Dear Janis,

Medical students or young junior doctors are often a bit bewildered when I ask geriatric patients about their past or current use of recreational drugs. I then explain to them that the old person in front of them is part of a generation that challenged society more than any other since, the generation of "flower power", counterculture, antiwar protest, civil-rights movement, love-ins and a general much more liberal attitude to drugs as well as sexuality. As an old patient, now well in their 80s once explained to me with a twinkle in their eye - "we did more things and had much more fun in our lives than you and your generation will ever have".

Just because they are now hitting the geriatric age does not mean that they all will suddenly change. It is an issue that is under-investigated and surrounded by similar "taboos" as asking about their sexuality.

I attach the excellent report by Wadd and Galvani, The Forgotten People: Drug Problems in Later Life from 2014. I don't think much has changed in the last three years since publication.

Best wishes,

Immo

Thank you!

When my mother started losing weight fast and had lost 11 pounds, the nurse said that she was dying and that we should put her on hospice. We did. Then I got her a medical marijuana license. As there were no dispensaries in our area, I grew the plants and extracted them into coconut oil. I fed this to Mom in her morning cereal, on toast, or by the spoonful. It brought down her blood pressure, her anxiety, made her far more social and happy - and made her hungry!

After she had gained 15 pounds, she was kicked out of hospice. They said that one cannot be on hospice while thriving.

She lived six more happy years - very likely thanks to her cannabis intake.