Those over 50 also smoke marijuana: their consumption grows in the United States
In comparison with the data collected a decade ago, the current ones show that the use of this substance doubled among those who are 50 and 64 years old.
While in Colombia the debate over the penalization of the minimum dose has been rekindled in Colombia after the controversial decree issued by the Ministry of Justice, the consumption of marijuana has begun to change little by little in some countries and in certain population groups. In the United States, for example, people over 50 tend to use it much more than a decade ago. ( Read Duke and drugs: an overdose of lies )
In more precise terms, compared to 2006 and 2007, in 2015 and 2016 the percentage of people between 50 and 64 years old that used marijuana in that country grew twice as much. Whereas before only 4.5% of that population group used it, today that figure is 9%.
The growth among those over 65 was much higher: seven times higher. A decade ago only 0.4% used this substance. Today, it consumes 3%. ( Read The first big exercise study lights the alarms: the world is more sedentary )
The figures were published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, in a study conducted by the New York School of Medicine and the Center for Drug Use and HIV / HCV Research (CDUHR, USA). The data show that recreational consumption among so-called "baby boomers", born between the 1960s and 1970s, is becoming more common.
"The baby boom generation grew during a period of significant cultural change, including an increase in the popularity of marijuana in the 60s and 70s. We are now in a new era of changing attitudes around marijuana and, as the stigma diminishes and the access improves, it seems that the baby boomers, many of whom have experience smoking marijuana, use it more and more, "said the portal Eurek Alert Benjamin Han, senior author of the study and professor of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Palliative Care of the Department of Population Health Medicine of the University of New York (United States). ( Read the risks of nutritional products )
To reach this conclusion, Han and his team analyzed data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2015-2016. In total, they evaluated the responses of 17,608 adults 50 years of age or older. Another conclusion indicates that 54.5% of those who were between 50 and 64 years had smoked at some point in their lives. Among the group over 65, that percentage was lower: 22.4%.
"Most baby boomers who used marijuana for the first time did so as teenagers during the 60s and 70s. This does not mean that these individuals have smoked marijuana during all these years," cautions Joseph Palamar, another of the authors of the study. ( Read The standards that the pharmaceutical industry wants the new Minister of Health to stop )
Another point highlighted in the study is that some of the adults who used marijuana in the last year (15% of users between 50 and 64 years, and 22.9% among those over 65) did so by medical recommendation .
However, one of the authors' recommendations is that doctors should more carefully evaluate marijuana users when they are older, since using them simultaneously with other substances such as alcohol can have adverse consequences. And, precisely, one of the researchers' concerns is that, on occasion, those who reported marijuana use also noticed alcohol consumption, nicotine dependence or other substances
