After analyzing available survey data, researchers at the University of Michigan said that 12.1% of adults in the United States aged 50-80 reported using cannabis in the past year. 

“Among those who reported cannabis use, 34.2% reported using cannabis products 4 or more days per week,” the researchers said.

The researchers analyzed data extracted from the National Poll on Healthy Aging, which they described as “a nationally cross-sectional survey that asked U.S. adults ages 50-80 in January 2021 about their cannabis use in the past year.”

(The poll is sponsored by the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation at the University of Michigan.)

The researchers noted that “multivariable logistic regression was used to identify demographic and health characteristics associated with cannabis use” for their analysis.

“More than one in 10 U.S. adults aged 50-80 used cannabis in the 1st year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and many used cannabis frequently. As access to and use of cannabis continue to increase nationally, clinicians and policymakers should monitor and address the potential risks among older adults,” the researchers wrote in their conclusion.

The researchers noted that “cannabis use was less likely among people who identified as Hispanic ethnicity or as ‘other’ races compared with non-Hispanic white respondents.”

Cannabis has proven useful to many older individuals, who have turned to pot to mitigate chronic pain and other ailments that accompany aging. 

“It is not surprising that a rising percentage of adults consider cannabis to be a viable option in their later years. Many older adults struggle with pain, anxiety, restless sleep, and other conditions for which cannabis products often mitigate. Many older adults are also well aware of the litany of serious adverse side-effects associated with available prescription drugs, like opioids or sleep aids, and they perceive medical cannabis to be a practical and potentially safer alternative,” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said in response to the University of Michigan survey.

Other pieces of survey data have illustrated the same trend. 

Earlier this year, The Hill reported on a survey showing that the “share of over-65 Americans who have used marijuana nearly tripled in a decade, from 11 percent in 2009 to 32 percent in 2019,” and that “more than half of the 60-64 demographic reported cannabis use, another sharp increase.”

“Cannabis consumption among older adults reached 35 percent in 2021. But the pandemic affected the survey methodology, researchers said, possibly skewing the results,” The Hill reported. “The graying of cannabis culture signals broadening social acceptance of marijuana, which is now available for recreational use in 23 states. It is also a generational story about the aging baby boomers, a generation that grew up in an era of psychotropic experimentation.  Cannabis use, for many older Americans, is less about getting high and more about getting sleep. And pain relief. And calm.”

Another way to put it: more Americans –– young, old and middle aged –– are using cannabis than any time before, a natural consequence of the wave of legalization that has swept over the country in the last decade.

Gallup confirmed as much earlier this year. In August, the venerable pollster released findings showing that “half of Americans (50%) say they have tried marijuana at some time, a new high point for this behavior that has been inching up over the past quarter century.”

“While essentially unchanged from the 49% and 48% readings in 2021 and 2022, respectively, the new figure is statistically higher than the 45% in 2017 and 2019 who said they had tried marijuana,” Gallup reported. 

“In answer to a separate question intended to measure current behavior, about one in six Americans (17%) say they ‘smoke marijuana.’ This is also a new high in Gallup’s trend since 2003, albeit similar to the 16% recorded a year ago. These findings are from Gallup’s annual Consumption Habits survey, conducted July 3-27. The proportion of Americans who say they smoke marijuana has more than doubled since 2013, when Gallup first asked the question. That year, 7% said they did. Gallup’s much longer trend on ever having tried marijuana shows that experimentation increased sharply in the first decade after the initial measure. Between 1969 and 1977, it jumped 20 percentage points, from 4% to 24%. It rose another nine points, to 33%, by 1985, but thereafter stalled at under 40% until 2015, when it ticked up to 44%. It remained at about that level through 2019 but then rose to 49% in 2021, roughly where it is today. Over that same period, Gallup recorded a significant increase in the U.S. public’s support for legalization of marijuana, which has grown from 12% in 1969 to 68% today.”

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People like to rag on boomers for never changing, but at least when it comes to cannabis, seniors are ready to get down (and get high). The number of Americans over 65 who have used cannabis nearly tripled over a decade, rising from 11% in 2009 to 32% in 2019, according to a federal survey, The Hill reports. Additionally, over half of the 60-64 demographic reported cannabis use. 

While other generations like to hate on baby boomers for regressive attitudes, in their defense, many of them did come of age in the 1960s and 70s, the era of psychedelic music and free love. While it’s easy for younger folks to assume they agree with the nonsensical (and non-scientific) Reagan War on Drugs era, our grandparents might be more excited about the recent ongoing legalization of cannabis than expected. At least, that’s what the data from this recent survey shows. 

