Pubdate: Wed, 22 Oct 2014
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2014 Los Angeles Times
Contact:  http://www.latimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Emily Foxhall
Page: AA1

POT'S NEW AGE

In Laguna Woods, demand by retirees for legal access to marijuana 
reflects a growing voice in a national debate

Inside Laguna Woods Village, retirees with stiff knees and failing 
eyesight make ready use of wellness centers and medical offices 
scattered throughout nearby strip malls.

Residents such as Peggiann "Benji" Johnson - a breast cancer patient 
experiencing the side effects of chemotherapy - say one more 
healthcare service is needed: A marijuana dispensary. As cities 
throughout California fight to limit cannabis outlets, residents and 
leaders in the south Orange County seniors-only village of around 
16,400 have pushed for a pot shop and joined collectives by the hundreds.

The medicinal use of marijuana has been legal in California since 
1996. But the fight over how and where it should be distributed is 
being waged in city halls and courthouses across the state.

Seniors stand as a potentially powerful voice in the debate that 
often is thought to be taking place among young adults, those who 
oppose government oversight, and people who believe the sale and 
distribution of pot is intrinsically linked with crime.

The retirees behind the gates of Laguna Woods are a blend of those 
born during the Great Depression and baby boomers from the Woodstock 
era, when marijuana was seen as a gateway to hard-core drug use and a 
catalyst for neighborhood decay. Even those who don't smoke pot 
typically say that as long as there are no problems, they don't mind 
what others do.

A 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center found that half of baby 
boomers nationwide support marijuana legalization, as do 32% of those 
born the generation before, an increase that marks "a striking 
change" in opinion among an older population.

And as seniors - who make up the most reliable voting bloc in America 
- - see others get on board with marijuana, they may be drawn to the 
cause for legalization, said Dan Schnur, director of the Jesse M. 
Unruh Institute of Politics at USC.

"If you're an older voter and the only pro-marijuana surrogates you 
see are 30 or 40 years younger than you are, that may have somewhat 
limited appeal," he said. "But hearing the same message from someone 
with whom you feel a common bond may be more persuasive."

Residents in the neatly groomed enclave of Laguna Woods, where the 
median age in 2010 was 77, say the leafy plant has become a necessity 
for many trying to manage pain. They smoke it, eat it, dab lotion 
mixed with cannabis on sore joints and summon sleep with a pot-spiked 
candy bar.

Six years ago, when Bob Ring was mayor pro tem of Laguna Woods, he 
supported those who wanted a dispensary in town. He wasn't a 
marijuana user himself, but friends had convinced him of the medical benefits.

Ring's council colleagues adopted a law that set out the rules for 
selling cannabis from a storefront: A dispensary couldn't be within 
1,000 feet of any place frequented by children, couldn't be near 
another dispensary and couldn't be open Sundays.

In the end it didn't matter. None of the commercial landlords in town 
would rent space to a pot shop.

"We tried," said Ring, who is 81 and remains a City Council member. 
"Certainly at my age, in this stage of life, I don't want to give 
anyone a hard time."

Without a pot shop, Johnson, 64, and others struck out on their own, 
forming and joining collectives. Although there are advantages to a 
bricks-and-mortar dispensary - they can carry a wider variety of 
merchandise and are open at predictable times - some collective 
members appreciate the casual, more personal interaction of meeting 
with their distributor, often in the comfort of a living room.

Every two or three weeks, Johnson walks the short distance from her 
home to the apartment of Lonnie Painter, a former chef and restaurant 
owner who is director of the Laguna Woods Medical Cannabis collective.

On a recent trip, the musty scent of marijuana rolled over Johnson 
like a wave when she passed through Painter's front door. Guitars 
were leaning in a corner of his living room; photographs of Frida 
Kahlo, Che Guevara and Ernest Hemingway hung on the light-green walls.

Johnson sat down on the couch, a pink baseball cap pulled over her 
bald head. She trusts Painter, 68, and lets him pick out her supply.

The silver briefcase on the low table before them held eight jars, 
each filled with a different strain of marijuana - Kashmir, 
Skywalker, Moby Dick. There are differing concentrations of THC, the 
ingredient responsible for marijuana's psychoactive effects, and of 
CBD, the compound said to have medicinal benefits.

"Ah, smells so good," Johnson said as Painter unscrewed the lid of a 
jar of cannabis called Harley Tsu 1.

As an advocate of tighter medical marijuana regulations, Painter 
said, he worries about "pot doctors" and dispensary operators who 
don't have proper schooling and collectives that offer inferior products.

He attends conferences, studies the shifting legal landscape and 
stays up on the latest literature - such as a study from Leiden 
University in the Netherlands on how to brew pot into antiinflammatory tea.

In the early going, Painter - who has shoulder-length silver hair, 
tattoos and a calming voice - grew his own marijuana on a plot in the 
Laguna Woods Village community garden. Eventually he and several 
others filled out paperwork with the county to do business as Laguna 
Woods Medical Cannabis.

Members of the collective are required to have a current physician's 
recommendation; the group operates as a nonprofit, in accordance with 
the state attorney general's guidelines.

Having used cannabis before to help the arthritis in her spine and 
feet, Johnson said, she now smokes once or twice a day to ease her 
aches, calm her stomach and control her diarrhea.

"I wanted something that would make me feel better right then and 
there," she said.

Thanks to the weed, Johnson said, she had the strength to act in a 
recent community production of a Shakespeare play and no longer has 
to ask neighbors to help her walk her dog, Lucy, a golden 
retriever-cocker spaniel mix.

Although many of the believers in Laguna Woods Village have used 
marijuana off and on for much of their lives, 85-year-old Pat 
McClintock had never considered it - until her back pain set in.

At first McClintock, a former convenience store owner from Texas, 
sought relief with acupuncture, chiropractic treatments and cortisone 
shots. She gave up pickleball, table tennis and golf.

Nothing helped. So when a physician's assistant suggested that she 
try cannabis, she figured she would "give it a whirl."

McClintock obtained a medical marijuana recommendation from a doctor 
in March and joined Painter's collective. Now she exercises every 
morning, goes to the hot tub in the evening and squirts drops of 
marijuana oil into her mouth every night.

"It could be the pool, it could be the marijuana," but whatever it 
is, she said, she can walk farther now than she could before.

Robert Evans, 52, knows that his cancer eventually will win. It's in 
his liver, his kidneys, his intestines.

In June, doctors told the former drug and alcohol counselor, who now 
lives in Laguna Woods Village with his mother, that he had just 60 
days to live.

Sitting alone on a couch, Evans said, he sometimes thinks too much 
about the pain.

He doesn't think marijuana can save him. But it's improved his quality of life.

"It's helping me die a little bit easier, which seems like one of 
those rights we should have," Evans said.

With cannabis oil and a daily smoke, he vomits less frequently. He 
can work up a little more of an appetite, although his face is gaunt 
and his T-shirt and jeans hang loose on him.

"This is how I'm going out," he said, walking onto his porch.

He held a joint in his hand.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom