MIAMI - In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of wine. A copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes dagga.
The use of the US's most popular illicit drug is growing among retirees as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s grows older.
The number of people aged 50 and older reporting dagga use in the prior year went up from 1,9percent to 2,9percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The rise was most dramatic among 55 to 59-year-olds, whose reported dagga use more than tripled from 1,6percent in 2002 to 5,1percent. Observers expect further increases as 78million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age. For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma it did for previous generations.
Some have used it ever since, while others are revisiting the habit in retirement, either for recreation or as a way to cope with the aches and pains of aging.
Siegel walks with a cane and has arthritis in her back and legs. She finds dagga has helped her sleep better than pills ever did. And she can't figure out why everyone her age isn't sharing a joint, too.
"They're missing a lot of fun and a lot of relief," she said.
Politically, advocates for legalising dagga say the number of older users could represent an important shift in their decades-long push to change US laws.
"For the longest time, our political opponents were older Americans who were not familiar with marijuana and had lived through the 'Reefer Madness' mentality and they considered marijuana a very dangerous drug," said Keith Stroup, the founder and lawyer of NORML, a dagga advocacy group.
"Now, whether they resume the habit of smoking or whether they simply understand that it's no big deal and that it shouldn't be a crime, in large numbers they're on our side of the issue."
Each night, 66-year-old Stroup says he sits down to the evening news, pours himself a glass of wine and rolls a joint. He's used the drug since he first went to university, but many older adults are revisiting dagga after years away.
"The kids are grown, you've got time on your hands and frankly it's a time when you can really enjoy marijuana," Stroup said. "Food tastes better, music sounds better, sex is more enjoyable."
The drug is credited with relieving many problems of aging: aches and pains, glaucoma, muscular degeneration, and so on.
Patients in 14 US states enjoy medical marijuana laws, but those elsewhere buy or grow the drug illegally to ease their conditions.
Among them is Perry Parks, 67, of North Carolina, a retired army pilot who suffered crippling pain from degenerative disc disease and arthritis. He had tried all sorts of drugs, from Vioxx to epidural steroids, but found little success.
About two years ago he turned to dagga, which he first had tried in college, and was amazed how well it worked for the pain.
"I realised I could get by without the narcotics. I am essentially pain free," Parks said.
But older users could be at risk of falls if they become dizzy, and smoking dagga increases the risk of heart disease and can cause cognitive impairment, said Dr William Dale, chief of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Centre.
He said he'd caution against using it even if a patient cites benefits. "There are other better ways to achieve the same effects."
Pete Delany, director of applied studies at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said boomers' drug use defied stereotypes, but is important to address.
"When you think about people who are 50 and older you don't generally think of them as using illicit drugs - the occasional Hunter Thompson or the kind of hippie dippie guy that gets a lot of press maybe," he said. "As a nation, it's important to us to say, 'It's not just young people using drugs, it's older people using drugs."
Older dagga users often say they smoke in less social settings than when they were younger, frequently preferring to enjoy the drug privately.
They say the quality (and price) of the drug has increased substantially since their youth and they aren't as paranoid about using it. - Sapa
Dagga 'helps pain of aging'
MIAMI - In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of wine. A copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes dagga.
The use of the US's most popular illicit drug is growing among retirees as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s grows older.
The number of people aged 50 and older reporting dagga use in the prior year went up from 1,9percent to 2,9percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
The rise was most dramatic among 55 to 59-year-olds, whose reported dagga use more than tripled from 1,6percent in 2002 to 5,1percent. Observers expect further increases as 78million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age. For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma it did for previous generations.
Some have used it ever since, while others are revisiting the habit in retirement, either for recreation or as a way to cope with the aches and pains of aging.
Siegel walks with a cane and has arthritis in her back and legs. She finds dagga has helped her sleep better than pills ever did. And she can't figure out why everyone her age isn't sharing a joint, too.
"They're missing a lot of fun and a lot of relief," she said.
Politically, advocates for legalising dagga say the number of older users could represent an important shift in their decades-long push to change US laws.
"For the longest time, our political opponents were older Americans who were not familiar with marijuana and had lived through the 'Reefer Madness' mentality and they considered marijuana a very dangerous drug," said Keith Stroup, the founder and lawyer of NORML, a dagga advocacy group.
"Now, whether they resume the habit of smoking or whether they simply understand that it's no big deal and that it shouldn't be a crime, in large numbers they're on our side of the issue."
Each night, 66-year-old Stroup says he sits down to the evening news, pours himself a glass of wine and rolls a joint. He's used the drug since he first went to university, but many older adults are revisiting dagga after years away.
"The kids are grown, you've got time on your hands and frankly it's a time when you can really enjoy marijuana," Stroup said. "Food tastes better, music sounds better, sex is more enjoyable."
The drug is credited with relieving many problems of aging: aches and pains, glaucoma, muscular degeneration, and so on.
Patients in 14 US states enjoy medical marijuana laws, but those elsewhere buy or grow the drug illegally to ease their conditions.
Among them is Perry Parks, 67, of North Carolina, a retired army pilot who suffered crippling pain from degenerative disc disease and arthritis. He had tried all sorts of drugs, from Vioxx to epidural steroids, but found little success.
About two years ago he turned to dagga, which he first had tried in college, and was amazed how well it worked for the pain.
"I realised I could get by without the narcotics. I am essentially pain free," Parks said.
But older users could be at risk of falls if they become dizzy, and smoking dagga increases the risk of heart disease and can cause cognitive impairment, said Dr William Dale, chief of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Centre.
He said he'd caution against using it even if a patient cites benefits. "There are other better ways to achieve the same effects."
Pete Delany, director of applied studies at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said boomers' drug use defied stereotypes, but is important to address.
"When you think about people who are 50 and older you don't generally think of them as using illicit drugs - the occasional Hunter Thompson or the kind of hippie dippie guy that gets a lot of press maybe," he said. "As a nation, it's important to us to say, 'It's not just young people using drugs, it's older people using drugs."
Older dagga users often say they smoke in less social settings than when they were younger, frequently preferring to enjoy the drug privately.
They say the quality (and price) of the drug has increased substantially since their youth and they aren't as paranoid about using it. - Sapa
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