Dr. John Fryters and Prairie Cannabis owner Jim Southam spoke about cannabis at the Seniors Advocacy Centre on Thursday. (Ian Gustafson/paNOW Staff)

By Ian Gustafson

Seniors learn about the medical and recreational use of marijuana

Jul 31, 2020 | 4:38 PM

The Prince Albert Seniors Advocacy Centre held a workshop on Thursday to learn more about marijuana use.

This is the second workshop they’ve held for seniors about cannabis and Dr. John Fryters with the Seniors Advocacy Centre told paNOW the reason why they hosted it was because a national survey revealed older adults were increasingly using cannabis products.

“We were surprised to hear that,” Fryters said. “I think it is for medical reasons. I think it’s because seniors obviously because of their age have age-related illness.”

Although Fryters said his doctorate degree is not in medicine he speculates some of the illnesses could be chronic pain, arthritis, and diabetes. Fryters did a presentation to the group of the medical use.

“Also, seniors tend to be lonely, they tend to feel isolated, so they tend to feel depressed so marijuana might help them with that,” he said. “I also believe that if you’re alone and you have money what are you gonna spend it on, you know?”

GST Holiday

Federal government's two-month GST holiday begins

8h ago

Imminent need

Council set to discuss possible location for homeless shelter on 15th Street

13h ago

International Spotlight

P.A.'s Howe one of 4 Sask. born players named to Canada's World Junior roster

Dec 13, 2024

He said they asked their own members and discovered some are already are using cannabis products.

“I think it’s important for us as an advocacy to inform our seniors of what is current and what is cutting edge,” Fryters said.

Some of the many products available for cannabis use. (Ian Gustafson/paNOW Staff)

Jim Southam, who owns Prairie Cannabis in Prince Albert, was a guest speaker to share more about the products available in his store, dosage starting points and how to use different products properly without overconsuming.

Some of the most common questions he said he gets are what products they should start with, or concerns about the impairing effects of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

He recommends starting with a cannabidiol (CBD) product and then easing into a low dose of THC. He said by starting out usage with an oil product, it’ll allow a user to regulate the dosage as opposed to other means of marijuana consumption.

“The saying is ‘go low and go slow’ and that’s the whole idea because we don’t have set dosages from medical physicians. It’s a lot of trial and error on people’s behalfs,” Southam said. “You just have to be careful new users don’t consume too much and have a bad experience with it.”

He said some of the misconceptions of cannabis are “one puff and your life will be ruined,” or the addiction associated with cannabis has been overinflated in his opinion.

“The harmful effects of cannabis use I think have been overstated and used to scare people from using cannabis,” he explained. “The worse possible thing if you do overconsume is you have an uncomfortable experience for four to eight to 10 hours.”

“I was very honoured to be invited here to talk today and one of the reasons why I got into this industry was to do stuff just like this and help educate the public,” he said.

—

Ian.gustafson@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @iangustafson12