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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With medical cannabis legal in the majority of states in the country, the number of adults who have turned to the treatment for chronic pain has likewise increased.

That is the finding of a new study from researchers at the University of Michigan that was published in JAMA Network Open last week. 

The researchers contacted 1,724 adults, 96% of whom (1,661) completed the full survey. 

Among them, “31.0%…of adults with chronic pain reported having ever used cannabis to manage their pain; 25.9%… reported using cannabis to manage their chronic pain in the past 12 months, and 23.2%… reported using cannabis in the past 30 days,” the researchers wrote. 

The researchers said that “more than half of adults who used cannabis to manage their chronic pain reported that use of cannabis led them to decrease use of prescription opioid, prescription nonopioid, and over-the-counter pain medications, and less than 1% reported that use of cannabis increased their use of these medications.” 

“Fewer than half of respondents reported that cannabis use changed their use of nonpharmacologic pain treatments,” they wrote in their findings. “Among adults with chronic pain in this study, 38.7% reported that their used of cannabis led to decreased use of physical therapy (5.9% reported it led to increased use), 19.1% reported it led to decreased use of meditation (23.7% reported it led to increased use), and 26.0% reported it led to decreased used of cognitive behavioral therapy (17.1% reported it led to increased use).” 

Thirty-seven states in the U.S. have medical cannabis programs on the books. Among adults living with chronic pain in those states, “3 in 10 persons reported using cannabis to manage their pain,” according to the new study.

“Most persons who used cannabis as a treatment for chronic pain reported substituting cannabis in place of other pain medications including prescription opioids. The high degree of substitution of cannabis with both opioid and nonopioid treatment emphasizes the importance of research to clarify the effectiveness and potential adverse consequences of cannabis for chronic pain,” the researchers wrote. “Our results suggest that state cannabis laws have enabled access to cannabis as an analgesic treatment despite knowledge gaps in use as a medical treatment for pain. Limitations include the possibility of sampling and self-reporting biases, although NORC AmeriSpeak uses best-practice probability-based recruitment, and changes in pain treatment from other factors (eg, forced opioid tapering).” 

The findings serve as another source of encouragement for advocates who hope patients continue to seek treatment from cannabis, rather than highly addictive prescription drugs. 

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, “more than 564,000 people died from overdoses involving any opioid, including prescription and illicit opioids, from 1999-2020.”

The CDC says that the “rise in opioid overdose deaths can be outlined in three distinct waves.”

“The first wave began with increased prescribing of opioids in the 1990s, with overdose deaths involving prescription opioids (natural and semi-synthetic opioids and methadone) increasing since at least 1999,” according to the CDC. “The second wave began in 2010, with rapid increases in overdose deaths involving heroin. The third wave began in 2013, with significant increases in overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids, particularly those involving illicitly manufactured fentanyl. The market for illicitly manufactured fentanyl continues to change, and it can be found in combination with heroin, counterfeit pills, and cocaine.”

Mark Bicket, one of the authors of the new study who also serves as assistant professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and co-director of the Michigan Opioid Prescribing Engagement Network, said that the “fact that patients report substituting cannabis for pain medications so much underscores the need for research on the benefits and risk of using cannabis for chronic pain.”

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Young adults in the United States that are using cannabis and hallucinogens spiked to reach “historic highs,” according to new federal research released this week.

The data from the National Institutes of Health found that the use of both pot and hallucinogens among individuals between the ages of 19 and 30 “increased significantly in 2021 compared to five and 10 years ago,” hitting the highest levels among the age group since 1988.

“As the drug landscape shifts over time, this data provides a window into the substances and patterns of use favored by young adults. We need to know more about how young adults are using drugs like marijuana and hallucinogens, and the health effects that result from consuming different potencies and forms of these substances,” National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow said in a statement on Monday that accompanied the study. “Young adults are in a critical life stage and honing their ability to make informed choices. Understanding how substance use can impact the formative choices in young adulthood is critical to help position the new generations for success.”

The data is part of the NIH-sponsored “Monitoring the Future” study, which has been conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan since 1975.

The latest edition of the “MTF” study found that, in 2021, “past-year, past-month, and daily marijuana use (use on 20 or more occasions in the past 30 days) reached the highest levels ever recorded since these trends were first monitored in 1988.”

“The proportion of young adults who reported past-year marijuana use reached 43% in 2021, a significant increase from 34% five years ago (2016) and 29% 10 years ago (2011). Marijuana use in the past month was reported by 29% of young adults in 2021, compared to 21% in 2016 and 17% in 2011. Daily marijuana use also significantly increased during these time periods, reported by 11% of young adults in 2021, compared to 8% in 2016 and 6% in 2011,” the study said.

