freedomisgreen's Open Salon Blog

Twisted Twilight: Dying Old in America

Sun, 24 Jul 2011 12:07:05 -0400

Part 1

Some of them look just like the lobby a mid-level hotel clinging to a midwest airport. The tan carpets with giant paisley-like patterns swirl below faux art-deco chandeliers. Concierge desks with a little lamps stolen from libraries that held real books lurk about. The dark wood desks are unattended, presumably to keep with the mid-level hotel motif. These are recovery and long-term health care facilities, where you end up after surgery or a hospital stay.

I am caring for two elderly grandparents who are in a difficult stage. Old people spend a lot of time in and out of these institutions. If it is only for a few days or a week it may indeed seem like a Marriott with nurses. But there is one thing that always gives the precocious ‘hotel’ façade away: the distinctive and pervasive smell of human urine.

In the last eighteens months I have seen the interior of twelve of these facilities. My grandmother has Alzheimer’s and has reached a final threshold. She can no longer walk or even stand. She can barely speak. She will eat, if fed each bite with a spoon. She is almost unrecognizable as the shorthand-writing Irishwoman who raised me cursing in Turkish and quoting Shakespeare.

At this final stage of chronic conditions - right when you need the most care at the most critical moment -insurance companies set patients adrift. My grandparents are now left to pay out of pocket or through Medicare. A bill that is currently $14,000 a month keeps my grandmother comfortable - and one of us feeds her two meals every day. This is financially (and emotionally) sustainable for about a year.

Eleven of the twelve long-term care centers I have toured have haunting similarities. Corridor walls are filled with big (cheap) posters on various artistic themes- nudes (sometimes seriously racy but hey, whatever), one was even mostly Picasso (true story and seemingly cruel) most are carelessly cluttered with factory landscapes. They all have wheelchair after wheelchair after bed after wheelchair filled with semi-conscious old people.

That’s right, they are parked right in the hallways as staff bustle about. Sure, they have big tanks filled with colorful fish, nicely appointed dining rooms (on the tan paisley theme again), mini movie theaters and little frog fountains bubbling away on flowery garden patios . But they have a parade of mentally and physically ill elderly people. All of them as vulnerable and dependant as an infant.

None of the old people in the hallways look happy. They wear a common mask of confusion or plain fear.

Only some of the patients have any family visit at all, let alone participate in care management or everyday activities.

So far I have seen one truly terrible environment. It reeked of vomit, feces and urine among the cramped 2-bed rooms. There was no patio or aquarium. After a hospital stay for dehydration, she was forced there by the insurance company. On a sunny day in winter I wheeled grandma into the warm rays streaming through big windows at the end of a corridor. The only view was the parking lot.

A UPS truck arrived and heaved a pallet wrapped in clear plastic in front of the building about 20 feet away. Big labels declared the boxes inside to be gloves and drugs. A maintenance person (blue shirt/pants with white oval name patch - red thread declares “Mike” - high-tops and generic baseball hat) casually smoked a cigarette (Newport box visible in front pocket) and sorted the boxes. He set a few of the smaller ones carefully aside with a reverence and joy at finding prized narcotics that was comically visible.

We had grandma out the next morning on an out-of-pocket ambulance ride, feeling strangely similar to when I’ve bailed friends out of jail in the middle of the night. 48-hours there left her with dangerous pneumonia resulting in another trip to the hospital...and yet another recovery center.

Now, every day is spent managing the care of these two people through doctors, lawyers, technicians, specialists, billing managers and insurance companies. Their medical care would cost much more if we attempted the process at home. A deep vein of religion means that pragmatic hospice hasn’t been on the table. As a family we feel relegated to watching dwindling finances, visiting and deliberately holding out another spoon of pureed cherry cobbler.

It is an ugly cycle and the system for treating patients like my grandmother is terribly inhumane.

VIDEO: PhillyNORML 2010 Global Marijuana March

Mon, 3 May 2010 11:05:41 -0400

Photo shoot in Times Square

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:04:33 -0400

Exclusively for OS by Chris Goldstein

While in New York City on 4/9/2010 I met up with my friends Steve Bloom from Celebstoner.com along with Danny Danko and Rick Cusick from High Times Magazine. Danny and Rick are also very active NORML Chapter leaders at Empire State NORML and NORML-NJ.

