For decades, Americans worried about their kids getting high. Now, alarming new data suggest they should be just as worried about their parents and grandparents—and demanding that their legislators and policymakers take immediate action to stop the rising tide of marijuana use among seniors.
A study out this month from JAMA Internal Medicine shows an enormous jump in the rate of past-month pot use among Americans 65 years and older; from 2021 to 2023 it increased nearly 46 percent.
This is not some statistical fluke.
The study looked at the drug-use habits of almost 16,000 older adults nationwide, across gender, race, and income and educational levels. And the data show sharp increases across almost all demographics.
In other words, it doesn’t seem to matter much who these seniors are. They’re using more weed.
Yes, the news has rightly generated some media ripples. But the response has so far been muted in comparison with the magnitude of the problem.
Where are the calls for senior-focused prevention?
This is no different, after all, from a near-50 percent jump in teen use over two years. The fact that these are in general older people doesn’t make the finding any less worrying.
The rest of the bad-news drumbeat around marijuana and public health shows why increased use among older people should set major alarms ringing.
A May study led by researchers at the University of California San Francisco showed that marijuana is terrible for your heart (whether you smoke it or eat it). Research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association found daily marijuana users had a 42 percent increased risk of stroke and a 25 percent increased risk of heart attacks—even after adjusting for other factors including tobacco use. Adults with Cannabis Use Disorder are 60 percent more likely to experience heart failure, strokes, or heart attacks than adults who do not use marijuana. Plus, daily users are more at risk for certain cancers, including head, neck, and laryngeal cancers.
How many of the 65-plus set are aware of these risks? They should be common knowledge among all age groups, but especially older people.
Available data suggest that having reached your golden years doesn’t in any way protect you from the horrible risks of using marijuana.
In Ontario, hospital admissions and emergency room visits related to marijuana jumped 26-fold among people 65 and older between 2008 and 2021; between 2005 and 2019, the rate of marijuana-related emergency-room visits in California for that group rose almost 19-fold.
More disturbingly, the Ontario study also showed that anyone going to the hospital for marijuana suffers a 72 percent higher risk of dementia than the general population.
As more and more data emerge, it’s becoming clearer that seniors represent an at-risk population for this drug, just as much as kids do.
One of the truly disturbing data points from the JAMA study is that among older adults with post-college education, past-month use increased almost 70 percent. For adults earning more than $75,000 annually, it more than doubled.
If the most educated and affluent segments of the most experienced and knowledgeable population have fallen for propaganda around the drug, everybody interested in restoring public health really has their work cut out for them.
So what should be the response?
First up is a prevention campaign aimed at older people. That may sound counterintuitive, and it would require different messaging than the powerful teen-targeted federal communications push on the issue from the ’90s.
An emphasis on the damage the drug does to heart health makes sense as a touchpoint. Older people have been hearing about heart health from their doctors for years, and data show that smoking weed and consuming edibles can have catastrophic cardiovascular effects.
The findings connecting marijuana use to increased rates of dementia in the general population will hit hard with seniors, too.
Doctors need to be raising this information with their older patients at least at every checkup. People should spread the news to their own parents (in as gentle a way as possible). Today’s weed isn’t your grandparents’ weed, after all.
There also needs to be more research into the specific risks marijuana poses to those aged 65 and over, given that data suggest its general risks grow worse with age.
People could be tempted to laugh off the idea of stopping silver-haired grannies from getting high. But this is a deadly serious issue.
Marijuana is dangerous, no matter your age. It’s time America woke up to that fact and started talking about it—even if it means some hard conversations with mom and dad at your Fourth of July BBQ.
Dr. Kevin Sabet is the president and CEO of Smart Approaches to Marijuana.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
The post More Seniors Are Using Drugs—Here’s Why It Matters appeared first on Newsweek.
