Research Shows Weed Use Among People Over 65 Is Climbing

To the presumed surprise of absolutely no one, the practice of smoking weed or ingesting its benefits via the edible method is quite noticeably on the rise among those over the age of 65.

Research published this week in the JAMA peer-reviewed medical journal, perCNN, shows that the number of American seniors over 65 who smoke weed or use edibles has increased two-fold between 2015 and 2018.

As two of the study co-authors—Joseph Palamar and Dr. Benjamin Han—explained, they've released multiple papers over the years with an emphasis on seniors' changing marijuana habits. The research pulls from data found via the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which includes input from 15,000 people in the U.S. who are not presently residing in institutions such as nursing homes.

An estimated 0.4 percent of seniors over 65 were reported back in 2006 to have said they used marijuana products, with that number rising to an estimated 2.4 percent by 2015. As seen in the latest round-up, that number had taken another leap to 4.2 percent by 2018.

"It's a straight line up," Palamar, who also works as an associate professor of population health at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said of the consistently documented uptick in marijuana enjoyment among seniors over the years.

Of course, as others have already noted, those in this age bracket would do well to consider the fact that the weed they're likely procuring is certainly much stronger than the weed they may recall from the pre-legalization days of their younger years. There are also other concerns being raised for weed enthusiasts of a certain age, as detailed here.