Christopher David Freitag, a friend and trusted photographer who was along for the day, took a whirlwind tour of the High Times office. Although brief, it was no less intellectually and spiritually moving as the experience of visiting that fine publication always proves.

That afternoon we took on an interesting photo mission: National NORML purchased a 15 second animated advertisement for the CBS Super Screen on Times Square. It runs 18 times per day on a schedule, or so we thought. We were aiming to get there by the 4:11PM airing and get a picture in front of the giant cannabis leaf ad. After a quick (and cool) cab ride with a Senegalese driver, we arrived on site at 3:50.

No one really goes to Times Square with any real purpose, it's kind of a hang out for tourists and massive crosswalk for locals. But here we were searching among a vast quilt of building-suspended screens for the one where the NORML ad would appear. Here's a cellphone pic of us scouting:

It turned out to be almost directly over B.B. Kings Blues Club, which was coincidentally ( and rather fortuitously) where Steve Bloom was meeting us anyway. We were assembled and on time, everything was going well. Freitag set up the image and we practiced aligning ourselves under the sign (practically IN 7th Ave). Another cellphone pic:

Well 4:11 came and went. Then 4:30 went by. It began to drizzle. We decided to wait out a full hour and called NORML's office in DC. Freitag took this rather priceless shot of us waiting:

Me, Steve Bloom, Rick Cusick and Danny Danko

Then at 4:48 we got the shot:

This pic has now been circulated far and wide. This giant legalization message almost didn’t happen because CBS originally rejected the content. After a petition drive from the site Change.org, to their credit, CBS allowed the ad on the screen.

Here's the full animated NORML ad, it runs until May 31st with a second variation starting this Tuesday, 4/20/2010

New York to Philly: Marijuana is in the media

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:04:47 -0400

*Dr. Jennifer Ashton interview on CBS

4-18-2010: Chris Goldstein

Different marijuana topics have been generating local and national media attention recently.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer, FOX 29, WHYY, CBS News and outlets across the country, your fellow OS blogger has been featured as an expert voice on ending cannabis prohibition.

The Tax Cannabis 2010 campaign in California officially gained a ballot position during the last week of March. FOX 29 asked me to debate the issue locally on March 25, 2010. Here's a short clip:

Philadelphia makes a sensible change

On April 5th the Philadelphia Inquirer broke the story regarding the decision to lessen the prosecutorial penalties for minor marijuana possession. District Attorney Seth Williams made the decision with the vocal backing of the state Supreme Court. PhillyNORML’s effort to bring attention to the local arrest data was mentioned in the article.

"This is a very progressive thing to do on the part of the city," Goldstein said of the new policy. "I couldn't be happier about this."

He said the change also would redress a racial pattern apparent in Philadelphia drug-possession arrests. More than 80 percent typically have been of African Americans, Philadelphia police data show. READ FULL ARTICLE

A follow up by Inquirer columnist Monica Yant Kinney appeared on April 7th: Phila. pot plan saves money, court time

Chris Goldstein wishes prosecutors would leave "marijuana consumers" alone. But for now, the advocate from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) is so gleeful at this bureaucratic baby step, he told Facebook friends he'd experienced his "Best. Monday. Ever."

Goldstein spent a year lobbying city officials, cops, and prosecutors to reconsider their stance on pot. READ FULL ARTICLE

Then on April 13th I appeared with District Attorney Williams on Radio Times hosted by Marty Moss-Coane on WHYY to discuss the issue : Marijuana law enforcement in the city of brotherly love.

