More baby boomers use medical marijuana, but they want their doctors to get wise to the risks and benefits

Baby boomers’ marijuana use has edged upward in the past decade, but recent research suggests some still have a hard time getting a hold of the drug.

Older adults want more education, more research and greater openness with their health-care providers about using medical marijuana, according to a qualitative study of older cannabis users and non-users in 15 Colorado cities. 

What’s more, some participants in the 17 focus groups reported difficulty accessing medical marijuana — even in Colorado, where medical marijuana has been legal since 2000 — as their primary doctors couldn’t or wouldn’t provide the necessary certificate for them to get a medical cannabis card.

In fact, according to the research published in the journal “Drugs and Aging,” some folks simply looked for a different doctor or sought marijuana for medical use from recreational stores.

Some “expressed financial concerns about not visiting their usual care providers, particularly when the authorizing physicians were not within their provider networks and would not bill insurance for medical cannabis (or ‘red card’) evaluations,” according to the study of 137 people, 136 of whom fell in the over-60 age range. And many said they would rather visit doctors who were already familiar with their medical history.
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