Mom N' Pot Business

October 23, 2008 7:11 PM

Please direct me towards some respectable, wholesome looking websites about medical marijuana usage, especially if they're intended for older folks and/or the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program.

My mother is in her sixties, and suffers from terrible chronic arthritis pain. I'm convinced that medical marijuana would be a terrific option for her, and at the the very least, much better than the cocktail of various medications that she currently takes. The most recent time we discussed it, she seemed a lot more open to it, especially when I brought up the possibility of tinctures, which a friend of mine uses. The next obvious step is to give her a couple of websites to look at, right?

Fun Facts!
1.) She's super sweet, religious, bakes cookies, and only recently started regularly imbibing alcohol (boxed sangria, at that.).
2.) She's mildly competent at the internet, but probably won't want to read pages and pages of text, like New Yorker articles or the Mother Jones article I found called "Respectable Reefer".
3.) I'm pretty sure she's never smoked pot before, and I haven't, either, so there's no first hand experiential data from either of us, as far as the effects of it go.

Also welcome are anecdotes or cautionary tales about older parents, chronic pain, and medical marijuana usage.

posted by redsparkler to health & fitness (6 answers total)

Oh, and googling did turn up Sativex, which sounds like the sort of thing I'd direct her towards, if only it was available here.
posted by redsparkler at 7:16 PM on October 23, 2008

Americans for Safe Access
posted by telstar at 7:33 PM on October 23, 2008

The Marijuana Policy Project site has a page devoted to Oregon, but that's not really what you're looking for. If you contact them and ask to speak to someone in the State Policies group I am sure they would be able to point you in the right direction.
posted by charlesv at 8:00 PM on October 23, 2008

In Portland, I would say to contact a clinic such as MAMA's.
If it's anything like California, you will be able to get all you basic questions answered and get a good recommendation or two on where to go for more.

I have no direct experience with them as I live in California, but the first step looks to be about the same in both states.
posted by whoda at 9:59 AM on October 24, 2008

There's some pretty diverse information at Lester Grinspoon's pages, Marijuana Uses and RxMarijuana.com.
posted by brassafrax at 9:39 PM on October 24, 2008

From the ASA, linked above, this specific booklet on arthritis and medical cannabis may be helpful. And more info.
posted by gingerbeer at 10:55 AM on October 25, 2008