Marijuana use by seniors goes up as boomers age
http://salon.com/news/2010/02/22/us_seniors_marijuana/index.html
Pot-smoking among 55- to 59-year-olds has more than tripled since 2002
By MATT SEDENSKY
Feb 22, 2010
In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of
red wine. A crisp copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it
from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every
night like clockwork, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes marijuana.
Long a fixture among young people, use of the country's most popular
illicit drug is now growing among the AARP set, as the massive
generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and '70s grows older.
The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the
prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008,
according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration.
The rise was most dramatic among 55- to 59-year-olds, whose reported
marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent.
Observers expect further increases as 78 million boomers born between
1945 and 1964 age. For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma
it did for previous generations, and they tried it decades ago.
Some have used it ever since, while others are revisiting the habit
in retirement, either for recreation or as a way to cope with the
aches and pains of aging.
Siegel walks with a cane and has arthritis in her back and legs. She
finds marijuana has helped her sleep better than pills ever did. And
she can't figure out why everyone her age isn't sharing a joint, too.
"They're missing a lot of fun and a lot of relief," she said.
Politically, advocates for legalizing marijuana say the number of
older users could represent an important shift in their decades-long
push to change the laws.
"For the longest time, our political opponents were older Americans
who were not familiar with marijuana and had lived through the
'Reefer Madness' mentality and they considered marijuana a very
dangerous drug," said Keith Stroup, the founder and lawyer of NORML,
a marijuana advocacy group.
"Now, whether they resume the habit of smoking or whether they simply
understand that it's no big deal and that it shouldn't be a crime, in
large numbers they're on our side of the issue."
Each night, 66-year-old Stroup says he sits down to the evening news,
pours himself a glass of wine and rolls a joint. He's used the drug
since he was a freshman at Georgetown, but many older adults are
revisiting marijuana after years away.
"The kids are grown, they're out of school, you've got time on your
hands and frankly it's a time when you can really enjoy marijuana,"
Stroup said. "Food tastes better, music sounds better, sex is more enjoyable."
The drug is credited with relieving many problems of aging: aches and
pains, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and so on. Patients in 14
states enjoy medical marijuana laws, but those elsewhere buy or grow
the drug illegally to ease their conditions.
Among them is Perry Parks, 67, of Rockingham, N.C., a retired Army
pilot who suffered crippling pain from degenerative disc disease and
arthritis. He had tried all sorts of drugs, from Vioxx to epidural
steroids, but found little success. About two years ago he turned to
marijuana, which he first had tried in college, and was amazed how
well it worked for the pain.
"I realized I could get by without the narcotics," Parks said,
referring to prescription painkillers. "I am essentially pain free."
But there's also the risk that health problems already faced by older
people can be exacerbated by regular marijuana use.
Older users could be at risk for falls if they become dizzy, smoking
it increases the risk of heart disease and it can cause congnitive
impairment, said Dr. William Dale, chief of geriatrics and palliative
medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
He said he'd caution against using it even if a patient cites benefits.
"There are other better ways to achieve the same effects," he said.
Pete Delany, director of applied studies at the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration, said boomers' drug use defied
stereotypes, but is important to address.
"When you think about people who are 50 and older you don't generally
think of them as using illicit drugs -- the occasional Hunter
Thompson or the kind of hippie dippie guy that gets a lot of press
maybe," he said. "As a nation, it's important to us to say, 'It's not
just young people using drugs it's older people using drugs.'"
In conversations, older marijuana users often say they smoke in less
social settings than when they were younger, frequently preferring to
enjoy the drug privately. They say the quality (and price) of the
drug has increased substantially since their youth and they aren't as
paranoid about using it.
Dennis Day, a 61-year-old attorney in Columbus, Ohio, said when he
used to get high, he wore dark glasses to disguise his red eyes,
feared talking to people on the street and worried about encountering
police. With age, he says, any drawbacks to the drug have disappeared.
"My eyes no longer turn red, I no longer get the munchies," Day said.
"The primary drawbacks to me now are legal."
Siegel bucks the trend as someone who was well into her 50s before
she tried pot for the first time. She can muster only one frustration
with the drug.
"I never learned how to roll a joint," she said. "It's just a big
nuisance. It's much easier to fill a pipe."
--------
SoFla Senior Part of Toking Trend
Miami woman, 88, gets high every day
By BRIAN HAMACHER
Feb 22, 2010
Everybody knows South Florida has the coolest old people, and when
they're not owning in Wii bowling, it turns out they're getting high.
Take for instance Florence Siegel, 88. Like any good stoner, Flo
likes to kick back with a little booze (red wine), some trippy tunes
(she prefers Bach), and a good toke session with her hubby.
Siegel has earned her place as top senior stoner in an AP article
released today about the increased marijuana smokage among the geriatric set.
Surveys by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration revealed that weed use by people 50 and older jumped
from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008.
And in people between 55 and 59 years old, that figure tripled from
1.6 percent to 5.1 percent.
The survey cites the advancing age of baby boomers and the beat
generation, as well as all those dirty hippies from the '60s.
Some, like Siegel, who suffers from arthritis in her back and legs,
use the drug to help deal with the pain.
