Three Older Women Experiment With Drugs

The tide is turning.

In Washington state, where recreational use of marijuana is now legal, Paula, Dorothea and Deirdre tried pot for the first time last week – on video, in front of the whole world.

The “grannies” had accepted an invitation from the folks at Cut Video. Why? They were curious.

According to Fast Company, the folks at Cut wanted to push the envelope in the debate over Marijuana legalization, which was on several state ballots in the recent midterms. “We thought, let’s try something that reflects on the absurdity of some of these legacy laws,” the Cut’s Mike Gaston said. “And that’s how grandmas smoking weed happened.”

Legalization aside, the video and its three open-minded pot smokers might have helped in the push against ageism. Just one day after “Grannies Smoking Weed for the First Time” was posted to YouTube, it had been viewed more than 7 million times.

Asked if it was hard to find three older women who were willing to try weed for the first time, Gaston said, “Honestly, the hardest part was finding three grandmas who had never smoked weed before.”

A survey last year found that 22 percent of respondents 65-plus had used marijuana in the past 12 months.

Those numbers could rise now that marijuana is legal in several states – midterm voters in Oregon and Alaska followed the lead of Colorado and Washington in saying yes to legalized recreational use of pot; Washington DC residents voted 70 percent in favor of a less extensive law.

Dorothea, the woman in the center, later told TMZ said that she would not try marijuana again because she it made her feel out of control – which she doesn’t enjoy. But, she said, she hopes it’s decriminalized. “I don’t understand what the big deal is about being high on marijuana.”

Plus

• Robert Platshorn: Senior pot activist
• More seniors are backing marijuana