Cannabis use up 75% among older Americans
Legalization among the factors
Cannabis use is on the rise among older adults as more states move toward legalization for medical or recreational use, according to new analysis published online in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The number of adults over 65 who used cannabis in the last year increased 75% between 2015 and
2018, according to the study by researchers at New York University School of Medicine.
The portion of seniors using cannabis is still small. The analysis estimated that about 4.2% of seniors used cannabis in 2018, compared with 2.4% in 2015. But that’s a dramatic increase from a decade ago — less than half of 1% of seniors reported cannabis use in 2006.
The report was based on a survey of nearly 15,000 adults over age 65 asked about their use of cannabis, marijuana, hashish, pot, grass and hash oil — either smoked or ingested.
Though not backed up by clinical research, cannabis is believed to have medicinal benefits, specifically in reducing pain. But researchers found that the increase in cannabis use among seniors was driven by individuals who do not have chronic health conditions.
Researchers found the greatest increases in cannabis use among women, racial and ethnic minorities, individuals with higher incomes, and individuals with a mental health condition.
The study also found an increase in the number of older adults who used cannabis and alcohol, a combination that is more dangerous than using either substance alone.
The study’s authors said the findings point to the need for more research about how cannabis affects older adults. have nothing.”
Dr. Kiran Musunuru, another gene-editing expert at the University of Pennsylvania, said the treatment seems likely to work, based on tests in human tissue, mice and monkeys.
The gene-editing tool stays in the eye and does not travel to other parts of the body, so “if something goes wrong, the chance of harm is very small,” he said. “It makes for a good first step for doing gene editing in the body.”
Although the new study is the first to use CRISPR to edit a gene inside the body, another company, Sangamo Therapeutics, has been testing zinc finger gene editing to treat metabolic diseases.
Other scientists are using CRISPR to edit cells outside the body to try to treat cancer, sickle cell and some other diseases.
All of these studies have been done in the open, with government regulators’ approval, unlike a Chinese scientist’s work that brought international scorn in 2018. He Jiankui used CRISPR to edit embryos at the time of conception to try to make them resistant to infection with the AIDS virus. Changes to embryos’ DNA can pass to future generations, unlike the work being done now in adults to treat diseases.