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Recent reports indicate more seniors are smoking marijuana as baby boomers age. Are we really surprised by this? After all, who started the peace movement of the 1960s and early 1970s? Long considered a drug for young people, more people in their 50s and 60s, and even some in their 70s and 80s, are enjoying a joint or two along with, or in place of, their nightly glass of wine.
According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, marijuana use among aging seniors has increased from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008. The increase was most dramatic among the 55 to 59-year-old whose use has more than tripled during that time frame.
What is the draw?
There are several possible reasons for the increase in marijuana use among seniors, including:
- Marijuana can ease the aches and pains that seniors experience on a daily basis. Many find the drug has helped them sleep better than sleeping pills or pain pills.
- The kids are now gone and people have the opportunity, in the evening, to settle in with their paper and a joint to help them relax from a stressful day. Where many people used to have a couple of beers or a glass of wine, now they are lighting up a joint.
- Although some people have used marijuana all their adult lives, findings show that others are returning to marijuana after many years of living without.
Marijuana is also credited with relieving problems due to aging, such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, as well as the above mentioned aches and pains.
What does the future hold?
Over the years, advocates have pushed for the legality of marijuana. Experts believe the older, more staid, generations of politicians who opposed legalization of marijuana are being replaced by younger men and women who never believed the drug held the stigma it did for the older generations.
Although patients in 14 states are allowed marijuana due to the medical marijuana laws, the majority of states in the United States still consider the drug illegal.
That doesn’t seem to stop a growing number of seniors from lighting up a joint and enjoying the high they receive. Now that they are in a position to change the existing allows to allow marijuana use, we will probably see more openness in its use.
As the 78 million baby boomers who were born between 1946 and 1964 continue to age, expect an increase in the use of marijuana, and changing laws to help justify the habit. After all, it is great for medicinal purposes.
