Hydrolife Magazine April/May 2017 (Canada Edition)

heal
Twenty-one years after California
became the first state allowing
cannabis as medicine, 27 others
have followed suit. Eight states now
offer legal recreational weed, with
13 introducing decriminalization
legislation. The common belief is
seniors from the Boomer Generation,
already familiar with using the plant
recreationally, are most prominent
members of the patient pool. But
in the more conservative state of
Florida, one senior is proving that
theory wrong, and is becoming an
unlikely victor leading the fight to
end prohibition in the process.
“ DURING ONE Silver Tour
event, more than 400 senior
citizens made their way to the
steps of Tallahassee’s City Hall
in peaceful protest, to share
their personal use of cannabis
as medicine publicly.”
Should Grandma Partake in Pot?
Robert Platshorn served 30 years in
federal prison for selling cannabis
via a fleet of tuna fishing boats along
Florida’s shores during the 1970s
and ’80s. Released back into the
general population in 2008 at the age
of 64, Platshorn began a campaign
to educate the elder population,
creating The Silver Tour, a non-profit
organization aimed at enlightening
Laguna Woods Cannabis Club meeting
and educating the grey-haired sect
on good medicine across the country
by using the less expensive platforms
of social media, emails, radio, local
television spots, and billboards.
One of his most successful
campaigns—a video featuring two
elderly ladies partaking for the first
time—went viral on social media,
changing public perceptions and
inspiring knock-off clips of other seniors,
even retired law enforcement officers,
smoking weed for the first time.
During one Silver Tour event, more
than 400 senior citizens made their way
to the steps of Tallahassee’s city hall in
peaceful protest, to share their personal
use of cannabis as medicine publicly.
There were no arrests made.
Platshorn knows his demographic; he
knows the elderly still read newspapers,
watch local TV, and listen to the radio.
During Florida’s first attempt to legalize
cannabis as medicine in the state,
voters failed to pass legalization by a
two per cent margin. After Platshorn’s
campaign, by April 2015, the Sun Sentinel
reported upwards of 84 per cent of
registered voters approving of cannabis
as medicine in the Sunshine State. By
November 2016, Florida voted to accept the
plant, allowing physicians to prescribe,
and dispensaries to provide safe access to
its seniors and the ailing in the state.
“When we started The Silver Tour five
years ago, seniors in Florida would not
even discuss the medical use of cannabis,”
Platshorn says. “I’m happy to say things
have changed. Seniors are an easy sell,
but no one was using the media to inform
them. Using TV, radio, live shows, and
billboards changed minds quickly.”
Primrose Engaged Living in Santa Rosa, CA, allows its residents to medicate with cannabis.
Healing in California
Since voting in Proposition 215 in 1996,
which allowed Californians the right
to medicate with cannabis, the Golden
State now lists 12.6 per cent of its senior
population as card-carrying medical
cannabis patients, according to Americans
for Safe Access, a national organization
helping move weed transactions from the
alley to legal storefronts.
The US Center for Disease Control
(CDC) reports aches and pains a common
malady among the aging population,
with 47.5 million or 21.8 per cent of seniors
reporting some kind of disability—
with arthritis or rheumatism topping the
ailment list, and cancer now seen
as part of old age.
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grow. heal. live. enjoy.
myhydrolife.ca