LOS ANGELES – There’s been a tremendous surge in the number of senior citizens visiting their local emergency room due to the use of marijuana. Experts say it’s largely because boomers are unprepared and stunned to discover how much stronger weed is in 2023 compared to the moment in time when they previously used the drug.
A recent study by the University of California San Diego, revealed a whopping 1,808% increase in cannabis-related emergency room visits among California residents ages 65 and up from 2005 to 2019. Medical professionals said the stunning figure should spark widespread concern as well as drug screenings for all seniors, the New York Post reported.
“It’s troubling,” Dr. Michael D. Levine, director of medical toxicology at UCLA Health, told the news outlet. “It corresponds to an overall increase in drug trends and increased marijuana use over the past decade. And I think it’s problematic for multiple reasons.”
According to Dr. Levine, many elderly patients are so stoned they didn’t know why they were seeing a doctor in the first place. Others patients are complaining of a wide array of strange ailments without realizing it’s related to their marijuana use.
“Many elderly people who used marijuana when they were teenagers or in their 20s in the 1960s have tried using it now and the potency of THC is substantially higher compared to what it was,” Levine continued. “So, it’s not the same marijuana that they’re used to.”
Marijuana currently cultivated and sold contains roughly three times more THC compared to levels in the 1990s, according to the Department of Health & Human Services.
Moreover, it can be up to five times more potent than marijuana smoked in the 1960s, according to a Law Officer managing editor Jim McNeff, who worked narcotic enforcement in California during his career.
