Pubdate: Sat, 28 Jul 2012
Source: Palm Beach Post, The (FL)
Copyright: 2012 The Palm Beach Post
Contact:  http://www.palmbeachpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/333
Author: Frank Cerabino

SILVER TOUR SEEKS TO LET SENIORS IN ON THE TOKE

It isn't a tough sell to persuade South Florida's senior citizens that
they ought to give marijuana a try.

That's what struck me this week after attending a "Silver Tour" event
at a suburban Delray Beach adult community. The Silver Tour is a
presentation orchestrated by Robert Platshorn. He's the 69-year-old
West Palm Beach man who is the Florida director of NORML, the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

Platshorn, a former marijuana smuggler, makes his living these days
promoting the idea that pot should be legal in Florida, or at least
available for medicinal use, as it already is in 17 states and the
District of Columbia. This past week, he took his presentation to a
packed clubhouse meeting room at Vizcaya.

Of course, not everyone streaming into the clubhouse that night was
there for a marijuana chat. There was still a room full of men who
preferred to play poker, and in another room, a group of women stuck
with their regular canasta game.

"Are you giving out free samples?" Lillian Peskind, 80, asked as she
walked past the marijuana room on her way to the canasta room.

"I'm interested in hearing what they're saying," Peskind said, "but I
can't disrupt my game."

For an extra layer of entertainment on the evening, a crew from Comedy
Central's The Daily Show, was on hand to poke fun at the idea of
senior citizens becoming potheads.

Daily Show correspondent Al Madrigal found out it's not too hard to
get retirees to play along with a show that makes fun of the news.

"At my age, I'm willing to try anything," Jack Nash, 91, told
Madrigal.

"How about going to Bangkok and trying hookers?" Madrigal
asked.

Nash paused. That did seem a little much, until Madrigal's producer
fed Nash a funny answer, then Nash deadpanned his line like a pro
during a re-take of the interview.

"Maybe for a week," Nash said.

While retirees asked serious questions about marijuana and its effects
on driving, and whether it could become addictive, Madrigal was
disrupting the discussion with questions of his own.

"How many people are here to learn more about marijuana?" Madrigal
asked.

Hands shot in the air. Then he asked his follow-up
question.

"How many people are here for the free buffet?"

A nearly equal number of hands were raised. Laughter filled the
auditorium.

But beneath the humor, there was a genuine curiosity about marijuana,
much of it born from the frustration over the costs and side effects
of prescription medication for pain or sleep disorders.

"I had one year on Oxycontin and it did nothing," said Paul Kurland,
74, who suffers from spinal pain from a pair of auto crashes.
"Everything has a side effect. The only thing I can take now is Advil.
I'm in agony."

After listening to the presentation, Kurland said he'd try
marijuana.

"I'd be willing to find out if medical marijuana would work for me,"
he said. "The only way to find it out is to try, but it's not
available to me. I wouldn't know where I could get a hold of it."

A medical marijuana bill died in the Florida legislature this year.
Platshorn is convinced that the only way legislators will change their
minds is if retirees, who vote in big numbers, changed their minds
about marijuana first.

His Silver Tour featured pro-marijuana presentations from a doctor, a
pair of civil rights lawyers, and Irv Rosenfeld, a Fort Lauderdale
investment counselor who is one of four Americans receiving medical
marijuana from the federal government as part of a discontinued program.

"How many people here pay federal taxes?" Rosenfeld asked. "I want to
thank all of you for paying for the marijuana the federal government
gives me."

The U.S. government grows marijuana in Mississippi and ships Rosenfeld
30 joints by FedEx every 25 days for pain relief. While on stage,
Rosenfeld opened a can of his government-supplied marijuana, showing
the retires the cluster of neatly rolled joints.

"Pass it around," The Daily Show correspondent yelled from the back of
the auditorium.

Platshorn's ultimate goal is to come up with the money to repeatedly
air a 30-minute TV infomercial called "Should Grandma Smoke Pot?"

"For the cost of one of these Silver Tour shows I could introduce
grandma to thousands of people on TV," he said.

Some of the people at the marijuana presentation had only a vague idea
what it was about when they showed up.

"My friend just said it was some kind of medical thing," said Paula
Friedman, who drove from the Cascade Lakes community in suburban
Boynton Beach. "I thought it was one of those things where they take
your blood pressure."

Friedman was impressed, but didn't believe all the medical claims
made, especially the bit about marijuana curing cancer. She said her
only experience with marijuana was "about 100 years ago" and it wasn't
for medicinal purposes.

"I would rather drink," she said. "I'm a happy drunk, and an
affectionate drunk -- even though I don't get drunk. I like the
effects of alcohol, and it's easy to get."
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MAP posted-by: Matt