“I’m high right now. Got me a pizza in the oven.” That is the last letter, from Steve Byrne, and the Journal’s editors knew exactly what they were doing by putting it there. The paper had run an A-hed about marijuana catching on with senior citizens, and about the neighbors who do not love the smell drifting over the fence. The readers wrote back. The letters are the best thing in the Review section, and they are also, if you squint, a survey of the people we spend our days planning for.
Not your mother’s marijuana
The first thing the readers agree on is that this is not the weed of the ’60s or ’70s. “It has been scientifically enhanced and is multitudes more potent than its predecessors,” writes Michael Rheintgen. Colin Greene adds that the aroma of the modern product is sometimes hard to tell apart from the sewer gas coming out of the city’s manhole covers. Nobody disputes him.
The neighborly fix, several readers say, is to stop smoking it. Diane Conklin: “Somebody tell these boomers to use the tinctures and save their lungs and their neighbors’ sensitivities.” Raymond Robinson notes that in a legal state you can buy THC vape cartridges whose exhaled vapor has no smell at all. “Er, at least that’s what I’ve heard.” Amy Bean, who does not partake, says it is really a question of being a good neighbor: an air purifier, a fan, a smoking spot away from the next door.
Better than booze
Then the doctor. “I’m an ER doc,” writes Kip Benko. “Yeah, we see some MJ problems, but alcohol is, without a doubt, the king of ruinous behavior.” Sean Clark remembers a friend who went to a lot of senior-citizen dances and reported a huge crowd outside smoking pot. He asked whether anyone drank. “She said all the drinkers are already dead.”
Don’t harsh my mellow
The letters that land are the ones about what the stuff is for. John Erickson smoked in college, then had a job and a family and went forty years without. “Now I’m a retired empty-nester. Let’s fire one up!” Linda Schubert, 72, reports that her friends from bridge use gummies and drops for sleep, and that a couple of players take Adderall to play better and have vigorously asked her to join them. “I thought the ’70s were behind us, but here we are back in the ’70s in our 70s.”
Edward Jawer, 98, has smoked forever and has never had a reason to stop. Wally Rooh’s 86-year-old mother was prescribed cannabis in hospice and became a convert; he vapes a little before his daily three-mile walk for the arthritis and a little more at dinner for the sleep.
| What the readers use it for | Who | The alternative they mention |
|---|---|---|
| Sleep | The bridge table, age 72 | Gummies and drops, not smoke |
| Arthritis and the daily walk | A recent retiree | A small vape, morning and dinner |
| Instead of a drink | The ER doctor and the dance crowd | Alcohol, “the king of ruinous behavior” |
| Keeping the neighbors | Everyone who wrote in | Edibles, tinctures, a fan, a little distance |
The planner’s footnote
We are not going to tell a 98-year-old what to do. Three practical things, though, because they come up in reviews more than anyone admits. Tell your doctor, because cannabis interacts with blood thinners, sedatives and some heart medicines. Tell your life-insurance agent before you apply, because some carriers still price regular use like tobacco and others do not, and the answer is on the application either way. And read the community rules: plenty of 55-plus communities and assisted-living contracts still ban smoking of any kind on the property, and a lease is a lease. Beyond that, bake the cookies and share them with the neighbor. Ray Kung suggested it, and he is not wrong.