According to a new national poll, a majority of older Americans support the use of the drug if a doctor recommends it.
According to the findings from the National Poll on Healthy Aging, four out of five of poll respondents between the ages of 50 and 80 said they support allowing medical marijuana if it’s recommended by a physician.
Next to this, forty percent of the poll takers said they support marijuana use for any reason while two-thirds say the government should do more to study marijuana’s health effects.
2,007 Americans were polled nationally between the ages of 50 and 80 by the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation. The poll was sponsored by Michigan Medicine, U-M’s academic medical center and the AARP.
“While just six percent of our poll respondents said they’d used marijuana for medical purposes themselves, 18 percent said they know someone who has,” said the director of the poll, Preeti Malani M.D. Malani is also a specialist in treatment of older patients.
“With medical marijuana already legal in 29 states and the District of Columbia, and other states considering legalizing this use or all use, this is an issue of interest to patients, providers and policymakers alike,” Malani commented.
“These perceptions of relative safety and efficacy are important for physicians, other providers and public health regulators to understand,” Malani also stated.
“Although older adults may be a bit wary about marijuana, the majority support more research on it,” remarked Alison Bryant, Ph.D, the senior vice president of research for AARP.
“This openness to more research likely speaks to a desire to find safe, alternative treatments to control pain,” she said.
