Posted on 01/15/2019 8:57:26 AM PST by Mariner
Older people are the fastest-growing group of cannabis users, as stigma fades and some seek an alternative to prescription drugs
As attitudes towards cannabis shift, the fastest-growing group of users is over 50 – and marijuana’s popularity among seniors is beginning to change the American experience of old age.
Why are more seniors getting high? It might make more sense to ask: “Why not?” As adults reach retirement, they age out of drug tests and have far more time on their hands. Some feel liberated to abandon long-held proprieties.
Elegant vape pens and other attractive, discreet products have helped de stigmatize the drug among older Americans. “Legalization seems to make non-users seem a little less scared of it, and perhaps less judgmental,” says Jo, a 56-year-old cannabis user who preferred not to use her real name.
The seniors using cannabis today aren’t your parents’ grandparents. The generation that camped out at Woodstock is now in its seventies. They’ve been around grass long enough to realize it’s not going to kill them, and are more open to the possibility it will come with health benefits. (By contrast, in a survey of one, my 100-year-old grandmother recently said she had no interest in medical marijuana.)
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
reversion to the mean
If you don't post about anything of which you are ignorant then others won't know of your ignorance. Hemp is a versatile weed that has little to no psychoactive ingredients. A person would get sick well before they reached anything resembling a "high".
duuuuuuude!
AB I just turned 72. It beats the alternative.
I was one. I wouldn’t smoke weed now because it makes an idiot of you, but it sure was fun in the late seventies.....
I suspect that much of the Cannabis use in seniors is due to multiple medical issues and associated suffering that is only made worse by prescription narcotics. The dynamic is likely very different that that of the young adult “Stoner”
“My biggest beef with this article is them calling 50 year olds “seniors”.
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LOL. The youngest of my five “kids” is 50.
Two more ideas:
- Some are remembering their youth.
- Others have been warned to cut their alcohol consumption.
I would say that most of those with truly addictive personalities are already dead before they hit 50. Secure the border and focus on the deadly shit that is killing our citizens by the thousands every year.
So marijuana and STDs are a character issue, you say... is it a character issue with an entire generations that started with Boomers, or just some? And what caused the “character” that drove people to smoke & screw? Or does marijuana and screwing cause bad character? What’s the root cause here? Tell us more.
And then there was ‘smack weed’ way back when. I personally cannot verify the 10 times stronger today meme. I do, however, doubt most things I read.
My nephew knows some outdoor growers and the price per pound fell thru the floor.
Yes it does. Doctor medicine almost cured me to death. I feel better than I have for 40 years
Well, it’s almost 4:20 somewhere, so...
Spark ‘em up, codgers!
I wish it was better that ibuprofen for arthritis- not so much. I use it at night watching tv and then go to bed - sleep better than I have in years
I decided to let my hair grow out after having a military cut my entire life. I wanted to see what it looked like.
Fortunately, I am not balding, not even a receding hairline. Except for a little gray in my mustache and around the temples, the hair on my head is thick and blond with a ponytail down my back.
When I'm asked why I let my hair grow out at age 71 years, I respond with, "Because I can!"
Doing drugs is running away from life and reality.
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Agreed.
That scene from the movie Airplane was absolutely prescient
“Amen.
I just had a birthday. 70 HURTS!”
Oh for heaven’s sake——wait until you are 86-—parts hurt that you didn’t even realize were there.:-)
.
Baby Boomers are the first generation to be raised entirely with television. Just like the social media of today, the increased communication has both positive and negative impacts. Review the Baby Boomer years progression of television advertising (by Greatest Generation managers)... sex, sex, and more sex. Look at the movies - 007 Bond to Deep Throat. Then we are told drugs kill you, stay away, just say no and much of the time this message is from people pitching alcohol and tobacco and we find marijuana is not crack or heroin... so Baby Boomers learned that media lies. Some have the character to question authority. Others do not.
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