The researchers said that past-year “hallucinogen use had been relatively stable over the past few decades until 2020, when reports of use started to increase dramatically.” Last year, it reached historic levels.

“In 2021, 8% of young adults reported past-year hallucinogen use, representing an all-time high since the category was first surveyed in 1988. By comparison, in 2016, 5% of young adults reported past-year hallucinogen use, and in 2011, only 3% reported use. Types of hallucinogens reported by participants included LSD, MDMA, mescaline, peyote, ‘shrooms’ or psilocybin, and PCP. The only hallucinogen measured that significantly decreased in use was MDMA (also called ecstasy or Molly), showing statistically significant decreases within one year as well as the past five years – from 5% in both 2016 and 2020 to 3% in 2021,” the study said.

The study indicated that alcohol and hallucinogens were far from the only vices that saw increased usage by young adults last year.

Binge drinking, which is defined as having five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks, “returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2021 after significantly decreasing in 2020 (32% reported in 2021, versus 28% in 2020 and 32% in 2019),” according to the research.

Meanwhile, high-intensity drinking, which is defined as having 10 or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks,” was at its highest level since it was first measured in 2005, reported by 13% of young adults in 2021, compared with 11% in 2005,” the study said.

The study did, however, show “significant decreases in past-month cigarette smoking by young adults and non-medical use of opioid medications in the past year (surveyed as “narcotics other than heroin”) compared to 10 years ago.” Nicotine vaping, on the other hand, “increased significantly among young adults in 2021 despite leveling off in 2020 during the earlier part of the pandemic,” according to the study.

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While recreational and medical legalization is sweeping the country, a recent study revealed that enrollment in medical-only programs quadrupled between 2016 and 2020.

The study on U.S. medical cannabis trends also looked at qualifying conditions listed by patients, and revealed that enrollment increased in states with only medical cannabis. States that also offer recreational cannabis use declined or stayed the same. Overall, chronic pain was the most common condition reported on applications. 

This research project, titled “U.S. Trends in Registration for Medical Cannabis and Reasons for Use From 2016 to 2020” and published with Annals of Internal Medicine, was spearheaded by lead author Kevin Boehnke, an expert on chronic pain at University of Michigan. His goal with the study was to look specifically at medical enrollment, not cannabis use overall, to determine cannabis trends. 

During his work on the study, he asked himself, “How many people are using cannabis for pain? Why are people actually using [medical cannabis]?”

With these questions in mind, Boehnke began a years-long look into what this enrollment and cannabis use looked like, using public data available from reports and state websites, meeting notes, state officials, and documents he got access to thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. He was specifically interested in what the trends looked like as they shifted under the changing medical and recreational laws across the country. 

He also published another study on the issue in 2019, “Qualifying Conditions Of Medical Cannabis License Holders In The United States,” in HealthAffairs, but this new study has an even broader scope with more access to data. 

“These changing state policies have dramatic effects on how many people might be using cannabis for medical purposes or how they might be able to do so,” Boehnke says regarding the study, according to STAT News. 

STAT News also spoke to Byron Adinoff, a drug addiction researcher and president of Doctors for Cannabis Regulation, about the study. He was happy about the results, and hopes to see more studies that highlight how key medical cannabis treatment can be. While he admits that he, like many doctors, was hesitant for a long time about prescribing medical cannabis, his views have changed as information like this becomes available. 

“I didn’t really buy into it, but, you know, after you talk to several hundred people who have benefited from it, you start to think maybe there’s something to it,” he says. “Hopefully it will get organized medicine and physicians individually to pay increasing attention to this issue,” he added.

Another substantial piece of data was how much patient enrollment increased in Oklahoma. In that state, there was more than a significant jump to report. According to the study, one in 10 residents of the state are medical cannabis patients, a record high number. This could be because the state does not require specific medical conditions to qualify for a medical card. They can get medical cannabis for any conditions a doctor deems reasonable.

All other medical states in the U.S. at this time have a list of qualifying conditions for what patients are eligible for when it comes to medical cannabis. Chronic pain is allowed in most states, so it’s no surprise that it’s at the top of the list for what patients are medicating for. 

STAT News also spoke to Silvia Martins, an epidemiologist at Columbia University specializing in substance use, who hopes this study can lead to more confidence in how cannabis can treat chronic pain. 

“Even for chronic pain, we need more evidence, but for other types of conditions, we need even more evidence,” she says regarding the information in the study. 

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