Golden Hands: Medical marijuana for baby boomers

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On November 5, 2018, Let's Talk Cannabiz partnered with Dr. Lynn Parondeck, a Medical Marijuana Physician, Southern Medical Suites, and Essential Physical Therapy in South Bronx to launch "Golden Hands: Medical Marijuana For Aging Adults," pilot program.  

The purpose of this pilot is to educate older adults on the benefits of using medical marijuana  as an alternative therapy to improve their quality of life during their golden years.  

Leslie Stone, Founder of Golden Hands, Producer and Chief Correspondent for Let's Talk Cannabiz (LTC) realized there is a forgotten demographic of individuals that need an alternative medicine-baby boomers!  She also discovered that communities decimated by the war on drugs are misinformed and misguided about these benefits.  "These community residents suffer with the most pains and afflictions," says Leslie, "due to financial challenges of being on a fixed income most residents can't afford to pay for an evaluation, examination nor medication."   She began to wonder how many mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunts and uncles are unaware of the relief that is associate with the use of medical marijuana as a pain management option and its prescribed legally.  "It's imperative that those that face financial hardships receive assistance to access medical marijuana for pain management which is why I choose to work with practitioners," says Leslie.  

As her mother’s caregiver, Leslie saw the miraculous benefits that her mother received from using marijuana.  Mrs. Gordon, Leslie’s mother, had been suffering from chronic pain and COPD for many, many years.  Mrs. Gordon was taking sixteen different prescribed drugs daily and experiencing side effects  such as nausea, fatigue and groggy. Leslie knew her mother stigmatized marijuana but decided to educate her anyway  about its medicinal benefits and then started a regiment for her using CBD edibles, sublinguals, and topicals to alleviate her pain and added terpenes to her breathing treatment.  For the first time in a long time, her mother’s pain had decreased significantly, she took less prescription drugs and experienced fewer side effects.  Her mother began to tell her friends and relatives about her relief; they wanted some as well.   

On September 23, Mrs. Gordon passed and Leslie vowed that she would continue to educate and assist parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and older adults without children, or whose children have abandon them and left them to be forgotten about the benefits of using medical marijuana to enhance their quality of life during their golden years just as she did with her mother.  In honor of her mother, Golden Hands was inspired... “It’s our responsibility to take care of our elders.”