Primetime Living 9.27.26 - Flipbook - Page 10
10
| Sunday, September 27, 2026
HEALTH
Where are Older
Adults Getting their
Remedies?
Working in tandem with your
physician is important when
trying cannabis products
By Margit B. Weisgal, Contributing Writer
T
he headline read, “Seniors Are Skipping the Doctor and Going to
the Weed Dispensary.” Was that true? Yes. Sort of. Sometimes.
It turns out there was a small study
that took place in Colorado, populated
with 169 older adults who volunteered
to share information about their use
of cannabis. It was published online
in JAMA Network Open. Among the
findings, “most [participants] selected combination tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) or CBDonly products, rather than THC alone.”
Why? “Because they were avoiding
pharmaceuticals and seeking symptom
relief after other options were exhausted.”
So, let’s define our terms. Marijuana
and cannabis are not interchangeable
terms. Marijuana refers to parts of, or
products of, the cannabis sativa plant.
Cannabis refers to all the products of
the plant, and it has about 540 chemical
substances. “Cannabidiol (CBD) is the
primary non-psychoactive component
of cannabis. As of 2023, recreational
cannabis consumption is legal in 24
states and medicinal cannabis is avail-
able in an additional 17 states in the
United States. The article has an extensive list of interactions between CBD
and known interactions between CBD
and various receptors, enzymes, and
processes.” (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/articles/PMC12067965/)
“THC is the substance that’s primarily
responsible for the effects of marijuana on a person’s mental state. Some
cannabis plants contain very little THC.
Under U.S. law, these plants are considered ‘industrial hemp’ rather than
marijuana,” according to the article.
Were they concerned about how the
cannabis products would interact with
their regular medications? Yes. Did that
stop them? Not really.
The next question was, “How widespread is cannabis use among older
adults?” After all, many of today’s older
adults come from the Baby Boomer
generation and are familiar with cannabis.
I called on Ryan G. Vandrey, Ph.D.,
an experimental psychologist and professor at the Johns Hopkins University
Behavioral Pharmacology Research
Unit (BPRU). He’s been involved with
a broad range of studies related to the
risks and benefits of medicinal cannabis use, the effects of cannabis use
on sleep, cannabis withdrawal and the
treatment of Cannabis Use Disorder (a
subset of Substance Use Disorder), and
cannabis product testing.
“The older adult population, now
more than 20 percent of total Americans
according to the last U.S. Census,
is increasing cannabis use for therapeutic purposes at the highest rate
we’ve ever seen,” Vandrey explains.
“Generally speaking, they are using
cannabis products for medical problems when prescribed medications no
longer help. It’s not the first option they
go for; it’s the last.
“When medical patients turn to cannabis, there are usually strong justifications: either the medicine their
doctor gave them didn’t work, or the
side effects were too much for them to
abide. Often, the cannabis is used as
an adjunct to other treatments. So, it
can be ‘in addition to’ whatever they are
taking, not in place of.
“A major problem with CBD and THC
products is a lack of regulation and
inconsistent sources. Neither you – nor
your dispensary – can guarantee the
formula in the various products. Yes,
they often purchase from the same
producer, but cannabis sativa is a plant
and, consequently, all the ingredients
needed to grow a hardy product, such
as the soil, the amount of rain, added
fertilizer, and how much sun that field
gets, are just a few of variables that can
change the composition of the product
you purchase,” he notes.
“Of course, some older adults are
also using cannabis to get high. There is
just a wide range of behaviors. At issue
here, though, is how it is working with
other medications in a person’s system
and how it affects those combinations.
“We at Johns Hopkins Medicine are
starting to address this among our
extensive patient population: asking
them to report cannabis usage to their
Seniors and Cannabis
Continued on page 20
