Seniors Unite!

Senior citizens are an important voice. They read. They vote. They have electoral power. They can be an increadible help for the medical marijuana cause, and a recent poll by AARP found that 72% of older Americans (45 and over) support an adult’s right to use medical marijuana with a physician’s recommendation.
Now we add to this the new information about marijuana’s benefits in dealing with Alzheimers.
This makes medical marijuana and AARP a perfect match. Unfortunately, AARP is getting pressured.

A December 18th Associated Press article discussing the poll mentioned that AARP The Magazine was scheduled to release an article about medical marijuana in its March/April issue. But when the March/April issue reached subscribers in late January, the article was conspicuously absent.

The editors had apparently pulled the article in response to malicious attacks by a “media watchdog” organization, Accuracy in Media, and a pressure campaign by fanatical anti-drug groups with a long history of engaging in malicious and dishonest attacks.

AARP is a political football right now. The left has problems with them because of their support for Bush’s Medicare plan, and the right has problems with them because of their lack of support for Bush’s proposed changes to social security. Regardless of your views on those matters, AARP can be critical for medical marijuana right now.
Accuracy in Media is completely clueless when it comes to medical marijuana. Here’s what they call “one of our best pieces on the hoax known as medical marijuana.”
They don’t even know the difference between THC and Marinol!

Called THC, it is a chemical synthesized in a laboratory and approved for medical use in the treatment for nausea. But the marijuana advocates want no part of that because it is not smoked and they cannot get their desired “high” from a pill or capsule. The existence and availability of THC are rarely mentioned in media reports on marijuana.

Probably the biggest idiot at AIM is Cliff Kinkaid, who is also mentioned in the release with the delightfully provocative title: From Pot to Porn to AARP: How the Seniors Magazine is Aiding the Dope Lobby). Apparently they discovered that an editor for the AARP magazine used to work for Penthouse and High Times magazines, so now they want to taint the entire organization’s view of medical marijuana as “pushing so-called ‘medical marijuana’ on America’s elderly citizens… by the pro-illegal drug lobby.”
Tell AARP directly to stick with its plans to print the story about its poll, or take action through the Drug Policy Alliance.
Not yet eligible for those Senior Citizen discounts? Take action anyway. They’d love to hear from future potential members, too.

Update: John at Holowach Blog takes AIM apart nicely in a piece he calls “Cliff Kincaid is a goddam idiot.”