Seniors want new strain names and so do I!
About half of the patients I speak with are over 55 years-old. Now a 55 year-old may not qualify as a senior citizen for some discounts or social security, but in my practice they are seniors. They are educated, professional, and want cannabis to replace a few of those Monday am meds.
Some of them have had some experience with recreational cannabis in college or an edible here and there, but they are new to cannabis for medical reasons.
Pain, cancer, and anxiety seem to be frequent conditions that get them to me. And how do they get to me? Most often a friend or the physician who certified them gives them my number.
They don’t want to smoke. They don’t want to be high. They just want to get better.
When we talk we review their goals for treatment, delivery methods, dosing, and what products they may benefit from. Oils & Tinctures are well received among this age group and is a wonderful method to consume cannabis with no odor, no smoke, and no one the wiser. However, if they have pain, anxiety, or breakthrough symptoms they want something that acts fast. And this is when we talk about flower.
These patients have been handed hundreds of pill bottles through the pharmacy drive-thru window so it is a liberating experience when they get to go into a dispensary and pick out something for themselves. All of those jars packed full of dried cannabis flower lining the shelf gives them an abundance of options for ailment A-Z. Can you smell it? Because I can. And then its ruined when they are shown and smell something that may help them with their fatigue and it’s called Green Crack, or something to help them sleep and it goes by the name of Purple Trainwreck.
Now these names definitely describe these strains well and they get the idea, and absolutely no offense to the creators of these strains, but the names just really turn off senior patients and take them back to a time when they thought consuming cannabis was a bad idea.
They love the smell and the way it makes them feel so they buy an 1/8 th and take it home. And wow!! That Purple Trainwreck sure did the trick! They haven’t slept that well since before they had children!
But what about when they are trying to discuss their newfound favorite strain with the family doctor they have seen for years? Again, they are taken back to a time when cannabis was a no-no. They don’t want to be seen as anything other than a patient who is just trying to find something that helps. They want medical cannabis and so do I.
How can we do better?
Now there are dispensaries who are dedicated to providing strains named by their effects, such as “relaxing,” “uplifting,” and “energizing,” and my hope is that we have a few of those of my home state of Missouri, but for now its Green Crack for Martha.