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." - --- MAP posted-by: Matt