According to a new study that was published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence recently, middle aged and older adults are using marijuana a lot.
The study came to its conclusion by studying data from 2015 and 2016 that was gathered in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
According to the results from the survey, 9 percent of U.S. adults between ages 50 and 64 used marijuana in the the previous year. It also found that 3 percent of people over 65 used the drug in that time period.
Compared to the 2013 survey had reported 7% of middle-aged Americans using the drug in the previous year and 1.4% of the people were over 65.
The study also found that 45% of the people over the age of 65 who used marijuana said they started after the age of 21.
Almost one quarter of Americans over 65 in the 2016 survey who had used marijuana in the previous year had said they were given the ‘ok’ from their doctors.
Lead author, Dr. Benjamin Han, who is an assistant professor of internal medicine at New York University School of Medicine, said the study highlights the need for more research on drug use in older adults. “I get asked a lot, more and more, by my population, ‘Hey, should I try marijuana for this? Should I try marijuana for that?'”
Han says. “It’s hard for me to know what to tell patients.”
