40 Years Later, Boomers Still Getting High

(CBS/AP)  Some Americans haven't let go of one part of the 1960s era: getting high on illicit drugs.

The percentage of Americans age 50-59 who reported use of illicit drugs within a year nearly doubled between 2002 and 2007, from 5.1 per cent to 9.4 per cent, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported Wednesday.

The agency said that per centage rose because baby boomers - born between 1946 and 1964 - continued to use drugs as they got older.

SAMHSA Acting Administrator Eric Broderick said the continued drug use "is likely to put further strains on the nation's health care system."

The rates of illicit drug use among all other age groups stayed the same or decreased over the five-year period, the agency said.

Older Americans are also drinking more, research shows.

A Duke University study released earlier this week found binge drinking - consuming five or more alcoholic beverages and long associated with college students- is relatively common among people between ages 50 and 64, according to a USA Today report Monday.

Researchers found that 22 percent of men and 9 percent of women in that age group engaged in binge drinking in the last month. The study also found that 19 percent of men and 13 percent of women had two or more drinks a day, which is considered a heavy drinking habit by the American Geriatric Society guidelines for older people.

Fourteen percent of men and 3 percent of women over 65 also binge drink, according to the study.

The net result of all that drinking might be greater risk of medical problems like stroke, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, neurological damage and poor diabetes control, researchers say.

[barbaram99]

I think it is so sad that children today are so medicated. In our day that was not the case. Yet cos I am in my 50s the Dr wants to put me It is odd how they say people boorn in 1946 to 1964 want more meds. Nope. I put my foot down and said only the ones I need.
Teachers taught better in our day. Yet there were things they could done better in educating us girls.Not every girl became a mother. I did not and never married. In some ways it was bad. Blacks wanting their rights. They now have. We were the pre computer people. The young are the ones doing things we would never dream of and it playing with death. Yep ye can die from drinking too mush booze/beer.
I want my mind clear so I can think and do. I never did drugs as with the health issue I have they would kill me. I know that. I heard my foster parents saying the music would warp the mind. Not true. The drugs will.

[sugar_maple]

I say to hell with the stoners. Keep marijuana illegal and put those hippies in jail forever. I swear all hippies are just plane stopid. Those hippies teach our youths. And we know we need teachers like we used to have them.

[AttentionDeficit]

sugar_maple: sure glad you aren't stopid, aren't you?

[brianbwb-2009]

AttentionDeficit

Nah, he is GOP.

Probably has a hydro setup in his basement, growing "sens" from Dutch seed stock.

You know how they scream loudest, but...

[Kyle1965]

This is kind of an odd story. The data comes from the 2007 NSDUH published last September. The 2008 NSDUH is due to be published next month. Why is this coming out now? And why do they make such a big deal out a a very small percentage of our population using drugs? The most commonly used illegal drug used by these people was of course marijuana. They only cite past year use rather than past month use, because of course a far smaller percentage of people this age used illegal drugs in the month before the survey than did at some point in the year before the survey. The percentage who are actually regular users is even smaller, we're talking maybe a couple out of a hundred and most of them are going to be your evening pot smokers, not hardcore druggies.

Drug use peaked in this country in 1979. Most older teens and young adults at that time had at least tried marijuana. A very small percentage of them still do it, and a smaller percentage take pain meds or other intoxicating prescription drugs not prescribed to them or use some other illicit substances. Over the next ten years as these people now in their fifties age we'll see a huge leap in the number of people in their sixties who use illegal drugs, but it will only amount to a very small percentage of people in that cohort. It will go from almost none to a very small percentage, but that will of course amount to and increase of several fold over the last group who passed through their sixties.

This is much ado about nothing and there is something fishy about this report coming out so long after the last NSDUH was published and just a couple of weeks before the new numbers come out. It seems like they are setting us up for a new propaganda push. Shoot they collect these numbers in the summer of the year of the survey all on portable computers. Instead of compiling the numbers instantly and publishing them like they could easily do they sit on them for nearly a year and use that time get their propaganda campaign ready for the next launch. They've already collected the 2009 numbers but we won't see them until September, 2010.

[underdogus09]

Mexican cartels love it!! mo'money,keep doing drugs pindejo gringos he,he we don't need no stinkin'badges

[AttentionDeficit]

mswolfestock: "there ain't nothing to do, and there's always room for more. fill it, light it, shut up and close the door. we're gonna lay around the shanty, mama, and put a good buzz on" - jonathan edwards (about 1972, but my memory is a bit foggy after coming out of my party room)

[toddlarado]

This stuff has been smoked for ages and yet no direct link to death. Enough is enough already it's time to Legalize this stuff immediately. If the American public no longer supports the war on pot then why is our Government not changing the Laws. In a Democratic society the Law should change the moment consensus is clear due to the severity of the consequences. Just Google Marijuana Legalization and you'll see it's pretty clear.

[elzigmo]

WOO-HOOOOOO!

[luvcanines]

oh leave the woodstock crowd alone! i went to woodstock and have had a full productive wonderful life. just because someone went to woodstock or is a baby boomer doesn't necessarily mean they smoke pot. now 'cuse me while i fire up another doobie.

[dragon8me]

I guess I should turn the light on if I can't spell Lincoln.

[dragon8me]

And I leave you now with a favorite of mine by the dead president Abe Lecoln
"Prohibition... goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded."
For a president who aspires to be like the man he should read more about him.

[AttentionDeficit]

dragon8me: I also read that about Benton's comments. I hope a drunk driver is in his future.