But some doctors want to harsh Siegel's mellow, and say that wasted
old folks are more susceptibe to fatal falls if they get dizzy and
are more at risk for heart disease, despite any health benefits.
"There are other better ways to achieve the same effects," Dr.
William Dale, of the University of Chicago, said.
Siegel, however, recommends taking a puff to all her fellow golden girls.
"They're missing a lot of fun and a lot of relief," she said.
--------
Why Growing Numbers of Baby Boomers and the Elderly Are Smoking Pot
More and more of the nation's 78 million boomers are discovering
they'd rather smoke marijuana than reach for a pharmaceutical.
February 26, 2010
By Daniela Perdomo
Conventional wisdom dictates that as younger generations slowly
replace the old, conservative social traditions are jettisoned.
This may be true for issues such as gay marriage, where there are
clear divisions among younger and older voters, but when it comes to
marijuana reform, the evidence indicates that simplistic divisions of
opinion along age lines don't apply for pot.
Earlier this week, an AP wire article picked up a lot of buzz in the
news-cycle, with a title and premise meant to shock the mainstream:
"Marijuana Use by Seniors Goes up as Boomers Age."
The AP article was pegged to a December report released by the
Federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA). It revealed that the number of Americans over 50 who
reported consuming cannabis in the year prior to the study had gone
up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent in the period from 2002 to 2008.
This is supported by earlier polling results. In February 2009, a
Zogby poll found that voters aged 50 to 64 were almost equally
divided in their support for marijuana legalization at 48 percent. In
that same poll, young voters aged 18 to 29 were the cohort who most
enthusiastically supported legalization, at 55 percent. But overall
support among all ages came in at 44 percent.
So who brought the average down? Don't lay the blame on the elderly.
In fact, as early as 2004, an AARP poll found that 72 percent of its
members (all 50-plus, with the lion's share over 65) supported
marijuana for medical purposes, indicating their understanding of the
benefits of legal cannabis availability.
Some expert observers in the marijuana reform movement believe the
bulk of marijuana detractors are made up of 30- and 40-somethings --
adults of parenting age. And as more of the 65-and-over crowd is
populated by baby boomers, it appears that in the not-too-distant
future every age demographic including the elderly will approve of
marijuana reform more than Americans in their 30s and 40s.
"These are people who have had children, and whether they used
marijuana in the past or not, they've become very concerned that
young children will have access to it," says Paul Armentano, deputy
national director of National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws (NORML). "They've been swayed by prohibition and are
leery of the option to end it, even though controlling and regulating
marijuana would provide less access to children."
In the breakdown of the 2009 Zogby poll, which NORML allowed AlterNet
to review, 38.7 percent of respondents 65 and older approved of
taxing and regulating marijuana for adults. A low number, but compare
it to the group aged 30 to 49, who approved it at 38.2 percent.
Nearly the same, but still lower. And it ought to be noted that in an
earlier Zogby poll, commissioned by NORML in 2006, 30- to
49-year-olds stood out even more starkly, opposing marijuana
legalization at 58 percent, while the 65-plus crowd opposed it at 52
percent; approximately two-thirds of the young adult and boomer
cohorts approved.
And just as children are the reason many younger parents are against
marijuana reform, offspring (or the lack of them) may also be behind
why greater numbers of aging boomers are embracing marijuana -- most
or all of their kids have left the nest.
This makes sense to George Rohrbacher, a 61-year-old cattle rancher
in Eastern Washington state who smokes weed every day. When his kids
-- now 25 to 35 -- were growing up, marijuana was something he had to
keep a secret.
"Children under 18 don't need to be high on anything other than
life," Rohrbacher says. His wife Ann espouses the same belief and
quit marijuana just before 1976, when they had their first child. She
later became a school superintendent.
Although Rohrbacher didn't give up the herb except for small
stretches of time (such as when he served in the Washington state
senate), it wasn't something he shared with his kids. "I didn't want
them to have to defend me in the DARE program at school," he says.
"But when my youngest son was 19 and off to college, I went from
completely undercover to the opposite of that."
Today an advocate for marijuana legalization, Rohrbacher speaks to
many baby boomers who, like his wife, gave up pot. "Due to career
choices, family-raising choices, they've not imbibed in years and
they tell me they can't wait until they get to that spot in their
career or family lives when they can go back to smoking pot," he says.
SAMHSA's study showed that past year marijuana use among those aged
55 to 59 tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent in 2008.
Nearly 9 percent of men aged 50 to 54 admitted to using marijuana in
the past year, bringing that demographic's level of cannabis use to
nearly the same 10 percent rate that the general U.S. population is
estimated to consume pot. While SAMHSA has jumped to the alarm on
this trend, suggesting that "by the year 2020, the number of persons
needing treatment for a substance abuse disorder will double among
persons aged 50 or older," though the reality of the matter is that
SAMHSA's dire prognosis may more realistically apply to aging
Americans who use harder drugs like cocaine or meth -- not cannabis consumers.
Boomers' enthusiasm for weed is likely due to their being the first
generation to experience widespread marijuana use in their youth.
