More and more senior citizens are turning to marijuana as the years go by.
The National Survey on Drug Use and Health has revealed its latest numbers, and the number of people who are over 65 that said they use marijuana has grown 250% from 2006 and 2013.
There was no distinction on how many are using it medicinally or recreationally however.
According to Mary Lynch, a pain specialist at Dalhousie University in Canada who spoke to Healthline, marijuana helps some of her patients.
Public health researchers at the University of Iowa have also found that almost 90% of the people who are over 65 who signed up for the Colorado medical marijuana program have listed pain as a problem.
Dr. Lynn Webster, the immediate past president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine has said to Healthline, I’m worried about falls. I wish we had the science to understand who [marijuana] would help, and in what doses, and for whom it would be toxic.”
Pain specialist Dr. Daniel Clauw told Healthline, “We really know very little about the effects of marijuana in the elderly. Everything about medical marijuana needs better study, but especially this topic.”
