This New Weed Study Will Make You Love Your Parents and Their Generation Even More
Marijuana consumption may be more associated with people in their twenties than their parents. But, the reality is that people over the age of 60 were either directly involved in the hippie movement or at least affected by it, which directly connects them with marijuana. No matter what a person’s influences may have been when they were younger, they tend to grow out of old tendencies. The marijuana legalization movement seems to be revitalizing the marijuana trend in people over the age of 50 according to a new weed study though.
Researchers William Kerr, Camillia Lui and Yu Ye integrated 30 years of survey data from over 40,000 participants who reported on whether they had used marijuana in the past 12 months. Only two age groups showed a significant rise in use. Compared with older Americans 30 years ago, Americans age 50 to 59 and 60 and older today are a remarkable 20 times more likely to use marijuana.
Even though marijuana use was consistently more prevalent among the young than the old throughout the 30 years that were studied, and the use rate of young adults has risen over the past decade, the use rate of people age 18 to 29 was about the same in 2015 (29.2 percent) as it was in 1984 (29.9 percent). This was also true of Americans age 30 to 39 (14.8 percent in 2015, 18.1 percent in 1984) and age 40 to 49 (11.7 percent in 2015, 9.6 percent in 1984).
The realities are that medical marijuana may benefit people over the age of 50 more than anyone else anyways. As we get older the aches and pains that cannabis can soothe begin to settle in. Despite strong propaganda unsupported by fact during their youth, the older generations seem to be accepting the possibility that marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol consumption and that the prescription drugs they have felt confidence in taking all of these years may not actually be their best alternative.
read more at washingtonpost.com
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age groupsCamillia Luicannabis newshippiesmarijuana legalizationmarijuana researchersnew weed studyolder generationWilliam KerrYu Ye
