It seems like the health community and the media will never be happy with us mere humans. I read today in The New York Times that more older folk are using cannabis, but, good news, are no longer using opioids and other strong drugs, some of which are addictive killers. That seems good to me, not bad. But it is seen as yet another bad thing. Sure, it could be bad when abused, like anything else from alcohol to red meat to fill-in-the-blank. But does everything have to be a fucking crisis all the time?

Older folk are retired, they have certain aches and pains, they have stresses like the rest of us. They are also aware that their doctors are always prescribing yet another drug for whatever ails them. I observed this happen with my parents, now both deceased. They were having my 90-year-old Mom taking blood pressure medicine even though her blood pressure was fine, because her parents, who died in the 1970s, had high blood pressure. WTF! Then there’s cholesterol drugs, heart drugs (2-3 of those), and on and on. Ask your parents or grandparents how many drugs are prescribed by their doctors and you may be shocked. As we all know, each pill comes with its own fun set of side-effects. These are pharmaceuticals, all manmade out of all kinds of horseshit stuff that can kill you, maim you, make you need to take other drugs to control.

But all that is just cool with the doctors. Keep loading those old folks up with more and more shit, just as their bodies age and they have less of an ability to physically handle drugs controlling major functions in their delicate constitutions.

But say it is okay to take an edible cannabis product or smoke part of a joint once a day and they go ape shit. The fucking world is coming to an end because Gramps is using pot so he can sleep at night.

Just lay off people. Who fucking cares if you don’t have some bogus study to tell you what the side effects are. Do you think the people who say they get pain relief are making this shit up? No, trust the people who are feeling the pain and feeling the relief. People have been smoking pot since we climbed out of the trees and decided we would walk and start civilizations. There is general agreement that opioid addictions were created and fueled by the pharma companies in collusion with all the doctors who trust the companies’ sales pitches. Pharma companies have little credibility given their manmade opioid crisis, and we all well know now that the FDA, CDC and WHO are more fallible than Gramps is when he takes a puff after dinner.

Some day in the future when we look back at all the pharmaceuticals that humans took to “get well” or treat illnesses, our future generations will just laugh at us, like we do at those doctors in the olden days who bled patients to make them better.

In other words, back off criticizing elders for using pot. It’s better than alcohol, which is legal and lethal for some seniors. And pot is now legal in 15 states for recreational use, and in all states but two (Idaho and Nebraska) for medical uses.

So if you must, yeah, give your usage warnings, etc., but for chrissakes, let the older folk choose what they want to use to feel physically and mentally better, which is also legal and not addictive or with the side-effects that the man-made pharma meds have, with their companies pumping out billion dollar ad campaigns. Just walk down, or take a bus, to the nearest cannabis store and support your neighborhood retailer. Buy local. Be chill. Peace out.

From Lady Proverbs, somewhere on the Oregon Coast