Listen to the mp3

Philadelphia is moving toward changing how minor marijuana possession offenses will be treated. Joining Marty to discuss the changes and what prompted them are Philadelphia District Attorney SETH WILLIAMS and CHRIS GOLDSTEIN of Philly NORML, an advocacy group opposing marijuana prohibition. Then, we'll talk to Carroll Doherty of the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, about a recent poll they conducted that showed widespread support for the legal use of medical marijuana, as well as growing support for marijuana legalization. MORE INFO

Medical Marijuana

Also on April 13th CBS News posted a Health&Wellness segment that was debate on medical marijuana and overall legalization. Moderated by Dr. Jennifer Ashton it featured your humble host and narrator vs. Brian Darling of the Heritage Foundation in Washington DC. Here's the clip:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

The CBS News video segment was taped at the main broadcast studios on West 57th in New York City on April 9, 2010. This also afforded the chance to meet and record with WCBS 880AM News Achor, Wayne Cabot. We discussed medical marijuana in New Jersey and MS patient John Wilson. The radio piece aired that day.

There has indeed been some shift in the media towards more serious coverage of marijuana prohibition issues. This week the cannabis consumer holiday of 4/20 should bring some attention to the topic of legaliziation as well.

The local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, PhillyNORML, meets twice per month in the city. The annual Marijuana March on historic South Street takes place on May 1, 2010.

* Photos by: C. David Freitag and WHYY

CONTACT Chris Goldstein: media@phillynorml.org

Subscribe to the Philadelphia NORML Examiner – it’s free!

Celebrate 4/20 at PhillyNORML concert

PhillyNORML: City is not decriminalizing pot

Pot could be legal in 2011

PA: Hundreds honk horns for medical marijuana at rally

NJ MS patient: 5 year sentence for growing marijuana

PA: Newspaper Editorials favor medical marijuana bill HB 1393

PA: Emergency Room MD testifies in favor of medical marijuana HB 1393

Specter could grow support with medical marijuana

PA: Specter, Hoeffel, Wagner back medical marijuana at Summit

PA: Quinnipiac poll 59% say medical marijuana is a ‘good idea’

AIDS Law Project, ACLU-PA endorse medical marijuana

Conservative Rabbi backs PA medical marijuana

Video: PA medical marijuana hearings - Son speaks of dying mother

MORE

Philly: White women rarely arrested for pot

Philly: Marijuana mug shots cost city $3million annually

PhillyNORML: Hundreds turn out for marijuana legalization concert

Big bust in NJ tiny part of $1 billion local pot economy

NJ: DHSS Commissioner appointed; could oversee medical marijuana

NJ: Medical marijuana law offers new centralized approach

Walmart facing boycott from marijuana reform supporters

Wilson trial:

MS patient: Not guilty on most serious marijuana charge

NJ: Judge allows John Wilson to mention MS at marijuana trial

Rally photos: MS patient John Wilson facing 15 years for 17 plants

NJ: Politicians speak out for medical marijuana

Breaking: Philadelphia to ‘decriminalize’ marijuana

Mon, 5 Apr 2010 11:04:16 -0400

Seeking to ease the burden on courts and save money throughout the public safety budget Philadelphia will essentially decriminalize minor marijuana possession. The announcement from District Attorney R. Seth Williams came in a front-page piece today by the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The city's new district attorney and the state Supreme Court are moving to all but decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use in an effort to unclog Philadelphia's crowded court dockets.

Under a policy to take effect later this month, prosecutors will charge such cases as summary offenses rather than as misdemeanors. People arrested with up to 30 grams of the drug - slightly more than an ounce - may have to pay a fine but face no risk of a criminal record. READ FULL ARTICLE

Currently, city residents caught with any amount of cannabis face a mandatory custodial arrest. The “mandatory” part is unique to the city compared with other parts of Pennsylvania. These pot arrests also require court resources. Other municipalities and counties offer summary violations to minor marijuana offenders.

This is a major and pragmatic shift for local marijuana policy. PhillyNORML highlighted the racial disparity of cannabis arrests in recent articles. The group was instrumental in bringing the harsh treatment of adult marijuana consumers to the attention of city officials.

The Philadelphia Inquirer is also running on online poll regarding the shift in marijuana penalties: Currently 89% support the change.

The local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, PhillyNORML, meets twice per month in the city. A fundraising concert will take place on 4/20/2010 and the annual Marijuana March on historic South Street takes place on May 1, 2010.

More at www.phillynorml.org