26 Nov 28th-Dec 4th, 2024 phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES | NEWS | FEATURE | FOOD & DRINK | ARTS & CULTURE | MUSIC | CONCERTS | CANNABIS | | CANNABIS | BY MORGAN FISCHER R oosevelt Row resident Liz Lake has been smoking weed since the 1970s. Back then, she used to buy from a dealer who set up shop behind a 7-Eleven. Now, she can walk into an upscale dispensary and choose from a wide variety of cannabis products. “Who would ever think you could walk into a weed store?” the 65-year-old said. “That’s great. I think that’s progress.” One day earlier this month, Liz made up for lost time. She and four others — all ages 55 years or older — packed into a small conference room at Giving Tree Dispensary in North Phoenix for a new class about weed science and best prac- tices. The classes, dubbed Coffee and Cannabis, have been running weekly since Oct. 16. There was a lot for the “students” to catch up on. The cannabis industry has changed significantly since the ’70s — or even since just a few years ago. New regu- lations and products are unveiled frequently. Young smokers may be able to keep up, but Giving Tree marketing manager Ashley Feagins wanted to Phoenix’s seniors to also remain informed. “They’re so used to how it was back in the day, in the ’60s and ’70s. And then they’ll come into a dispensary and get very much overwhelmed by all the different options,” she said. “They don’t quite always understand what’s going on and what they need.” More seniors use weed than you might think. According to a University of Michigan study, one in eight people older than 50 use cannabis products. Giving Tree’s hourlong class focuses on how cannabis can be used to relieve pain, the importance of reading labels and the varying benefits of flower, vapes and edibles. Feagins hopes the classes leave seniors feeling more confident in their cannabis knowledge and better equipped to get the maximum benefit out of the products they buy. “When you have that knowledge, you can come in and be able to articulate to your budtender the experience that you want and what you’re looking for,” she said. “It’s so rewarding to see them be like, ‘Oh my gosh, I can run around with my grandkids because I’m not in pain every day.’” More than a high The Coffee and Cannabis series began this year, but Feagins is no stranger to spreading the gospel of cannabis use. For several years, Feagins has helped profes- sional golfers and NFL players find pain relief through weed products and has even hosted informational classes in people’s homes. She’s not a medical professional — which she makes very clear to attendees — but she does have a Cannabis Healthcare and Medicine certificate from the University of Arizona. Lake learned about the classes through an ad in Phoenix New Times. She’d smoked in high school and college but quit when she joined the U.S. Air Force in the 1980s. But when medical marijuana offi- cially became legal in Arizona in 2012, she ended her 20-year smoking hiatus and got a medical cannabis card. When Arizona voters legalized recre- ational weed by passing Proposition 207 in 2020, Lake let her medical card expire. Since then, the weed scene has exploded in Arizona, with an endless variety of prod- ucts from which to choose. Lake said the class gave her new respect for the cannabis industry. “It’s not just an industry for people who want to get high,” she said. “For fuddy-duddies who might think, ‘Oh, they’re just stoners, they just want to get stoned,’ well, yeah, there might be truth to that, but there’s also nice byproducts of it, helping other functions of your body and mind.” Lake uses weed — mostly flower, smoked via joints and pipes — to help with pain, arthritis, post-traumatic stress syndrome and depression. “It keeps me in a right state of mind where I don’t sink down on the pity pot,” she said. “It keeps me in a positive state of mind so that I function better.” Many of the other participants in Giving Tree’s class used weed for similar ailments. Fifty-year-old Scott Archuleta said that for years, he “was never a guy who smoked weed. Not at all.” But roughly a decade ago, he developed insomnia that defied conven- tional treatments. Now, marijuana “has been helping me sleep ever since,” he explained. The last Coffee and Cannabis class of the year was held last week, though Feagins said they will return in 2025. “It feels fulfilling as a person to be able to play a part of helping somebody have a better quality of life,” she said. “I keep an eye on what’s happening with people, and then I get to see when something actually works. And I get that sense of ‘Wow, I really helped you find what you needed.’” Back to ‘High’ School Seniors learn about weed in class hosted by Phoenix dispensary.
