Pubdate: Tue, 07 Nov 2017 Source: Chronicle Herald (CN NS) Copyright: 2017 The Halifax Herald Limited Contact: http://www.herald.ns.ca/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/180 Author: Anne Farries ELDERLY BEING LEFT OUT OF CANNABIS DISCUSSIONS For months, Ralph (all names have been changed), neighbour to my friend The Chairman, has left his house only for doctor visits and a couple of hospital stints. That's not for lack of trying. Prescribed mind-numbing meds put the former coal miner into a fog. Several times he insisted that he needed to go outside, rolled his wheelchair to the front door, tried to stand but instead tumbled, like laundry out of a basket, like a milk bottle smashed on the floor. Ralph's wife Julie is tiny. Alone, she couldn't lift Ralph so she hollered across the street to The Chairman, who rushed over, heedless of his own painful, degraded vertebrae. Holding Ralph under the arms, The Chairman convinced him to stay off the streets of Glace Bay a little longer, hoisted him back into his chair and his dignity. After that, The Chairman gave Julie a walkie-talkie so she could buzz for help without the whole block opening their front doors and craning their necks. And a doctor adjusted Ralph's meds, so now he falls less often. The doctor also said he would find Ralph a nursing home, Ralph told me, as we sat in his tidy living room watching a game show on the TV. Julie was at darts. A home-care worker - one of several cheerful women who help Ralph for a half-hour, twice a day - was in the kitchen, filling out paperwork. But Julie declined to send Ralph away. And after 40 years together, Ralph would do the same for her, he said. The mention of the nursing home sent a ripple of sympathy down my spine. Although the Cape Breton nursing homes I have seen are bright, kind and welcoming, still nobody wants to take a one-way trip. From the kitchen table, the home-care worker said something that eased my worries about our collective futures. All you can smell, she declared, when you walk into one Cape Breton long-term facility, is marijuana. Well, then, I thought, that might not be so bad. It makes sense that those who are bedridden or in their last years on Earth would want the comfort of the seven-leafed weed. Who would be so cruel as to deny them that? The current generation in nursing homes popularized the mild drug in the '60s and '70s. For them, we need to talk about the effect of age on potency and the interaction of various meds with various strains. About edible products versus second-hand smoke for keeping peace among roommates in long-term care. The aged infirm have been forgotten in the discussion around legalization, which is all about classifying the quality of the botanical variety. The minimum legal age for purchase. Whether small businesses or the Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation should profit. Taxation, testing and distribution. It has been decades since I was interested in a puff but if, when I become a geezer, I can giggle the day long, surrounded by folks with a shared history, then I might not wish for a desperate escape, don forbidden running shoes and sneak off to the familiar byways and back alleys of my friendly youth. Let's talk about that, I say, before any of us need to leave our houses. - --- MAP posted-by: Matt