Seniors' medical pot collective stirs up trouble

[Zorro]

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Joe Schwartz is a 90-year-old great-grandfather of three who enjoys a few puffs of pot each night before he crawls into bed in the Southern California retirement community he calls home.

The World War II veteran smokes the drug to alleviate debilitating nausea and is one of about 150 senior citizens on this sprawling, 18,000-person gated campus who belongs to a thriving — and controversial — medical marijuana collective operating here, in the middle of one of the largest retirement communities in the United States.

The fledgling collective mirrors a nationwide trend as more and more senior citizens turn to marijuana, legal or not, to ease the aches and pains of aging. But in Laguna Woods Village, tucked in the heart of one of the most conservative and wealthiest counties in California, these ganja-smoking grandparents have stirred up a heated debate with their collective, attracting a crackdown from within the self-governed community.

Many members of the 2-year-old collective keep a low profile, but others grow seedlings on their patios and set up workshops to show other seniors how to turn the marijuana leaves into tea, milk and a vapor that can be inhaled for relief from everything from chemotherapy-related nausea to multiple sclerosis to arthritis.

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More at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110608/ap_on_he_me/us_old_and_high

[tridim]

1. That's the way it should be everywhere on Earth.

I'm younger, but when I lived in CO I smoked only before bed so I could guarantee 8 hours of interrupted sleep. It worked every time, no alarm clock necessary. It's 100% natural and relatively safe and has a nice anti-anxiety side-effect.

[Gabi Hayes]

2. big k, but I forgot what else I was going to say

[Fly by night]

3. Ha. Ha. Ha.

Not.

[Le Taz Hot]

4. This is going to become more and more of an issue

as the boomers begin retiring and can't afford their meds. There are just too many ailments for which pot is helpful and to prohibit it's use is nothing less than cruel. I wish to hell Obama would have kept his promise on this but he's too tied to Big Pharma.