By Debbie Gardner
dgardner@thereminder.com
It’s no secret that the use of cannabis among all age groups – both for recreation and to treat different medical conditions, is growing, with one of most rapid areas of growth among elders.
There are many reasons to explore the use of cannabis – what might have been called MaryJane or grass when you were younger – now, even if it wasn’t your thing when you were young.
For example, Mass Alternative Care CEO Kevin Collins Sr.’s experience with cannabis wasn’t that much different than that of a lot of the older clients who now visit one of the company’s two medical/recreational dispensaries in Chicopee and Amherst.
In his younger years, he didn’t touch the stuff.
“Growing up I never got involved with marijuana. My father caught me once smoking cigarettes, after that discussion I never smoked anything every again,” Collins shared.
His 28-year career as a lineman for the National Hockey League reinforced that lifestyle, as drugs were not tolerated in professional sports at the time. But a career on skates – where officials are moving for the full three hours of the games – took a toll on his body, and after retirement, Collins had both a hip and a knee replacement in the span of three months.
Cannabis gummies got him through the post-surgical pain and recovery without the traditionally prescribed narcotics, his son Kevin Collins Jr., MassAltCare CFO told Prime. While using the gummies for pain, Collins Sr. noticed that his sleep also improved. Now, he said, he and his wife, both 74, regularly use cannabis gummies to help them get a good night’s rest.
According to Leslie Laurie, MS, former director of educational programming for NETA in Northampton, the first medical marijuana dispensary in Western Massachusetts, Collins’ experience with cannabis is fairly typical of many boomers and elders. Often unfamiliar with it in their youth, they now come to cannabis for help with a specific issue or condition.
In her time with NETA, “I got to go out to Senior Centers and destigmatize what for me turned out to be really, really helpful with a medical condition,” Laurie said, adding that she has Crohn’s Disease, one of the five medical conditions for which a credentialed doctor can automatically issue a medical marijuana card in the state of Massachusetts, and uses cannabis as a complementary treatment to her monthly infusion.
The other recognized conditions are ALS, cancer, glaucoma, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and Parkinson’s disease. For these patients needing long-term use, a doctor-issued medical marijuana card can offer them a reduced price on their cannabis products, Laurie explained.
A good night’s sleep
Laurie, who now works as a private cannabis consultant, said when she was doing patient education at NETA, sleep issues were a big concern for older clientele. Kevin Collins Jr. said MassAltCare found the same was true at their dispensary, where they say older clients often purchase the dispensary’s in-house manufactured 100% Rick Simpson Oil-based gummies for sleep issues.
“With sleep, typically the two big issues are that some people have trouble falling asleep, other fall asleep but have trouble staying asleep, and there are two different ways someone who has those sleep disorders deals with cannabis,” Laurie said.
If falling asleep is the issue, Laurie said she would suggest an edible that was not fast-acting, taken an hour and a half to two hours before bedtime. If the client could fall asleep, but didn’t stay asleep, again the advice would be to take a gummy that was not fast-acting, just before going to bed. “It would help you stay asleep,” Laurie said.
As far as dosage of THC – the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis that in low doses works to help promote sleep – in the gummies, Laurie said the exact amount was harder to predict, as when taking something in an edible, everyone’s metabolism is different, meaning that a dosage that works well for one person may not work for another.
“Start low and slow,” Laurie advised. “What’s great about cannabis is you’re not going to overdose, you’re not going to die, if you took too much.” Laurie added with cannabis you don’t wake up foggy-headed, or with problems with alertness, as can happen with prescription sleep aids.
The other great thing about purchasing your cannabis gummies through a licensed dispensary in Massachusetts, like NETA or MassAltCare, Laurie said, is that all products have to be tested for purity. “It’s not like it can be laced with fentanyl, people can feel secure using the product.”
Coping with anxiety
Laurie said individuals across all age groups – from young people to elders – have found help with anxiety through the use of cannabis. For this issue, she noted there are two different strains of cannabis – Sativa, which typically is energizing, and Indica, which is calming – used to alleviate symptoms. Either can be ingested by smoking, as a vape, an edible, or a tincture – “with a drop or two placed under the tongue,” she noted. Some people find the most relief using a hybrid of Sativa and Indica, Laurie added.
The amount of THC in the plant, something Laurie said must be tested in Massachusetts, with the information readily available to the buyer, is also an important consideration. There are products that are a combination of CBD and CBS – the cannabinoids that do not have psychoactive properties – and a small amount of the psychoactive THC in what is called a one-to-one has a synergistic effect that aids in lowering the anxiety for some individuals.
As with using gummies for sleep, Laurie advised, “those who are new users or new to this generation of cannabis start with a lower doe of THC and increase gradually” until you find the right dosage to mitigate your anxiety symptoms.
Pain relief
Kevin Collins Jr. shared that many of the customers of MassAltCare use topical cannabis products to help alleviate the pain of conditions such as arthritis. “We offer a THC topical, a CBD topical and a combination of both,” he shared. “Everybody’s system is different and the products work different on different people.”
Laurie said during her work at NETA, she also saw people who had been prescribed opioids for pain who “after a month were happy to come in and try cannabis, and people were taking less and less drugs for pain relief” much like Kevin Collins Sr.‘s experience.
“People with lung issues can still use cannabis, you don’t have to smoke [it], there are other forms – tinctures, drinks, edibles, even patches,“ Laurie said.
