Iowa City, IA: Approximately one in six middle-aged adults acknowledge having consumed cannabis within the past year, according to survey data published in the journal The Gerontologist.
Investigators affiliated with the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health assessed data from a nationally representative sample of Americans over the age of 50. They estimated that 17 percent of those between the ages of 50 and 64 had used cannabis in the past year, as had 4 percent of those age 65 and older.
About eight percent of middle-aged consumers had no prior lifetime history of cannabis use. Most respondents said that their attitudes toward cannabis had become more favorable as they grew older.
The study’s authors suggested that marijuana use by older adults would continue to increase, particularly as the use of medicinal cannabis products becomes more socially acceptable. “We expect cannabis use among late middle age and older Americans will at least double in the decade ahead,” they concluded. “As many as one of every five persons over 50 may be using cannabis in the year 2030, and mostly for a medical condition or symptoms.”
The study’s findings are consistent with those of others concluding that marijuana use among older Americans continues to increase and outpace all other age groups.
Full text of the study, “Unrelenting growth and diversification: Using the health and retirement study to illuminate cannabis use among aging Americans,” appears in The Gerontologist. Additional information is available from the NORML Fact Sheet, ‘Cannabis Use by Older Populations.’