40 Years Later, Boomers Still Getting High

Percentage of Americans in Their 50s Reporting Use of Illicit Drugs Doubles Between 2002 and 2007

(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...

[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...

[AttentionDeficit]

brianbwb: i would sure like that set up in my basement. but, i am paranoid of the cops

[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

[mswolfestock]

underdog -- in my neck of the woods, we are up to our eyeballs in killer home-grown, and it's getting close to harvest time, yee-ha. We don't need no stinkin' Messicans. We don't need no DEA, either.

[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.

[Void_Master]

The government (and many others) don't like people getting high for one simple reason. With that buzz going, you really don't give a flyin' crap who thinks he's in charge. You finally realize that *you* are.

[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.

[mswolfestock]

Yo! Pass it over here!

[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.

[dragon8me]

You wana know what fired me up. When Obama laughed at a serious question about legalization. But even more so when I read on NORML's web site about State Republican lawmaker Tommy Benton calling for ?caning? minor marijuana offenders and ?executing? those who sell it. I don't see how people can be so un-American and actually think they arn't.
Maybe they just need the "Tree of Knowlege" to open their mind to the truth.

[AttentionDeficit]

Put pot on the same legal standing as booze. It makes sense

[legacyabq]

We're talking about harmless POT here..

Hopefully they're not drinking DEMON ALCOHOL..

[brianbwb-2009]

I say bring back acid.

scared the heck out of the military types, who thought they had a hallucinogenic weapon on their hands, until it became apparent in their testing that it erased the effects of indoctrination and brainwashing, enhanced the creative capacity, and actually helped people think more clearly.

Not only that, but it was non addictive, and self-limiting, so the head shrink industry, and big pharma were also in panic over it.

[AttentionDeficit]

brianbwb: acid is fun, but you got to choose the right set and setting.

[mswolfestock]

credibility, solarrays -- Methinks thou doth protest too strongly, y'all.

And you two are coming across as way, WAY too self-righteous and uptight. I caught that, even through my so-called "drug-induced haze."

I don't know where you get that "diminished intellectual capacity" garbage, either. I went to college pretty much buzzed - I graduated Magna *** Laude and I'm a member of Phi Beta Kappa. (That is NOT a sorority, BTW.) I've been gainfully employed ever since then - if y'all want to call me a loser go right ahead. It's easy to ignore irritating people with a buzz on. LOL!

[credibility2]

Ignorance merely fosters more ignorance and I'll just bet that your offspring are just as ignorant as you and probably, thanks to your wasted mind and drug-induced stupers, have all those so-called things like adhd and were further raised to do whatever they wanted without any self-accountability or responsibility and were also raised to think that they were entitled to everything because they were just alive and so special. I'm hardly self-righteous, unlike the moaks that came of "age" during this time and contributed greatly to the demise of out nation with their entitlement and pandering mentalities.

[mswolfestock]

credibility -- First place, I chose not to breed. I didn't want any offspring of mine to have to rub elbows with the likes of YOUR spawn. Second place the word is STUPOR, not to be confused with STUPID, which you obviously are. And lastly what in the BLEEP are MOAKS -- couldn't find it in my Merriam-Webster's. Maybe you would be better off if YOU were in a stupor.

[AttentionDeficit]

"Ignorance merely fosters more ignorance and I'll just bet that your offspring are just as ignorant as you"

What does that say about your parents?

[Kyle1965]

"Magna *** Laude"

That cracks me up. You have to love software filters that censor "dirty" words.

[dragon8me]

Sorry folks, the revolutions on. No more Mr Nice Guy when people lie. It's in your face with the truth for now on.

[dragon8me]

And why is the press not giving any ink time to the recent studies that show cannabis prevents certain types of cancer. They never report on possitive drug stories, like Bill Hicks said.

[bobnjersey]

[And why is the press not giving any ink time to the recent studies that show cannabis prevents certain types of cancer. They never report on possitive drug stories, like Bill Hicks said. ]

that's probably because there aren't too many of them.

[credibility2]

These delinquents never did grow up. I'm a boomer and never had to rely on drugs or alcohol or rock 'n roll to get high. No wonder the children these losers bred are even bigger losers than they were and reaffirms their diminished intellectual capacity.

[Solarrays247]

credibility2 August 19, 2009 11:43 AM EDT
These delinquents never did grow up. I'm a boomer and never had to rely on drugs or alcohol or rock 'n roll to get high. No wonder the children these losers bred are even bigger losers than they were and reaffirms their diminished intellectual capacity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I agree with your post, credibility2. I'm also a boomer, and never felt the need to get high on drugs or booze! But I do love rock ' roll! Being alive, and living life to its fullest has always been drug enough for me!! We only go around once in this life...this is not a dress rehearsal! I want to experience life head on.....not through a drug induced haze! Never really could understand that.

[dragon8me]

I guess you think the President, Ted Turner or even William Buckley we're loosers too. looser.

[texanforlogi]

Add Carl Sagan to that list.

[bobnjersey]

[These delinquents never did grow up. I'm a boomer and never had to rely on drugs or alcohol or rock 'n roll to get high. No wonder the children these losers bred are even bigger losers than they were and reaffirms their diminished intellectual capacity. ]

it's good to see that your clean living didn't make you judgemental ... gave you the ability to know everything about whole populations of people that you've never met and therefore know nothing about ... and instilled in you the ability to be objective and right about everything.

[barbaram99]

I am not and havw never a bloody hippie. Yet. I would like to say the title of the article shold read 40 YEARS LATER,OLD HIPPIES ARE STILL GETTING HIGH. There I said as it should be writtlen.
Psster,ye right about wars America makes.
I am and always have been against wars.
Ehe person writes I guess we suck.
We are hated abd yet ye hit the nail on the head.
I am apalled ar the leadweship in this nation.
That we allowed bush to chahge this nation after 9/11.
Yes we do dear.
We can't take care us at home yet we have to tell other nations what they ans can't do.
I am ashamed to a be an American cos of the mess this nation has made and will make in future. Shame is a better word than suck.

[legacyabq]

Uh, what?

[momofdaisy]

Get pot in stores NOW!