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Home Front: Culture Wars
Stoned, Stupid and Senile is no way to go through life, Grandpa
2010-02-23
Marijuana use by seniors goes up as boomers age

In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of red wine. A crisp copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night like clockwork, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes marijuana.

Long a fixture among young people, use of the country's most popular illicit drug is now growing among the AARP set, as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and '70s grows older.

The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent 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 marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent.

Observers expect further increases as 78 million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age. For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma it did for previous generations, and they tried it decades ago.
Posted by:ed

#19  You don't have to support Mexican drug lords or international terrorism. All you need are a few grow lights and some basement stairs - and some good seeds.
Posted by: Glenmore   2010-02-23 22:51  

#18  Drunk, Whore mongering soldiery is no way to go through life

Where the f*ck did that come from? And why?
Posted by: Pappy   2010-02-23 21:45  

#17  illegal drug trade brings profits that are worth using violence to protect. more users = more profit = more incentive to violence in protecting said profits.

not my concern at all if granny smokes a doobie. very much my concern if Guido and Lefty get in a dust-up with poorly aimed gunfire in some urban area.

also lack of respect/enforcement of substance laws has a corrosive effect on society and eventually evolves toward generalized lawlessness and is detrimental to the rule of law.
Posted by: abu do you love   2010-02-23 21:13  

#16  --Some Mexican weed that never made it:

Link to slideshow (last feb)
Posted by: Tom- Pa   2010-02-23 20:31  

#15  "Fallbrook" is one of the most potent "brands" of weed. It comes from north San Diego County. "Humboldt"? North California. Weed is a homegrown product for the most part. I'm of the opinion it should be like alcohol - age limits, DUI-type prohibitions on driving, and calorie-intake-education efforts at Roberto's/Alberto's taco shops late at nite.

Not that I would know....but I did go to San Diego State
Posted by: Frank G   2010-02-23 20:27  

#14  before I get hate mail for watching Al Gore anythin I can't believe i was watching it either but they actually do some interesting stories sometimes
Posted by: chris   2010-02-23 20:25  

#13  yeah I'm sure someone still buys the mexican crap weed. I would be more worried about drugs such as crystal meth and other speed related drugs and Ecxtasy profits going too fund terror related countries or the groups themselves. I think the news channel that I believe Al Gore has something too do with and I know the Ling lady who was being held in NK is a journalist with has done a piece on some of this.
Posted by: chris   2010-02-23 20:24  

#12  I doubt much weed is coming from the middle east

Agreed, chris, I did rather I express myself poorly. The opium products from Afghanistan feed Iranian and European appetites, while the marijuana that grows naturally in India, Pakistan and elsewhere in the region is mostly used locally as far as I know. But Hizb'allah has been involved down in Central/South America for the better part of a generation now, and gets a cut of the business and the profits, if I recall correctly... and it was the profits from that business that enabled the trafficking to Europe via Africa that we read about here at Rantburg so recently. Also, somebody must be buying that bad Mexican weed, why else would the the drug gangs be involved in moving it north, as Ebbang Uluque6305 so helpfully described (thanks for that, my dear -- I've a terrible memory for those oh-so-important details!).
Posted by: trailing wife   2010-02-23 19:45  

#11  --For more on America's 'Pot Industry', CNBC made a original documentary:

"Marijuana Inc, Inside America's Pot Industry"
(it's an informative 44 minute video) LINKY
Posted by: Tom- Pa   2010-02-23 17:13  

#10  med. maryjane legal in Colorado
Posted by: bman   2010-02-23 15:06  

#9  California is about to make the whole issue moot in November. Expect most states to follow.
Posted by: bigjim-CA   2010-02-23 13:30  

#8  TW, actually any good weed is usually grown nearby where it was purchased or is coming out of Canada. I doubt much weed is coming from the middle east since there is not that big a profit margin in marijuana as coke or heroin. Just look at the growing industry north of our border in Canada and places like Mendocino Co. in California. Yeah the mexicans are pushing that mexican schwag across the border but most ppl want something actually worth smoking and don't want too deal with that crap.
Posted by: chris   2010-02-23 13:21  

#7  And during Drink prohibition, Alcohol was controlled by The Mafia.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2010-02-23 12:55  

#6  Not to mention, TW, the drug gangs from Mexico that are muscling their way into American cities. These are some very dangerous individuals and they are right next door.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2010-02-23 12:22  

#5  It is indeed their lives, Bright Pebbles. But much of the illicit drug supply is provided by people strongly linked to international gangs and terror groups like Hizb'allah, Iran's proxy, and Al Qaeda. We've been complaining that the opium poppy crop hasn't been wiped out in Afghanistan for exactly that reason, right? And on this side of the Atlantic drug revenues flow into the coffers of the armed enemies of Israel and the West.

So you go ahead and let them live their lives in peace. I've got cousins in Israel and friends in New York City who are at risk because these old people choose to indulge in illegal substances.

Were it legal and not supporting gangs and terror groups, I honestly wouldn't care how some people choose to alter their reality. But the troops of more than forty countries are putting themselves at risk in Afghanistan, and even more in Iraq and elsewhere -- not to mention the entire population of Israel -- to fight people supported by the sale of this stuff.
Posted by: trailing wife   2010-02-23 12:12  

#4  Drunk, Whore mongering soldiery is no way to go through life
Posted by: 746   2010-02-23 10:47  

#3  > Stoned, Stupid and Senile is no way to go through life, Grandpa

It's their life, not yours. Let them live it their way.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2010-02-23 10:42  

#2  Hey old dude got any stash?
Posted by: Cyber Sarge   2010-02-23 08:47  

#1  There was a recent report that a type of Grass named "Skunk Weed" was a cure for "Retinitis Pigmentosa" (Wife's got it, near blind)

Also works well eliminating or reducing Night Blindness.

It also mellows you when it hurts, and is NOT addictive like the Medical institutions favorite dope is.

Not Stoners, simply easing the aches, No I don't smoke, but I know others who do, and why.

I had a few Joints in the 60's and my night vision is excellent.

Posted by: Redneck Jim   2010-02-23 04:09  

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