Cannabis medicines are increasingly used to address many medical issues facing older patients. Among this older population, the use of cannabis remains a controversial issue, partially because of divergent experiences with the drug. Among patients ages 54 to 59, almost 60 percent have used cannabis, while among individuals over 80 years of age, less than 10 percent have ever used cannabis.78 In the U.S., the number of people over the age of 50 using cannabis daily has doubled from 2002 to 2012.79

The biggest problem facing seniors who wish to use medical cannabis is safe and reliable access to the medicine in states or countries lacking formal systems of access to medical cannabis. In 2009, for example, when the retirement community of Laguna Woods in southern California decided to allow a marijuana collective to be organized by 150 of its 18,000 residents, the foundation that ran the community banned outdoor cultivation of medical marijuana after a few plants were stolen. Increasingly, the desire of an aging baby boomer population to revisit cannabis for its medical, rather than recreational, value will likely be the source of friction in many communities.