Should nursing home residents have Marijuana?

In pill form ....ok. Concerned with smoking.
Smoking pot is as dangerous as cigarettes from the burn, fire danger perspective.
I would not want to work in an enclosed environment where people are smoking cigs or joints.

It's legal in my state, so have at it.. If it makes a patient comfortable I have no problem with it..

What ever improves the quality of life, with whatever the good Lord gave us works for me. Can you just see the bong being passed in the day room?

Something interesting I thought about as I posted my above comment: I mentioned being afraid of getting caught. But if it were my CHILD and my CHILD had cancer or some other disease that has symptoms pot would alleviate I would get it in any way I could and damn the consequences. Hmmm....I'm going to have to think about that one now. Not willing to get into trouble for my elderly parent but willing to get into trouble for my child.

Hmmmm......

Eyerishlass, I'm with you on that one. I think many moms would feel the same. It is hard to see your parent struggle or be in discomfort, but as they say "growing old is not for sissies." It's expected that as we get old, aches and pains and diagnoses will befall us. But, no mom can standby with her child in pain and not do EVERYTHING possible to alleviate it. Legal or illegal - no brainer. What I've pondered is if I'd do something immoral to save my child. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be above it.

Marijuana smoking has led to pulmonary cavities among medical marijuana users in California and the UK. The pill form is prescribed in 2.5 / 5/ 10 mg capsules. You can't split them because the contents are oil. Turns out my daughter, who has brain cancer, got holes in her lungs, from either fungus in the pot, or very dirty bong water. She now has a scrip for 10mg marinol twice a day, but the RX is very expensive at $900 a refill. It does improve her mood and appetite. She needs a third craniotomy but surgery is on hold because of her lung condition plus low blood cell counts aka pancytopenia. I fear we are on a short road, is marinol an end stage palliative care thing?

ps - this is so heartwrenching about your daughter and painful that she, you and your family are having to deal with it. I don't know if you're on the "short road" as you put it but it definitely sounds like the slippery slope.

50 years ago, my Physiological Psych professor said that smoking is NEVER good, no matter what you smoke (HE was a smoker and said that smokers smoke because they're neurotic and that the Surgeon General's "new" warning on cigarette packages would just serve to make smokers smoke more, haha).

the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws - norml.org - and other medical marijuana groups, as well as many patients who have needed long term use of marijuana, seem to be in favor of "cannabis vaporization". I haven't as yet completed my research however I did you a medical video where they explained this did not I mean the use of a bong, rather collection of the marijuana smoke in a bag and then inhaling it, rather than directly smoking it, from out of the bag. This may have satisfied my professor in that his physiological explanation for the damage to the lungs caused by smoking was directly related to the superheated hot air being drawn in.

Now I am on a path of further research to discover whether molds and fungi are present in the captured smoke and could also contribute to pulmonary cavities. When these cavities have been medically excised and sent to the pathology lab, my understanding is that they have generally found microscopic particles Organic marijuana fiber. I have never read that they have sound free mold or fungi cells, although they may be too small to find. lf anyone has more about this, please jump in.

ps - is your daughters Marinol covered by her insurance or Medicaid, whichever she is on? That $900 is surely more expensive than marijuana, which is of course why the drug companies get involved in manufacturing a product in the first place.

As 200 Marinol is end stage palliative, is your daughter on hospice? lf she could have the craniotomy that is currently on hold, is that expected to either cure her or give her a much longer life, or is it just to stave off the inevitable?

As we all know and have heard before: none of us are getting out of this alive. So it seems to me that your daughters comfort should be everyone's prime consideration. As most of our current health POA's state today, we want pain control even if it hastens our death.

What to prescribe is best left to the medical professionals. I understand that the elderly often react differently to drugs than when they were younger. Caregivers always should be alert for side effects which may indicate the meds are doing more harm than good -- in this case possibly listlessness and paranoia.

I had a friend who used marijuana during her last months, to make her cancerous condition more bearable. I can't fault her or anyone else who uses marijuana to ease such suffering.

YES YES YES