phoenixnewtimes.com PHOENIX NEW TIMES JUNE 30TH–JULY 6TH, 2022 State Licensed Dispensaries & Doctor Certifications | CANNABIS | Ageing from p 39 and administer marijuana to her mother. As a result, the only remaining options are to hire outside caretakers, move closer to the parent to administer directly them- selves, or to opt for a more traditional prescription like opiates. “Their policy is that somebody, not one of their employees, is responsible for bringing the marijuana to the patient, watching them take it, and removing from the premises anything that is not consumed,” she said. “The doctor recom- mended medicinal marijuana three to four times a day. That’s pretty much impossible.” She added that despite many pleas to provide her parent with marijuana for debilitating anxiety and pain, the facility only repeated they are “just not comfort- able with it.” “Their arguments indicated to me that they just didn’t understand,” she said. “I think part of the problem is there is a lot of vagueness in this statute.” Shane Pennington, a New York-based attorney focused on federal appeals and regulatory issues related to cannabis, also finds ARS 36-2805 confusingly vague. “You can’t do anything unreasonable unless it jeopardizes funding under federal law or regulations?” Pennington said. “Then, I guess, you can do unreasonable restrictions.” Arizona law does not require assisted living facilities to administer medical mari- juana if doing so would harm the facility under federal law. And while such harm is very unlikely, the conflict between state and federal marijuana legislation creates confusion and uncertainty. For example, Pennington noted that assisted living facilities are federally required to register with the DEA to dispense legal controlled substances, like opioid painkillers. Medicinal marijuana — while legal in Arizona, 38 other states and Washington D.C. — is classified by the federal govern- ment as an illegal Schedule I drug. These substances are defined as having “no medical use,” and so distributing them could put a facility at odds with the DEA. Pennington noted that the Department of Justice would not be able to expend resources to interfere with state imple- mentation of medicinal marijuana legislation. “If what you’re doing is consistent with state medical marijuana regimes, then DOJ — which includes DEA — can’t enforce against you,” Pennington said. “This is a deep problem, how confusing it gets.” The Arizona Department of Health Services reported it is not aware of any senior living facility that embraces the use of medical marijuana. PhoenixNew Times reached out to several Phoenix assisted living facilities and received a response from one. “Hospice of the Valley fully respects the wishes of any patients who wish to use cannabis medications and works collabor- atively with their physicians to coordinate a safe and effective plan of care,” the response read. Hospice of the Valley would not elabo- rate on whether its staff would administer Mile High Club TSA’s rules for traveling by air this summer with your pot. BY KEVIN HANLON I f you are traveling by air this summer and thinking about bringing your favorite cannabis products along for the flight, you’ll probably want to check with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration to see if it will allow cannabis through airport security. Unfortunately, TSA’s website is not entirely clear on its marijuana policy. “Marijuana and certain cannabis-infused products, including some >>p 43 victorass88 / iStock / Getty Images Plus the cannabis medication. The popularity and acceptance of mari- juana-derived treatments for the effects of aging is growing, as more seniors question the merits of traditional pharmaceuticals, with their sometimes harsh side effects. Research promises relief for senior citizens when it comes to such conditions as pain, poor sleep, and Alzheimer’s. “For 12 years, I’ve seen people get off opioids, fentanyl, morphine, sleep aids. They basically take their medicine cabinet full of amber plastic prescription bottles and put their one or two cannabis medicines on the shelf,” said Burns. For glaucoma patients, Burns finds that supplementing traditional medications with marijuana improves pressure levels. Cancer patients are better able to tolerate chemotherapy and radiation. Migraine sufferers report huge reductions in both frequency and intensity. And all have a better quality of life. The Arizona Department of Health Services, which issues medical use licenses but does not maintain data on how many assisted living facilities are licensed, outlines the legally-approved conditions for medical marijuana use. While this includes glaucoma, cancer and “agitation of Alzheimer’s disease,” it does not explicitly include migraines or sleeplessness. These are symptoms common with the elderly that Burns finds marijuana eases. Santarelli and Burns cite particularly good benefits for Alzheimer’s patients in living facilities, including a calming effect that replaces sedatives that would other- wise leave patients nearly comatose. In one instance, Santarelli recalls a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s who was so agitated she could not be contained. She was kicked out of several living facilities before implementing medical marijuana into her routine. This calmed her and allowed her to live out the rest of her life in one residence. “These are people in hospitals and nursing homes, in many cases it is veterans,” Pennington said. “There’s a federal prohibition, and the lack of Congress to bring clarity to all of this has everybody guessing. It has real impact on people.” 41
