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Why much seniors are utilizing marijuana
When Don Searles went to a caller party, helium didn't privation to amusement up empty-handed. So helium made peanut brittle utilizing an aged household look — with a modern-day twist.
"We added the marijuana," helium said.
The enactment was hosted by 74-year-old Gayle Crawley astatine the Trilogy status assemblage an hr eastbound of San Francisco, wherever lately the play people has a caller rival for popularity.
Between 2021 and 2023, cannabis usage among Americans 65 and older went up 46%, according to a survey published successful JAMA Internal Medicine.
Crawley said those numbers bespeak that marijuana is simply a "good solution to a batch of medicinal issues."
And with cannabis present ineligible successful 40 states for aesculapian usage and 24 for recreational, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the stigma is rapidly diminishing.
Steven Clarke, different attendee astatine Crawley's party, said he's ne'er smoked and prefers edibles.
When asked wherefore he's drawn to the drug, Clarke told CBS News that "it does enactment connected PTSD, symptom issues, relaxation issues, encephalon disorders, bosom disease."
But immoderate aesculapian professionals disagree.
Matt Springer, a prof astatine UC San Francisco, warns that THC, the main psychoactive compound successful marijuana, whitethorn transportation wellness risks, nary substance however seniors ingest it.
"If they are smoking marijuana, we tin beryllium beauteous assured that they're harming their cardiovascular system," Springer told CBS News, adding that if they're eating THC, "they're not without risk."
Other researchers recovered cannabis usage is linked to a doubled hazard of dying from cardiovascular disease, a 29% higher hazard for acute coronary syndrome and 20% higher hazard for stroke, according to a study published successful June. The authors analyzed information from 24 studies published from 2016 to 2023.
Searles, who suffers from chronic symptom aft a motorcycle mishap 5 years ago, said helium isn't amazed by the findings.
"I spell to my doc and helium says, geez, discontinue drinking milk. Uh, enactment distant from the sugar. What isn't atrocious for you nowadays?" Searles said.
Jim Axelrod is the main analogous and enforcement exertion for CBS News' "Eye connected America" franchise, portion of the "CBS Evening News." He besides reports for "CBS Mornings," "CBS News Sunday Morning," and CBS News 24/7.
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