Pot use booming among older Americans as Illinois prepares for legalization

American baby boomers are now using marijuana at the same rate as kids ages 12 to 17, according to the most recent federal survey on drug use.

SHARE Pot use booming among older Americans as Illinois prepares for legalization
Lynn Orman Weiss is among a growing number of older Americans who are turning to, or returning to, pot as the drug becomes increasingly destigmatized.

Lynn Orman Weiss is among a growing number of older Americans who are turning to, or returning to, pot as the drug becomes increasingly destigmatized.

Steven I. Wolf/Courtesy of Orman Music & Media

Despite growing up in the groovy ‘60s and ‘70s and working in the weed-friendly music industry, Lynn Orman Weiss was never a regular cannabis user until recently.

Struggling with inflammation related to a hip injury and anxiety that crept up before medical tests, Orman Weiss decided to give pot a shot.

“Nobody gave me the handbook that this is what’s gonna happen when I turned 60,” said Orman, who had seen marijuana’s “amazing effects” on some terminally ill friends. 

Her revelatory experience with reefer came before she went in for an MRI, a procedure she was “scared to death” to undergo. While a friend drove her to the appointment, she decided to ingest a THC-infused edible to help undercut the dread.

“It chilled me out so much,” said Orman Weiss, who noted that she now uses cannabis “as needed” and compared her habit to “coming home and having a glass of wine.”

“It’s not a party kind of tool for me, but I really enjoy it,” she added.

Orman Weiss is among a growing number of older Americans who are turning to, or returning to, pot as the drug becomes increasingly destigmatized. 

On a monthly basis, 6.7 percent of Americans aged 55 to 64 were using marijuana, according to the 2017 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. That’s a slightly higher rate than the 6.5 percent of 12 to 17 year olds who use the drug each month, though the difference was within study’s the margin of error.

While the survey shows that monthly usage rates for Americans 65 years or older are significantly lower than for those two groups, pot use has also spiked in recent years among the elderly.

A poll conducted last September by the Pew Research Center found that 54% of baby boomers favored cannabis legalization, which was slightly lower than the 62% of overall Americans who supported it.

However, support for legalization among the group has fluctuated over the years. In 1978 — well beyond the heyday of hippie drug culture — 47 percent of boomers backed legalization. That number later dipped to 17 percent in 1990 before incrementally climbing to the current level, according to Pew.

A recent report on the cannabis industry’s top market trends, published by marijuana research firm BDS Analytics, identified baby boomers — those born between the years of 1946 and 1964 — as an “important and growing segment” of pot consumers. 

Leah Spokojny, director of account management at BDS Analytics, noted that baby boomers “don’t look that different from other age groups in a lot of ways.”

According to Spokojny, older pot enthusiasts are “more medically focused” than younger users but are also using the drug recreationally. Additionally, she said the group is more inclined to use topicals and edibles than to light up, especially in states where the drug has been legalized.

“Once the state becomes fully legal they get access to all of these new product formats,” said Spokojny, adding that many boomers have “consumed in the past.”

Kevin Keating and his wife, Debbie Keating

Kevin Keating and his wife, Debbie Keating

Provided photo/Kevin Keating

Kevin Keating said he took his first hit of weed on a bus heading to his middle school in Hoffman Estates. While he has remained a daily pot smoker, Keating said he's excited to expand his options for getting high when marijuana is legalized next year.

“When you’re buying it in a store, it seems more legit that buying it in the alley or going through the window,” Keating said. “I’d rather buy a brownie from a store than from Joe in the alley.”

Keating now lives in Elk Grove Village and serves as a caretaker for his wife, a medical cannabis patient who has a terminal illness that affects her lungs and heart. Tasked with buying her pot products, usually tinctures and edibles, Keating said he has never dipped into her legal stash.

Convicted of drug trafficking after being caught with a large amount of pot in the 1980s, Keating said he was encouraged that Illinois lawmakers included a plan to expunge certain cannabis convictions in the legalization law. Although he can’t have his conviction cleared under the current legislation, he hopes to one day have it wiped clean.

“I’m all for the legalization thing because I’m a citizen and I don’t feel like you’re breaking the law buying pot [or] smoking pot,” said Keating.

Orman Weiss, a staple of Chicago’s music scene who serves as the music director of the Live from the Heartland radio show, also sees opportunity in legalization. She wants to open a coffeehouse where musicians and other artists can get high.

“It would just be a cannabis bar with everything from edibles to baked goods,” Orman Wells said. “I want to call it Let’s Get Sconed.”

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