Marijuana Use Among Senior Citizens Up 75 Percent

THIS JUST IN: The seniors are toking!

A new study from the New York University School of Medicine published by the Journal of the American Medical Association found that cannabis use among American adults 65 years of age and older went up 75 percent from 2015 through 2018. However, it should be noted that cannabis use among senior citizens is still relatively low with about 4.2 percent of all seniors using the substance in some form.

Brooke Worster, an associate professor of medicine at Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University, said in a statement to The Philadelphia Inquirer, "As people are living longer and with more chronic illness ... people are turning to all kinds of nontraditional alternatives to ameliorate those symptoms. Worster also noted that more seniors are turning to marijuana as an alternative to various opioid medications, which are highly addictive.

With marijuana, both medical and recreational, becoming legal in more states in the U.S., Worster advised that those interested in marijuana as a treatment for various ailments should talk to their doctor first.