HealthDay News — According to a study published in Addiction, more older Americans are using cannabis.
Researchers reviewed information from 47,140 adults 50 and older. The national statistics were collected between 2006 and 2013. The investigators found that for people 50 and older, the use of cannabis rose 71% during that time.
Although seniors over 65 had much lower use rates than those aged 50 to 64, their rate of use rose 2.5 times over 8 years, the researchers found.
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The findings also indicated that cannabis use was higher among men than among women. Only 5% of adults aged 50 and older felt that using cannabis once or twice a week was a threat to their health, the study authors reported.
“For years we’ve been worried about the potential effects of marijuana on the developing brains of teens, but now we may need a bit more focus on their grandparents, who are increasingly more likely to be current users,” study researcher Joseph Palamar, PhD, a Center for Drug Use and HIV Research-affiliated researcher at the NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, said in a statement.
Reference
Han BH, et al. “Demographic Trends Among Older Cannabis Users In The United States, 2006-13”. Addiction. 2016. doi: 10.1111/add.13670. [Epub ahead of print]
