Research shows that adults ages 65 and older are the fastest-growing age group to use cannabis in the United States. Use is particularly high among people living with HIV, an aging population that has reported taking this drug to manage HIV-related symptoms, side effects from antiretroviral therapy, pain, and moods.

This growing use of cannabis has contributed to an increase in cannabis use disorder (CUD) in the US over the last 20 years, according to a study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH). CUD diagnoses rose substantially across all age, race/ethnicity, and comorbidity subgroups nationwide from 2000 to 2022; however, these diagnoses were consistently higher among people living with HIV compared to people living without HIV, and people over 65 experienced the greatest relative increase.

Anyone with multiple health issues may be at greater risk of experiencing adverse health effects from cannabis use, in part due to the drug’s interactions with certain medications and aging processes, the authors note.

“Older adults are an unrecognized group when it comes to cannabis use,” says lead study author Danielle Haley, PhD, assistant professor of community health sciences at BUSPH. “We’ve devoted a lot of attention to cannabis use among youth, but clearly, older adults are also using it and experiencing harms that are severe enough to receive a clinical diagnosis of cannabis use disorder, for which there are limited treatments. As more people develop this use disorder, it's really important that we gather and disseminate information about the health effects of cannabis so that people can make informed decisions about using it.” 

The researchers' analysis of e-health records from 185,372 participants in the Veterans Aging Cohort Study-HIV showed that  by 2022, 20% of people living with HIV and 18% t of people living without HIV had at least one CUD diagnosis, a two-fold increase of the estimated lifetime prevalence of CUD among veterans nationwide. Among people 65 and older, CUD diagnoses increased from 0.9 to 4% among people living with HIV, and from and 0.03%  to 3.2% among those living without HIV.

“Our findings identify the need for universal screening and treatment for CUD as we work to understand all of the possible health effects of cannabis among different populations, especially older people and people with comorbidities,” Haley said.

To read the abstract of the study, published in the Journal of Addiction Medicine, click here