Drugs aren’t usually what you’d associate with people over the age of 60, but that’s the exact mission for a group of grandmothers in Australia.
Appearing on Friday night’s episode of A Current Affair, a group of women, who call themselves the Canna Nannas, explained they are on a quest to teach other seniors across the country how to grow cannabis and cook with it.
The women say they don’t spend their time playing lawn bowls or knitting, but rather helping other seniors discover the positive power of marijuana. One woman claimed that her health “dramatically improved” when she added the drug to her meals.
“Cannabis does for us what Spinach does for Popeye,” another woman said.
The segment said the use of marijuana had positive effects for people living with epilepsy, but that legislating for the drug was a legal grey area. It also questioned whether dope should be made legal and included as a major part of the diet of Aussies.
The Canna Nannas tell seniors they have the right to grow marijuana in their backyards, while Aussie farms have legally been growing the drug for decades for industrial purposes. The women are fighting for the right for marijuana can be consumed as food. The Nannas say that the drug is “an essential food” and regularly host events at community halls across the country, preaching this message.
The women provide Baby Boomers with informational pamphlets, cooking utensils, merchandise and even gardening tools. They discuss cannabis medicine and how it works, while showing people how to blend the drug into everyday foods and drinks such as smoothies. While you may think what these women are doing is illegal, it actually isn’t the case.
The women use fake plants during their talks, but don’t think they’re giving older Australians a wrong message.
“I don’t see cannabis as a drug, I see it as a food,” one woman explained on the show.
Still, the women said there is a very real risk that people will be arrested if they are caught using illegal drugs. James Finn from the Australian Medical Association’s Queensland division told A Current Affair that older Australians should not be self-medicating. He said that while marijuana can treat some medical illnesses, people should avoid using the drug recreationally.
“It’s very difficult to make sure people aren’t consuming a product that’s going to have an adverse effect,” he said. “Let’s not forget it’s an illegal product to do that.”
Still, it seems as though the Canna Nannas are getting their message out there. A Current Affair interviewed 84-year-old Minnie Nielsen, who grows marijuana in her backyard. For Nielsen, she said cannabis oil has a positive impact on her great granddaughter, who suffers from epilepsy.
The Canna Nannas describe themselves as “a group of seniors who tour the country teaching the truth about cannabis as food and medicine”. They’re not the only people who have come to the defence of the drug, with Grease star Olivia Newton-John recently defending the use of marijuana as a “healing drug”.