Seniors are the fastest growing demographic interested in cannabis

People like to scold the baby boomers for never changing, but at least when it comes to cannabis, the seniors are ready to slow down (and get high). According to a federal survey, the number of Americans over 65 who have used cannabis has nearly tripled over the past decade, rising from 11% in 2009 to 32% in 2019, reports The Hill. In addition, over half of those aged 60 to 64 reported using cannabis.

While other generations tend to hate baby boomers for their regressive attitudes, in their defense many of them came of age in the 1960s and 70s, the era of psychedelic music and free love. While younger folks can easily assume they’re OK with the nonsensical (and unscientific) era of the Reagan War on Drugs, our grandparents may be more excited than we expected about the recent legalization of cannabis. At least that is what the data from this current survey shows.

Aside from witnessing the heyday of revolutionaries like Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley, who created some of the most extraordinary weed-inspired artwork of this century, seniors have another reason to use cannabis: health issues. A majority of the over 60s struggle with treatment for insomnia, pain, anxiety, arthritis, cancer and more.

“There are many things I wouldn’t do if I didn’t have cannabis,” Daniel, 61, who lives and works on a farm in Wisconsin, told The Hill. “I wouldn’t do it because it hurts too much.” Uthe says he smokes weed “a little bit recreationally, maybe once a month, but a lot more for pain relief.” As both brands of cannabis consumers know, the line between medical and recreational use is narrower than is often assumed. For example, it’s okay if using cannabis to treat anxiety also induces a pleasurable high, and it’s okay if using cannabis for the above high also relieves your anxiety.

Despite being the fastest growing demographic, baby boomers are still less likely to glow regularly than other generations. According to 2021 statistics, about 5% of Americans over the age of 54 and 10% of those 60 to 64 years old said they have used cannabis in the past month, compared to 24% of adults under the age of 25. However, these statistics are not entirely reliable. While it’s important to remember that many older Americans aren’t as regressive as the “okay boomer” memes make them out to be, some may still cling to the stigma of simply not saying anything that gets them through inflicted on Reagan-era politics. Therefore, it is very likely that more seniors use cannabis but remain silent about it.

“Since 2009, we’ve seen a sharp increase in the prevalence of cannabis use across all ages and all demographics, with older people becoming involved for the first time, so to speak,” said William Kerr, senior scientist at the non-profit Alcohol Research Group, which also researches cannabis , told The Hill, adding that some seniors “don’t admit it [using cannabis] to polls.”

A 2023 Gallup poll recently found that half of Americans have tried cannabis. To put that in perspective, the same data collection found that 34% of adults had tried marijuana in 1999 and 4% in 1969. However, this data could also reflect the increasing legalization and societal acceptance of weed. It’s very likely that people have been using more marijuana in recent years, but only recently admitted this to pollsters.

But fear not, younger people reading this. You’re still at the forefront. Federal data shows that over two-fifths of adults between the ages of 19 and 30 now use cannabis. The majority of these people may live in legal states, showing that federal legalization could actually help combat the stigma surrounding marijuana.

And even older people (roughly the age of most of our presidential candidates) are slower to welcome cannabis legalization, let alone actually use cannabis. According to fall 2022 data from the Pew Research Center, just 30% of Americans over the age of 75 support legalizing recreational marijuana. This reflects the views of a generation known as the “silent generation,” born between 1928 and 1945, before recreational weed was a regular part of society, albeit illegal. “It’s really the silent generation and every generation before it,” Kerr tells The Hill. “They hadn’t been exposed to it when they were young and had negative opinions about it for many years.”

Compared to their predecessors, Boomers are pretty relaxed. The same Pew poll shows that 53% of Americans between the ages of 65 and 74 support adult use of cannabis, a number in line with the national average.

While this data about open-minded, weed-smoking boomers is exciting, keep in mind that it’s driven by societal and legal shifts. Just because people who grew up during the Reagan era were open-minded doesn’t mean the war on drugs didn’t have a negative impact. Cannabis use plummeted during the Reagan era in the 1980s, and most baby boomers shyed away from the herb because it was very illegal, harder to obtain, and came with more risks and fears than it does today. Sometimes it’s important to remember how far we’ve come, even when there are countless more hurdles to overcome on the road to legalization.