By Phillip Smith
The growing acceptance of and access to legal marijuana has some people worried that the youth are going to start using it more frequently, but that’s not the demographic where pot has really taken off. Instead, it’s senior citizens.
Whether it’s wide-open medical marijuana states like California or fully legal states like Colorado, the gray-haired set is increasingly turning to pot, and not just to ease their aches and pains With a half-dozen more states likely to have legalization on the ballot (and win) this year and medical marijuana coming to more, grandma and grandpa are set to become even more interested.
Last week, CBS This Morning reported on the phenomenon of senior marijuana use, and the numbers are striking. Citing data from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the program reported that the number of pot users over 55 jumped from 2.8 million in 2013 to 4.3 million in 2014, a 55% increase in a single year.
Correspondent Barry Petersen took viewers inside Oakland’s Harborside Health Center, the world’s largest medical marijuana dispensary, where the senior demographic was well-represented. His footage shows people in their 50s and60s describing how marijuana treats what ails them.
“Seniors account for only 14% of the population, but they use more than 30% of all prescription drugs, including some highly addictive pain killers,” Petersen reported. “So pot is fast becoming a pill alternative.”
One Harborside patient, an 80-year-old woman who uses marijuana to help with mobility got right to the point:
“Every medication has a risk,” she said. “I’ve made my choice.”
Meanwhile, what about the kids? New research suggests that visions of legions of stoned teens as the inevitable results of not sending adults to jail for smoking pot are unfounded. Contentions than teen marijuana use would increase have not been proven.
“A survey of more than 216,000 adolescents from all 50 states indicates the number of teens with marijuana-related problems is declining,” according to a research report released Tuesday. “Similarly, the rates of marijuana use by young people are falling despite the fact more U.S. states are legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana use and the number of adults using the drug has increased.”
The researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis examined survey data from 2002 to 2013 on drug use among young people aged 12 to 17. They found that the number of kids with marijuana-related problems was down 24% at the end of that period and that annual use fell 10% as well.
The declines came alongside reductions in other behavioral problems, including fighting, property crimes, and drug selling. According to the researchers, the two trends are connected, with reductions in problem behavior associated with reductions in problematic marijuana use.
“We were surprised to see substantial declines in marijuana use and abuse,” said Richard A. Grucza, PhD, an associate professor of psychiatry and the study’s first author. “We don’t know how legalization is affecting young marijuana users, but it could be that many kids with behavioral problems are more likely to get treatment earlier in childhood, making them less likely to turn to pot during adolescence. But whatever is happening with these behavioral issues, it seems to be outweighing any effects of marijuana decriminalization.”
We are still in the early years of the great social experiment with marijuana legalization. It’s too soon to tell what the long-term impacts will be, but so far, the sky is yet to fall. Despite increased legal access, the kids are still alright, and seniors are finding some surcease for their woes.
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