Cannabis use among older adults is on the rise. But there are unintended consequences, like accidental overconsumption that can lead to a trip to the emergency department. It means more education is needed to help older adults navigate the head-spinning world of recreational cannabis.
Meet Michael Shelor. He’s talking about that one time he consumed a THC-infused gummy.
THC is the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis that produces that feeling of being high.
“So I mean, I started out with 50 milligrams, and if 50 was good, well, then 100 would be better, and I learned, no, 100 is not good,” Shelor says with a laugh.
Shelor says he was high as ... well, you get the drift. Shelor is 59. He, along with four other older adults, are sitting in a small classroom inside Giving Tree Dispensary in north Phoenix. They're here for the “Coffee and Cannabis” education series for people 55 and older.
Shelor's a self-described “pothead” from the '70s, so cannabis isn’t a new thing. But his experience with edible cannabis isn’t that unusual.
Ashley Feagins, the marketing manager at Giving Tree, is leading the series.
“It's a completely different game now, where flower percentages for THC are higher, there's different options for edibles, vapes, the whole nine yards," Feagins says.
That means even long-time users like Shelor, who uses cannabis for pain and insomnia, may need a crash course on dosing and the myriad choices available on the recreational market.
“I think there's a learning curve, so this is probably good for people to come in, get some basic instruction so that they don't get to that point where they're taking too much and they're freaking out and they're never going to take it again,” he says.
'There isn't like a one-size fits all'
Kathy Wheet is also attending Feagins’ class. Wheet isn’t new to cannabis, and like Shelor, she dabbled back in the day. Now, she uses it for pain.
“I've got fibromyalgia, and I needed some help with that," Wheet says.
And the prescription medication she was on, Tramadol, was reclassified as a controlled substance. So, that's when she embarked on her cannabis journey.
“It's been interesting just to learn how to work with my body. Like they were saying, not to get high, but to feel normal, like that Tramadol did for me, just to feel …"
Wheet sighs.
It also means having to experiment to find that sweet spot.
“So it's a beautiful thing, but also a little annoying right? Because there isn't like a one-size fits all," Feagins says.
And that’s where older adults can run into potential trouble. Age-related physiological changes, using multiple prescription drugs, plus no age-specific dosing instructions means a lot of trial and sometimes error.
More research is needed
Dr. Sue Sisley is the founder and principal investigator of the Scottsdale Research Institute, which looks at the science behind medicinal plants.
“Yeah, it's pretty much the way it is with citizen scientists,” she says. “What you're doing is, you're experimenting with a variety of different products and you're doing it in a methodical way, hopefully, so you can really assess the risks and benefits of each choice.”
Sisley conducts FDA-authorized clinical trials examining various psychedelic plants and mushrooms for treating a variety of conditions. She is also a longtime champion of cannabis research.
“What we're seeing is that the cannabis plant does have a myriad of medical qualities that can be beneficial for people, but the problem is a lot of our studies have been sabotaged by a very low quality cannabis material from the government," Sisley says.
So for the last 53 years, she says, the government has only allowed the University of Mississippi to supply the cannabis used in U.S. clinical trials.
Which means the data that does exist is limited, but that’s not stopping seniors and even their caregivers from walking into dispensaries hoping to find something that can help with pain, sleep, nausea, anxiety or even behaviors stemming from conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.
But it can be daunting. In part, because a budtender’s training may vary depending on where they work. And the majority of dispensaries are no longer required to have a medical director available.
'I'm not the only gray-haired guy in here'
“So, that's where, for us, giving them that knowledge, so that way they understand dosing and all of that. And they can feel comfortable with, like buying a product because they know that we understand what they want to get out of the experience," Feagins says.
Sisley says many older adults are also learning how to grow their own cannabis or are turning to social media.
"A lot of their own grandkids and children are teaching them what is available.”Dr. Sue Sisley
“They're teaching each other how to best use this,” she explains. “And by the way, most of these grandparents have wonderful grandchildren who know a lot more than them, and so a lot of their own grandkids and children are teaching them what is available.”
Back at the dispensary, Shelor is about to head out. He can't exactly quantify it, but he thinks the stigma of Reefer Madness is finally fading among older adults.
“Every time I come in here, I'm like, OK, I don't feel this bad anymore. I'm not the only gray-haired guy in here,” he laughs.