In addition to having been alive for the heydey of revolutionaries such as Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley, who made some of our century’s most extraordinary weed-inspired art, seniors have another reason to use cannabis: they have health problems. Much of the over-60 crowd struggles with treating insomnia, pain, anxiety, arthritis, cancer, and more.   

“There are many things that I would not do any more if I didn’t have cannabis,” Daniel, 61, who lives and works on a Wisconsin farm, told The Hill. “I wouldn’t do it because it hurts too much.” Uthe says he smokes weed “a little bit recreationally, maybe once a month, but way more for pain control.” As both brands of cannabis users know, the line dividing medical and recreational use is thinner than people often make it out to be. For example, it’s okay if using cannabis to treat anxiety also comes with a nice buzz, and it’s okay if using cannabis for the aforementioned buzz also helps your anxiety. 

While they’re the fastest-growing demographic, boomers are still less likely to light up regularly than other generations. According to stats from 2021, about 5% of Americans over 54 and 10% of the 60-64 age group reported using cannabis in the past month, compared to 24% of adults 25 and under. However, these stats aren’t entirely reliable. While it’s important to remember that many older Americans aren’t as regressive as the “okay boomer” memes make them out to be, some may still be holding onto the just-say-no stigma inflicted on them by Reagan-era politics. And as a result, it’s quite likely that more seniors are using cannabis but staying quiet about it.  

“Since 2009, we’ve seen a big increase in cannabis use prevalence across all age groups, all demographic groups, with older people participating in that, kind of for the first time,” said William Kerr, senior scientist at the nonprofit Alcohol Research Group, who also researches cannabis, told The Hill, adding that some seniors “are not admitting [using cannabis] on surveys.”

A 2023 Gallup poll recently found that half of Americans have tried cannabis. To put that in perspective, the same data collection found that 34% of adults had tried marijuana in 1999 and 4% in 1969. However, once again, this data could also reflect the increasing legalization and social acceptance of weed. It’s quite likely that people were using more marijuana in previous years yet only have felt comfortable admitting that to pollsters recently. 

But fear not, younger folks reading this. You’re still at the forefront. Federal data shows that over two-fifths of adults between the ages 19-30 now use cannabis. The majority of such folks may live in legal states, demonstrating that federal legalization could indeed help fight the stigma regarding marijuana. 

And even older people (around the age of most of our presidential candidates) have been slower to welcome cannabis legalization, not to mention actually consume any. According to Pew Research Center data from the fall of 2022, only 30% of Americans over 75 supported legalizing recreational marijuana. This reflects the views of a generation, aka the “silent generation,” born between 1928 and 1945, before recreational weed was a mainstream part of society, even if it was an illicit one. “It’s really the silent generation and every generation before that,” Kerr tells The Hill. “They weren’t exposed to it when they were young and had negative opinions about it for many years.”  

Compared to their predecessors, Boomers are pretty chill. The same Pew survey shows that 53% of Americans between the ages of 65-74 age group support adult-use cannabis, a figure which reflects the national average. 

However, while this data regarding open-minded, pot-smoking boomers is exciting, remember that it’s due to societal and legal changes. Just because folks who were adults during the Reagan era are open-minded doesn’t mean that the War on Drugs didn’t have a negative impact. Cannabis use plummeted during the Reagan era of the 1980s, with most boomers shying away from the herb during that time, as it was very illegal, harder to get, and came with more risk and fear than it does now. Sometimes, even with countless more hurdles towards legalization to cross, it’s important to remember how far we have come. 

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One octogenarian German is down to his last straw.

The Associated Press reports that a court in the northern German town of Aurich “has given an 82-year-old man a ‘last warning’ to avoid jail after he was found guilty of drug dealing, despite 24 previous convictions.”

The defendant, identified only as a retired seaman, reportedly “said he wanted to improve his meagre €800 (£690) monthly pension by selling marijuana,” and “was handed a suspended sentence” by the court in Aurich.

The AP, citing German news agency dpa, reported “that prosecutors had asked the court to impose a prison term of 34 months in view of the man’s lengthy criminal record and an existing suspended sentence,” but judges “said they would make an exception and classify the latest crimes as ‘less serious offences’ because of the man’s particular circumstances and recent health problems.”

“Dpa quoted the presiding judge telling the defendant that it was his ‘very last warning,’” according to the Associated Press.

In recent years, Germany has emerged as a major focal point in Europe’s debate over cannabis legalization. 

Following the country’s election in 2021, when the center-left Social Democrats Party (SPD) received the most votes, the party formed a coalition with the Green Party and the Free Democrats (FDP) to establish a new government. Coalition leaders said immediately that they would pursue marijuana legalization.

