According to a study published in the Drug and Alcohol Dependence journal this month, more middle-aged and older adults are turning to cannabis.
The study suggested that many “baby boomers” are becoming new converts to weed consumption and are now using cannabis more often.
The analysis came from data gathered from the National Survey of Drug Use and Health from the years 2015 to 2016. Researchers found that 9 percent of adults in the United States aged 50 to 64 used cannabis in the previous year. Moreover, about 3 percent of Americans over 65 years old used cannabis within that time period.
Dr. Benjamin Han, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of internal medicine at New York University School of Medicine, said that he finds it surprising that many of the older Americans using weed are actually new converts.
The study noted that 45 percent of people over 65 years old who use cannabis said that they got started with weed after the age of 21.
These numbers appear to be up from the past years. According to the study, in 2013, 7 percent of middle-aged Americans used cannabis in the previous year and that only 1.4 percent of people over 65 did so.
Moreover, baby boomers who use weed also seem to be using it more frequently. The study found that 5.7 percent of the middle-aged respondents said that they had tried it in the previous month.
According to a survey in 2016, almost a quarter of Americans aged over 65 who had used cannabis in the previous year said that they gotten the go-ahead from their doctors.
Generally, more Americans of all ages are giving cannabis a try as legislation surrounding the use of the drug has become more permissive in more states nationwide. Some states allow cannabis for medical uses, some for both medical and recreational purposes, and some are on their way to legalizing the drug in one form or another.