Cannabis for Seniors: Why Older Adults Are Opting for Medical Marijuana Christina Caron - The New York Times
go to original December 8, 2023

Seniors are one of the fastest-growing populations of cannabis users in the United States. While some older adults have used pot for decades, studies suggest that others are turning to the drug for the first time to help them sleep better, dampen pain or treat anxiety — especially when prescription drugs, which often come with unwanted side effects, don’t work as intended.

In 2007, only about 0.4 percent of people age 65 and older in the United States had reported using cannabis in the past year, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health. That number rose to almost 3 percent by 2016. As of 2022, it was at more than 8 percent.

Nancy Herring, 76, has been using cannabis recreationally for her entire adult life — she describes herself as “one of the hippies from the ’60s.” But it wasn’t until her husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and dementia two years ago that she began to wonder about pot’s medicinal use.

During the course of his illness, her husband, now 79, had developed insomnia. Soon, neither of them was sleeping.

Doctors prescribed pills to help him rest, but “nothing really worked,” she said. At one point, he reacted so negatively to a medicine he ended up in the hospital.

Then they tried an indica strain from a dispensary near where they live in Clearwater, Fla. Now, after one gummy and a hit on a pipe, her husband “can sleep at night, which is a huge thing,” she said.

Marijuana’s medicinal properties have not been well studied, particularly among older users, making it difficult for doctors to counsel their patients on the benefits and risks. Cannabis companies have rushed to fill the void, offering tips to older adults about doses or formulations and even creating products meant to appeal to them. Meanwhile, as more seniors experiment with cannabis, they are evangelizing to one another about its benefits, and sharing the problems they’ve encountered along the way.

“People are just desperate,” said Dr. Aaron Greenstein, a geriatric psychiatrist in Denver. “They’re willing to try anything.”

When his own grandmother became convinced that she was reliving the Holocaust during the later stages of her dementia, taking a dissolvable strip with a small amount of THC — the psychoactive component in marijuana — put an end to her flashbacks and helped her feel at peace.

“I have had dozens of patients who tell me that it has cured their various ailments,” said Dr. Haley V. Solomon, a geriatric psychiatrist in San Diego who, along with Dr. Greenstein, has written about the promise and risks of seniors using cannabis. “I think that it’s really important to listen to them, to acknowledge that and then to study it further.”

Older adults need to be aware of potential drug interactions, she added, and also consider how cannabis can affect cognition, coordination and balance.

Read the rest at The New York Times

Related: What You Should Know About Medical Marijuana (WebMD)