Beverly A. Potter - Cannabis for Seniors

Cannabis for Seniors

Beverly A. Potter, Ph.D.

Docpotter

RONIN

Berkeley, California

Important Notice:

Information in this book is provided under the First Amendment of the Constitution and is not medical advice. Readers should discuss issues raised in this book with their personal physician and follow their physicians advice regarding it. Readers should also consult an attorney as to the legal status of cannabis in their state and city.

Cannabis for Seniors

Beverly A. Potter, Ph.D.

Docpotter

Cannabis for Seniors

Copyright 2017 by Beverly A. Potter

ISBN: 978-1-57951-242-2 Pbook

ISBN: 9781579512439 Ebook

Published by

Ronin Publishing, Inc.

PO Box 3436

Oakland, CA 94609

www.roninpub.com

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author or the publisher, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Production:

Manuscript creaton: Beverly A. Potter.

Cover Design: Brian Groppe.

Book Design: Beverly A. Potter.

Content Creation: Abby Hauck/CannabisContent.com

Photos: Fotolia

Library of Congress Card Number: 2017902698

Manufactured in the United States by Lightning Source.

Distributed to the book trade by PGW/Ingram.

Acknowledgements

T hank you, Dear Reader, for picking up this book. May you find comfort and inspiration in the information shared here in.

A special thanks to Abby Hauck and her team, and to Mark Schapiro for your invaluable contributions to Cannabis for Seniors.

Docpotter

You cant stop getting older, but you dont have to get old.

Table of Contents

Why Cannabis for Seniors?

B aby boomers are turning 65 to become Seniors at an incredible rate of 10,000 each day. The percent of Americans aged 65 or older will grow to 18 percent by 2030 and it is projected that the senior citizens population will balloon to 89 million by 2050. If youve made it to 65, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicts that you will live another 19.3 years.

Senior Boomers will change the landscape of Aging.

-pressmaster

Baby boomers, born between 1946 and 1964, now becoming Senior Boomers, will dramatically change the business and lifestyle landscape. Senior boomers are predicted to stay in the workforce longer than their parents did, both because they need the money and theyre not ready to leave behind fulfilling careers. When they finally do retire, their need for health care and assisted living is predicted to alter what retirement living arrangements look like for generations to come.

Special Issues

Seniors have special issues, the most prominent of which is simple agingthe body wears out. Seniors have all kinds of aches like arthritis, stiff backs, knees, and hips, and muscle spasms. As it turns out cannabis is particularly soothing to muscles and ligaments.

Doctors readily prescribe strong addictive narcotics to seniors to ease these pains and do little monitoring of use, making it easy for seniors to slide into dependency without realizing it. It is not uncommon for seniors to be taking 8 to 10 pills, even more daily. Some report taking 20 pills a day!

It is easy for seniors become isolated. Their spouse may have died and their kids grown. They may be retired and no longer going to a work place every day to interact with co-workers. It is harder to meet new people as a senior. Just getting out and going places by oneself can be a chore; as compared to when back in college when you just stepped out the door in the dorm to fall in with other kids going somewhere. Seniors are not likely to go to a hang out bar, especially alone. With isolation comes feeling lonely and helpless to be able to change it can lead to anxiety and worrying about ones situation and health and future.

Cannabis promtes restful sleep.

-Sandor Kacso

Another frequent issue is getting a good night sleep. Having difficulty sleeping well seems to come with aging. Here, again doctors tend to over prescribe sleeping meds, which when used nightly can lead to dependency.

Cannabis has properties and benefit that seniors can draw upon for aid in these issues and to reduce the amount of strong narcotics and substitute the more benign cannabis therapeutics.

Learning to Use Cannabis

Seniors have had varying degrees of experience with cannabis. Many are regular users. Others had a few experiences in college or have been at parties where joints were passed around that they may have tried. Others have not had direct experience, but almost all seniors have seen movies or read books wherein marijuanapotwas used and enjoyed.

You may have heard that you must learn to get high. Or heard someone say something like, I tried it a few times and nothing happened. Sociologist Howard Beckers research shows that when we ingest a drug we have to be taught to recognize the effects. For marijuana, the effects usually include heightened senses, food cravings, and sometimes feelings of anxiety, that could progress to paranoia. The first few times we may ignore the effects or get frightened by themas part of learning to use marijuana.

Drinking alcohol is common in our world. But were not born knowing how to drink. Weve all experienced drinking too much and getting the whirlies or stumbling around, even passing out. In these early experiences we learned the feelings and effects of alcoholwhat to expect and how to handle it. For some, such early training is the first step in becoming a wine connoisseur, which is a very refined taste.

Learning to Use Cannabis Therapeutics

Learning to use cannabis therapeutically begins with youan individual, a unique human. It is important to notice how you feel before using cannabisas a baseline for comparison to how you feel after employing a particular therapeutic use. The emphasis in this book is on cannabis as a therapeutic rather than cannabis as a medicine. Synonyms of therapeutic include healing, curative, remedial, medicinal, restorative, salubrious, health-giving, tonic, reparative, corrective, beneficial, good, salutary.