As States Legalize Pot, More Seniors Indulge the Habit -- Barrons.com
8:18 pm ET February 28, 2020 (Dow Jones) Print
By Bill Alpert
As more and more states license cannabis sales, two geriatrics researchers wondered how many of the new users are elderly. Plenty, it turns out, according to their study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association's Internal Medicine imprint.
In the four years ended in 2018, the share of seniors who acknowledged pot use soared by 75%, report Benjamin Han and Joseph Palamar from New York University.
Survey data collected by the federal government showed that the proportion rose from 0.4% before 2007 to nearly 3% by 2016. As legalization spread, Han and Palamar found, the share of people 65 or older using cannabis nearly doubled, from 2.4% in 2015 to 4.2% in 2018. This rising usage should spur research on older consumers, they say, who "are especially vulnerable to potential adverse effects from cannabis."
The researchers found that specific groups showed even bigger jumps in cannabis use, including women, the mentally ill, and those with higher incomes and, strikingly, diabetics. More troubling is the increase in the elderly who used both pot and alcohol. That co-use mirrors behavior found in studies of states such as Washington, where pot has long been legal; researchers note that combining the two drugs can compound their risks.
Another finding is intriguing, given the popular legalization rationale of helping patients suffering from chronic disease. Apart from increased use by diabetics, the NYU researchers s