Nearly everyone smoked it or knew someone who did. If what Rohrbacher
has observed is true, many of them gave it up not because they didn't
like it anymore, but because they felt it might interfere in their
efforts to raise families and maintain jobs where drug testing is a
concern. After all, legal and salary ramifications are much more
significant once you have a family to raise and support.
As the nation's 78 million boomers go grayer, they will also return
to pot to soften the pains of aging. "I played a lot of sports when I
was younger and I have aches now -- plain old aches from sleeping
wrong or doing something wrong -- and those aches are as bad as
various moments on the football field years ago," Rohrbacher said.
"And I'd rather smoke marijuana than reach for a pharmaceutical."
Rohrbacher isn't alone. Though pharmaceuticals are marketed heavily
to aging Americans, among all adults over 50 who admitted to using
some kind of illegal substance in the previous year -- 4.3 million
adults, or 5.7 percent of adults in that age range -- 44.9 percent
admitted to using marijuana, compared to 33.4 percent who'd used
prescription drugs for non-medical use.
And in addition to lessening the pain brought on by common ailments
like joint pain and menopause, one study found that cannabis might
prevent osteoporosis in the elderly. (Interestingly, it may weaken
bones in younger people.)
Americans, as a whole, are trending toward marijuana legalization. By
mid-last year, a few polls showed that the taxing and regulating of
cannabis had support from a majority of Americans for the first time
ever. The majorities are slim, but they're majorities nonetheless.
And with an enormous aging population that is more accepting of pot
legalization and more clearly understands its benefits and the
downsides to its prohibition, that majority may grow to be a decisive
one in the public debate, even if today's -- and tomorrow's --
parents might be the last ones to be dragged on board.
---------
More & More Baby Boomers Are 420 Friendly
http://cbs4.com/local/baby.boomers.marijuana.2.1510165.html
Feb 22, 2010
They grew up in the Age of Aquarius, now more and more people from
the baby boom generation of the 60s and 70s are doing something
normally associated with the younger generation they're smoking pot.
In a survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, the number of people aged 50 and older reporting
marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9
percent from 2002 to 2008.
The rise was most dramatic among 55- to 59-year-olds, whose reported
marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent.
For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma it did for previous
generations, and they tried it decades ago. Observers expect further
increases as 78 million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age.
Some have used it ever since, while others are revisiting the habit
in retirement, either for recreation or as a way to cope with the
aches and pains of aging.
Florence Siegel, 88, walks with a cane and has arthritis in her back
and legs. She finds marijuana has helped her sleep better than pills
ever did. And she can't figure out why everyone her age isn't sharing
a joint, too.
"They're missing a lot of fun and a lot of relief," she said.
Politically, advocates for legalizing marijuana say the number of
older users could represent an important shift in their decades-long
push to change the laws.
"For the longest time, our political opponents were older Americans
who were not familiar with marijuana and had lived through the
'Reefer Madness' mentality and they considered marijuana a very
dangerous drug," said Keith Stroup, the founder and lawyer of NORML,
a marijuana advocacy group. "Now, whether they resume the habit of
smoking or whether they simply understand that it's no big deal and
that it shouldn't be a crime, in large numbers they're on our side of
the issue."
The 66-year-old Stroup says used the drug since he was a freshman at
Georgetown, but many older adults are revisiting marijuana after years away.
"The kids are grown, they're out of school, you've got time on your
hands and frankly it's a time when you can really enjoy marijuana,"
Stroup said. "Food tastes better, music sounds better, sex is more enjoyable."
The drug is credited with relieving many problems of aging: aches and
pains, glaucoma, macular degeneration, and so on. Patients in 14
states enjoy medical marijuana laws, but those elsewhere buy or grow
the drug illegally to ease their conditions.
Among them is Perry Parks, 67, of Rockingham, N.C., a retired Army
pilot who suffered crippling pain from degenerative disc disease and
arthritis. He had tried all sorts of drugs, from Vioxx to epidural
steroids, but found little success. About two years ago he turned to
marijuana, which he first had tried in college, and was amazed how
well it worked for the pain.
"I realized I could get by without the narcotics," Parks said,
referring to prescription painkillers. "I am essentially pain free."
But there's also the risk that health problems already faced by older
people can be exacerbated by regular marijuana use. Older users could
be at risk for falls if they become dizzy, smoking it increases the
risk of heart disease and it can cause congnitive impairment, said
Dr. William Dale, chief of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the
University of Chicago Medical Center.
He said he'd caution against using it even if a patient cites benefits.
"There are other better ways to achieve the same effects," he said.
Pete Delany, director of applied studies at the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration, said boomers' drug use defied
stereotypes, but is important to address.
"When you think about people who are 50 and older you don't generally
think of them as using illicit drugs -- the occasional Hunter
Thompson or the kind of hippie dippie guy that gets a lot of press
maybe," he said. "As a nation, it's important to us to say, 'It's not
just young people using drugs it's older people using drugs."'
In conversations, older marijuana users often say they smoke in less
social settings than when they were younger, frequently preferring to
enjoy the drug privately. They say the quality (and price) of the
drug has increased substantially since their youth and they aren't as
paranoid about using it.
.
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