They’ve lived through flower power and now the Green Wave – meet the groovy grannies and rad grandpas riding the reefer rollercoaster past retirement!
Research suggests seniors are embracing medical cannabis more than any other American group, toking up to take the edge off aging’s aches and pains. While research shows weed’s wonders may help Baby Boomers stay hip, active and engaged, should our favorite old heads be getting high before going for a drive?
Catch a Contact
Turns out plenty of old timers are no strangers to sparking up. Researchers in Canada managed to gather over 30 cannabis-loving Boomers, age 65 to 79, who had been burning bush for 40 years on average! These weren’t some square novice nibblers; the flower power fleet featured real-deal tokers looking to science to see whether weed impairs their ability to operate a motor vehicle like in the youth.
Volunteers brought their own legal supply to smoke before hitting a state-of-the-art driving simulator at multiple time points. Researchers measured how terrain-obliterating Toronto Kush, mind-bending God Bud and heavy hybrids impacted senior driving skills like navigation, speed control and reflexes immediately after smoking and hours later as the effects faded.
Major Munchie Insights While the study found taking seniors for a ride post-puff leads to some fairly funky driving, it also uncovered other far-out insights that may point to positive perks of reefer use later in life.
Cruisin’ the Green Wave
Most senior subjects chose super-powered strains packing nearly 20% THC on average – no amateur hour grass for these glittery golden oldies! And after four decadesPLUS passing doobies, participants likely had substantial tolerance built up.
They reported zero munchie madness or withdrawals when abstaining during study periods. Both factors could allow older consumers to better control cannabis effects compared to casual Gen X or Millenials users.
Despite having access to ultra-potent cheeba, seniors inhaled less than half the amount of earlier studies with younger tokers. This could indicate more mature users have a better grasp on appropriate dosing to treat age-related symptoms without getting glaciered. A powerful revelation as more Boomers turn to legal medical cannabis for relief.
Although delayed reaction times and decreased speeds suggested impaired driving 30 minutes after smoking up, most negative effects dissipated by 3 hours even though participants STILL felt too incapacitated to operate a vehicle.
This finding may better reflect cannabis’s true extended effects on executive function rather than actual motor impairment as time passes.
In other words, some seniors turn to THC to help tune out chronic pain but remain cognitively altered longer even after feeling physically able to drive again. Good incentive to hold the keys until you’re REALLY back on planet Earth!
Contacting the Mothership
So can nostalgic Boomers have their cannabis and consume it too without harshing everyone’s highway mellow? This first-ever research probing pot use on simulated senior driving argues yes – with some heavy caveats.
While outcomes showed Ensure-chugging long term smokers faced real reaction and operation risks behind the literal and proverbial wheel after lighting up, lead authors admit limitations abound.
For one, no clear correlation emerged linking driving performance to THC blood levels. And simulated conditions can never replicate handling a Caddy on the hectic interstate full of crazed drivers gobbling Adderall like candy! Additionally, the study focused on a small segment of senior smokers largely immune to cannabis side effects, leaving questions about more sensitive silver tokers.
So what’s the take-away for our aging avalanche of dankness devotees? Researchers recommend allowing reasonable bake-off time before attempting to operate real vehicles if you choose to combust.
Be mindful cannabis likely affects older users differently based on individual experience, strain sensitivity and dosing. And of course, encourage your suddenly cannaseur grandparents not to BLAZE- cruise their way down the freeway with the munchies!
While more investigation is needed, these maverick Malaysian Mud researchers suggest with some hip precautions, our Baby Boomer buds can keep on keepin’ on with their medical cannabis as the times they are a-changin’.
