Robert Platshorn will be holding a fundraiser on September 11th to raise money for the Silver Tour, a live event to educate senior citizens about the benefits of medical cannabis featuring doctors, nurses, and patients. Platshorn says if he can raise $150,000 he can spread the message throughout the entire State of Florida. “Now that I’m a free man I’ve come out to Seattle,” Platshorn said, “and I’ll be appearing at the High Times Cannabis Cup, at the new National Marijuana Info booth. I’ll be signing books and raising money for the Silver Tour.”
Parole Restrictions Spark Medical Cannabis Infomercial
Platshorn had worked as a pitchman in the past, even being called by the late Billy Mays, “a legend in the pitch business.” Because of parole restrictions on travel, Platshorn had to find another way to spread his message. “I was making infomercials before Ron Popeil and Billy Mays. I was making infomercials before they called them infomercials. I not only knew how to make an effective show that would educate seniors, but I also knew how to buy the commercial time at a fraction of what an advertiser or advertising agency would normally pay. Just from my own background as a pitchman and infomercial producer. I knew what I was doing, and the reason I had to do it is, until 48 hours ago, or so, I was on parole, and the government had stopped my travel. They wouldn’t let me go any place to work for legalization, and since I couldn’t bring the Silver Tour to all the states, I decided to turn it into a television show and display it as paid programing whenever we had enough donations. It’s appeared thousands of times in a few dozen states, on good TV stations.”
Silver Tour Helping to Educate Seniors, an Overlooked Demographic in the Election
Platshorn believes senior citizens are being overlooked in the campaigning for the legalization of medical cannabis and Amendment 2. “United For Care’s primary goal was to elect Charlie Crist, by joining forces with the cannabis movement. I believe John Morgan really wants to see cannabis legalized. By joining with the cannabis movement, he felt that he would get enough of a youth turnout to make the difference to elect Charlie Crist and to pass Amendment 2. But Amendment 2 needs 60% of the vote. There are no other organizations that have any public face and use the media. I’m a director of NORML, but they don’t have any form of outreach or education, except for small in-person events. United For Care uses the media, and the Silver Tour uses the media, it takes the media to get this job done. There are no other organizations, none exist.”
Silver Tour Changing The Minds of Senior Citizens on Medical Cannabis
While Platshorn says the Silver Tour originally had problems reaching out to seniors, now he says senior centers are reaching out to him, wanting the Silver Tour to come to their area. “We’ve been doing great with seniors, 3 years ago no senior was even willing to talk about legalization, or medical marijuana. When I started the Silver Tour I couldn’t get any senior community to allow me to come in and put on a show, bring a doctor, bring patients. As soon as they heard the word marijuana, the answer was no. All of these century villages and over-55 communities, total rejection. They said, this is not a subject that our people care about.”
“So I started out putting on Silver Tour shows in synagogues, because the reform movement in Judaism has always supported medical marijuana. They just never had a spokesman, and so they adopted me as their spokesman, and I put on live shows in several large South Florida synagogues, with audiences as big as 200, mostly seniors. Overwhelmingly, 99% would come over to our side after they heard a doctor tell them about the benefits, and they actually heard from patients about how it works, and what a difference it makes for them. At the first show I did in a big synagogue, the Wall Street Journal was there, and they were so impressed they put a story on the front page. At the next one I did in a synagogue CNN Money was there, and they produced a report where they asked people going in why they were there, and were told stuff like, I came for the free buffet, or my grandson sent me; and then asking the same people on the way out, they would get answers like, it upsets me that I’m not able to get this medicine, I’m an adult, I’m old enough to make up my own mind, and it really got seniors up in arms.”
Silver Tour Turning Seniors Into Activists
Platshorn has been able to convince many seniors to speak out to their elected officials about legalizing medical cannabis. “I took bus loads of seniors to the House of Representatives in Washington DC, to demand that the government doesn’t interfere with medical marijuana in the legal states. Our lawmakers had never seen seniors demanding safe access to medical marijuana. A month later we got the Holder Memo. Today, those same over-55 communities that wouldn’t let me in the door, call every day saying our people want to learn about this, would you please come and put on a Silver Tour show, or give a talk yourself? The difference is just amazing, but where we need more exposure, where we haven’t had it enough, is in Central Florida, places like Polk County, all of North Central and Northern Florida, and radio is the way to do it. Once seniors realize how much good, and how the Sheriffs are lying about it being a gateway drug, or being more available for teen use, when they hear the message that in states that have legal marijuana teen use has never gone up, and in many states, like Colorado, teen use has gone down considerably, along with alcohol use.” And Platshorn is hoping to reach out those areas of Florida he believes are being ignored, if he can continue to raise funds for the Silver Tour.
For more information about the Silver Tour go to: www.thesilvertour.org
To donate to the Silver Tour go to: http://thesilvertour.org/support-silver-tour
To watch Should Grandma Smoke Pot? go to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln3xVhf8mXw
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