot more exciting than anything my friends and I are likely to do when we smoke.
Seniors are badass.
That Certainly Sounds Pretty Badass
It is.
To backtrack a little, however, being badass probably isn’t the reason that so many seniors are looking to cannabis. They might be trying it again after a multiples-decades-long break, but at that point it might as well be the first time. Weed has changed a lot in just the past five years; I can’t imagine what it would be like to smoke it after a thirty-year break! I’d probably spend the next thirty years coughing.
Increasing health concerns are yet another reason driving seniors to use cannabis, as many common health concerns tend to get worse as they get older. The federal legalization of cannabis has allowed it to present as a more natural solution to conditions like glaucoma or insomnia, that can be difficult to treat through surgery or traditional pharmaceuticals.
There are even studies that suggest the use of cannabis can help create new neural pathways in the brains of senior patients, and in doing so help them to stave off the symptoms of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
That All Seems Very Promising
It is! There are a lot of reasons to be excited about cannabis, especially if you’re a senior citizen. However, cannabis is still a drug, and it can have negative side effects. One of the most common is the interaction between cannabis and certain blood thinners, which can increase the risk for bleeding.
Like any other medication, the benefits of cannabis must always be weighed against potential costs and side-effects. Even if you smoked when you were younger, changes to your physical health over time can affect the way your body is able to process the substance. Even if you’re pretty sure, it’s always best to talk to your physician before you try anything new (even if it looks like fun).
All in all, whether you’ve tried it in the past or not, I’d say to any senior citizen considering whether or not to take a puff from that ol’ marijuana cigarette to go ahead and dive and right in. Talk to you doctor first, and then dive right on in. The water’s fine. Not fine enough to drink, though, don’t let anyone convince you to do that.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the first ads for cannabis that we’re allowed to see are filled with images of sky-high seniors, either. They’re about to be a massive market in the industry.