(Washington Post) A federal survey of Americans’ drug use shows that [Joe Lee, a 62-year-old, and his friends] are not the only baby boomers approaching the age of retirement much as they departed the Age of Aquarius — with an occasional case of the munchies. The government’s most recent survey showed that the share of marijuana users ages 50 to 59 increased from 5.1 percent in 2002 to almost 10 percent in 2007.
Some of those users are empty-nesters, returning to the drug decades after their pot habits gave way to raising children and building careers. Others, like Lee, have kept using pot all along, researchers said.
[O]lder marijuana users say they are living evidence that smoking pot does not preclude a normal life, and more older smokers seem more comfortable than at any point since their teen years with going public — a tribute, they say, to a big boost in public tolerance of marijuana use.
“I don’t think more people in their 50s are smoking marijuana. I think we are just more comfortable talking about it,” said Rick Steves, who writes travel guidebooks and hosts a public TV series on travel. At 54, the clean-cut guru of mass-market European tourism has begun to present himself as the hard-working, successful face of the longtime smoker.
“Even my pastor knows I smoke pot,” said Steves, who was recently named Lutheran activist of the year for his work on international poverty relief.
One older smoker who doesn’t mind outing herself is Florence Siegel, an 88-year-old artist from New York who has been smoking regularly since her early 50s. That’s when the family’s pediatrician suggested they try marijuana together to see “what the kids were so excited about.” The pediatrician didn’t feel a thing. Siegel said she never stopped.
Now her routine is to sit in her favorite chair each evening, listen to Bach and take a few hits from one of her many pipes. Marijuana boosts her creativity and helps with joint pain that has come with aging, she said.
Siegel smokes occasionally with her daughter Loren Siegel, 64, a recently retired lawyer. But does her 93-year-old husband ever join her?
“Oh, no,” she said. “Well, only very rarely.”
I know some sixty-, seventy- and eighty-year-olds who occasionally use cannabis, and some who still drink coffee, and a few who even still use alcohol and tobacco. I can’t say that I’ve met one yet who was an active cocaine, heroin, or methamphetamine user.
There is a joke in medical marijuana circles that “after forty, all use is medical.” There is a certain grain of truth to that, though. Even as I approach age 42, I can feel pain in my knees and back that never used to bother me before. When you think of the things marijuana can be used to treat – arthritis, chronic pain, Alzheimer’s, cancer, and so on – it seems to be a natural fit for many seniors who’d prefer an herbal remedy over a handful of increasingly expensive pills.
The fact that medical marijuana is highly effective in a variety of medical conditions ranging from pain to muscle spasms to nausea to malnutrition to glaucoma to just name a few is really beyond dispute. Unable to contradict these obvious facts, the opponents have engaged in numerous fear-tactics such as claiming that marijuana is addictive, that it is a “gateway drug” and that medical marijuana legalization will lead to increase in crime rate. As an addiction medicine specialist, I am more interested in truth than in political correctness, so here are the facts:
1. Marijuana’s addiction potential is a fraction of that of alcohol (3% vs. 10%)
2. The “gateway drug” theory is by now completely discredited by the science of addiction medicine, for if this ” theory” were true, most of us would have become drug addicts long time ago by being exposed to innumerable substances, not only to alcohol, nicotine or marijuana, but all the way down to caffeine and sugar.
3. According to Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook, 4-th Edition, page 267 cannabis use suppresses, rather than incites, a violent crime. Medical marijuana legalization will curb the drug gang violence south of the border as well.
I worked in drug addiction clinics of Philadelphia for years, and I have seen plenty of cases of severe dependence on opiates as well as many “nerve” and “sleeping” pills. Recent overdose death of Corey Haim is a good illustration of what I have observed over and over – an addiction to current “legal” controlled prescription drugs. At the same time I have seen very, very few questionable cases of marijuana dependence and NEVER a case of marijuana “overdose”. In Canada the government even pays for medical marijuana for veterans,
http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/content/canada-pay-military-veterans-medical-marijuana
whereas here we are still debating whether or not we will succumb to fear-tactics of the “opponents”. Let’s reject the fear-tactics and quickly legalize medical marijuana in all 50 States!
Also how can Marinol(aka dronabinol) be a Schedual III drug but Cannabis (a natural mechanism used make to dronabinol(aka 9THC)) is Schedual I? If the FDA wants to keep their stance on this then they should conceed that EITHER A)THC is NOT the ingriedient in Cannabis that makes you “high” OR B)Cannabis is only as dangerous as a Schedual III drug!
Russ you’ve got a mic, see if you cant get an answere out of somebody!
If more older folks started a redress of grievances to the government it would go a long way in pushing ahead legalization!
Furthermore why cant NORML or somebody just sue the DEA & FDA to stop any further legal activity on Cannabis users until Congress can amend the Controlled Substances Act to define “ABUSE”?? Since their is no current definition as defined by the Act.
The problem with pills and older folks, is that they cause constipation (pain pills in particular). From what I have heard, this is a really serious issue for older people and can land them in the hospital. Unless you talk with someone in the medical profession, you may not hear about this, but it is very common according to my physical therapist.
The pills aren’t just expensive, they also damage the liver and kidneys. When people have to stay on them ‘forever’, this becomes a huge issue too.
If it were legal, I think the elderly would be more willing to try Cannabis instead of pills.