Pubdate: Sat, 08 Dec 2012
Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)
Copyright: 2012 The StarPhoenix
Contact: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/400
Author: David Sherman
Page: E1

AGING BOOMERS GO UP IN SMOKE

Old Dopers Seem to Be Returning to the Pot Habits of Their Youth

Paula has quit. At 68, the manager of a health-food store has put 
away the rolling paper, stopped buying her beloved hashish and is 
going straight.

"I'm trying to find more peace," she says.

Her adult children, now with children of their own, used to smoke pot 
but have stopped, as has her husband, also a former hard-core indulger.

But Barry, a 65-year-old Ottawa radiologist, has no intention of 
giving up his one or two or maybe three-joints-a-day habit. 
Semi-retired, five minutes after looking at the last X-ray, Barry is 
in his car and firing up the marijuana joint he keeps in the ashtray 
for the ride home.

"It's probably a symptom of some pathology or other," he admits. "But 
it makes life a lot more fun."

Barry has been smoking since he was a teenager. And he smoked all 
through medical school and all the years he was practising full time, 
though never during work, he says.

"There were a few times when I had smoked and a couple of hours later 
I got called in and it was definitely harder to make decisions," he 
said. "Things get too complicated when you're high, so I never smoke 
if I know I have to work."

He quit for about a dozen years while his four kids were growing up, 
but once they became adults, he again stocked up with rolling papers 
and primo weed, today costing him $300 an ounce.

He spends about $2,000 a year on grass, he says.

Barry's proclivities are a sign of the times. More and more, 
according to studies here and in the U.S., older folks, 50 and up, 
are turning or returning to dope smoking. Or, as aging boomers who 
grew up during the pot-scented years of the '60s and '70s, they never stopped.

Numbers supplied by a Toronto-based Centre for Addiction and Mental 
Health study show the percentage of the population 50 and older 
indulging has increased 500 per cent since a 1977 report, now making 
up 14 per cent of dope smokers.

When the study looked at the general population, it found puffing pot 
was going up in almost every age group. People who admitted smoking 
cannabis in their latest study jumped from just under nine per cent 
to more than 13 per cent; 30to 49 year olds had doubled their use.

But it's among those looking at mortality plugged into a bong or pipe 
that numbers seem most on the increase. Between 1996 and 2011, the 
proportion of older potheads among the smoking population has almost 
quadrupled.

The latest survey was done by random phone calls. Dr. Robert Mann, a 
psychologist who's been studying substance abuse and addiction for 30 
years at CAMH, agrees that not everyone who indulges is going to 
admit it over the phone to a stranger.

He says the real numbers are undoubtedly higher. "Old people are more 
likely to under report," he says.

No study, however, is telling us whether these puffing grandparents 
are cranking up Stairway to Heaven once again and playing air guitar 
now that there is no one around to scream "turn it down!"

Pot smoking is a hassle for Jean-Pierre of Hull, Que., who grew up 
with two parents who spent every evening and most workdays getting high.

"I used to think it was really cool," he says. "I didn't have to hide 
it when my friends and I smoked."

Now 25, Jean-Pierre says he gets into arguments when his 66-year-old 
father, a retired federal public servant, visits from Toronto. Jean 
Pierre smokes hardly at all, but keeps a small stash at home for his 
girlfriend and friends.

"My father comes over and we have these incredible fights because he 
wants to smoke all my pot," he says.

"He says 'I raised you, bought you your hockey equipment and your car 
and paid for your school and I'll smoke all your pot that I want.' 
You know, all of their friends, all those government people, they all smoke."

Although it's easy to brush off the climbing numbers of older folks 
who light up by painting them as hippies growing up, the CAMH's Mann 
says that might be simplistic.

Yes, he says, those who have tried smoking during their younger years 
are more likely to pick it up again.

But Mann also speculates that as people age and confront the end of 
their lives, their past missteps, their empty nest, worries about 
retirement, boredom, increased aches and pains, solitude and 
financial worries, the incentive to light up and sit back blossoms.

Puffing greying folk are one of the higher proportions of people 
seeking help for cannabis addiction in their treatment centres, he says.

Patricia, 55, a Montreal construction executive, has been smoking all 
her life and now smokes more than ever.

"I don't like it," she says. "It's just a coping mechanism."

Patricia finds her job stressful, her spouse is chronically ill and 
they're buffeted by financial concerns and invaded frequently by two 
adult children who keep returning home after abortive attempts at 
fleeing the nest.

She sees a therapist, takes sleep aids and goes through $500 to $600 
a month in grass, a few puffs at a time, smoking three joints a day 
during the work week and five to six a day on weekends.

"I smoke before work, during work and after work," she says.

"I'm so used to smoking that I appear totally normal when I'm stoned. 
If someone gets really wrecked from a joint, it means they're really 
not dopers." Patricia goes to client meetings stoned, sits down with 
her boss stoned.

"I'm not apologizing," she says, though she's thinking about 
stopping. She has chronic bronchitis and cigarettes and dope are 
catching up to her.

The health hazards are hard to quantify, says Mann. The grass smoked 
today is substantially stronger than it was 30 or 40 year ago.

He says studies are beginning to show an increase in psychiatric 
disorders among dopers, but as yet, no one can be sure if it's the 
dope that is causing the problem or the disorders are pushing people 
to self-medicate with grass or hash.

The biggest health problems might well be for young adults, whose 
brains are still developing and probably do not benefit from the 
assault of a strong, mood-altering drug.

For the greying population, doctors say cannabis might be a risk for 
those with cardiovascular problems or lung issues, but for the most 
part, watching the sunset with your butt in an armchair and your head 
on Mars is almost benign.

Says Barry the radiologist: "it's bad for sex for me and it kills my 
appetite. My kids are not crazy about it and they lecture me all the time.

And my friends joke about it. And of course, there's more chance 
you'll kill yourself or someone else when you're driving because it's 
harder to pay attention."

But, Barry says, he loves the creative juices that flow once he 
lights up and he's willing to risk the consequences and the jibes. 
"It's a personal decision," he says.
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