“We’re introducing the controlled distribution of cannabis to adults for consumption in licensed stores,” a spokesperson for the coalition said at the time. “This will control the quality, prevent the transfer of contaminated substances and guarantee the protection of minors. We will evaluate the law after four years for social impact.”

Earlier this year, German leaders unveiled the scope of their legalization plans, which were decidedly narrower from their original vision.

In April, the government “presented scaled-back plans…to liberalize the country’s rules on cannabis, including by decriminalizing possession of limited amounts and allowing members of nonprofit ‘cannabis clubs’ to buy marijuana for recreational purposes,” the Associated Press reported at the time.

“In a second step, German officials also envision setting up regional test projects to sell cannabis through ‘commercial supply chains,’ Health Minister Karl Lauterbach said. But the proposal differs from one he presented in October, which foresaw allowing the sale of cannabis to adults across the country at licensed outlets,” the AP continued. “The German government revised the plan following talks with the European Union’s executive commission. Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir said EU law ‘sets us limits we must respect, but that I will also say we are pushing.’ Lauterbach had cautioned all along that the government would only proceed with its original plan if it got the green light from the EU.”

The proposed new cannabis law “foresees legalizing the possession of up to 25 grams (nearly 1 ounce) of cannabis for recreational purposes and allowing individuals to grow up to three plants,” according to the Associated Press, which noted that the measure would “let German residents 18 and older join nonprofit ‘cannabis clubs’ with a maximum 500 members each, which would be allowed to grow cannabis for members’ personal consumption.,” while individuals “would be allowed to buy up to 25 grams per day, or up to 50 grams per month — a figure that would be limited to 30 grams for adults under age 21.”

Lauterbach said in April that the reaction from the EU was “on the one hand, something that perhaps disappointed us, but on the other hand also an opportunity — the opportunity to build the basis for a European cannabis policy with a well-conducted study.”

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Due to an uptick of incidents involving seniors consuming too much cannabis, doctors are warning older citizens about how to consume the plant correctly. Eating edibles in particular, without the proper guidance, is notorious for causing panic, though the risks are rarely physical.

KOMO News in Seattle reports that doctors want to inform seniors about ways to avoid panic and an unnecessary emergency room visit. This can be solved with simple education about the differences between edibles, topicals, and smokable products and how they affect us differently.

It’s the responsibility of any consumer to properly research before eating an edible, or consuming a high-THC product.

“There are a number of different situations where you could end up in the emergency department, because of a combination of cannabis and a medication or cannabis and another product,” Dr. Lianne Hirano of the Geriatrics department at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, Washington, told KOMO News. 

“If you are a first time user, or if you are somebody who is used to using products from the 60s and 70s, today’s products are way more potent. Your body and your metabolism might not be used to that level of potency,” she said, “That can be quite scary.”

Wall Street Journal reports that seniors are often susceptible to consuming too much cannabis if they’re used to lighter doses.

There are a number of reasons seniors are trying out cannabis for medical purposes. Some seniors turn to cannabis to help with sleeping. Researchers found that overall, cannabis helped seniors get, on average, an extra 30 minutes of sleep. Study participants used smartphones and actigraphy watches to log their sleep patterns

Some seniors believe cannabis can help when battling aging itself. Seniors are turning to cannabis to treat common symptoms of aging, with nearly 80% of those who reported using cannabis saying they did so for medicinal reasons, according to a study from researchers at the University of California San Diego. Results of the study, “Cannabis: An emerging treatment for common symptoms in older adults,” were published on Oct. 7, 2020 in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society.

Today’s Weed is ‘A Different Animal’

Hashtag Cannabis Marketing Director Christine Bryant described today’s more potent weed as “a different animal.”

“The difference is when using a topical, you’re not going to feel the intoxicating effects of THC. But you will feel some of the anti-inflammatory effects that THC can provide for the skin barrier. That’s the difference with an oral (product), like a gummy or a chocolate, something like that. Is this going to affect your whole system? You’re going to process it through your liver, you’re going to feel whole body effects,” she said.

In the event that you consume too much THC, sniffing black peppercorns is an old hack that can reduce some, but not all, of the effect.

Studies show both improvements and setbacks due to senior cannabis use. Last January, researchers from the University of California San Diego published a study in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society, suggesting that emergency room visits involving people 65 and older who use cannabis have increased 1,804% in the past 15 years.

Another study published in the Journal of American Geriatrics Society also reported an uptick in seniors who are consuming cannabis. In a survey of nearly 600 adults in the age range found that 15% reported using marijuana products in the last three years.

Anyone getting into cannabis should be aware of the proper titration in order to prevent panicked calls to the emergency room.

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