Welcome to Senior Cannabis Digest. This week we look at how often seniors use cannabis, a ten-year study of cannabis and pain management and the growing use of lesser-known cannabinoids. Enjoy.
Notable Numbers
Top takeaway: Just over one in ten seniors told researchers they used cannabis in the last 24 hours.
This week’s notable number is eleven percent, as in just over one in ten. According to a recent federally-funded survey that’s the percentage of senior citizens who told researchers they used cannabis in the last 24 hours.
The study, which was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, was conducted by the University of California San Diego and New York University. Researchers interviewed 315 adults over the age of 65. The majority of interviews took place in public parks or outside of older adults centers in New York City.
According to Tom Angell, reporting for Marijuana Moment, over half of those surveyed (56 percent) said they have consumed cannabis at least once in their lifetime, 22 percent said they used it within the past year, 16 percent reported using it in the past-month and 11 percent said they consumed it within the past 24 hours.
Angell noted that the most commonly reported reason for using marijuana was to get high (60 percent), though 56 percent of respondents said they consume cannabis to relieve tension, 53 percent use it as a sleep aid, 30 percent use it to treat chronic pain and 29 percent use marijuana for another medical reason.
In the journal article, the researchers wrote that the responses from seniors who said they used cannabis for medical reasons suggest some older adults may be using cannabis to manage symptoms without a doctor’s supervision.
Angell noted that the researchers found younger senior citizens and men were more likely than older individuals and women to use cannabis. Also, among those who did use marijuana recreationally within the past year, smoking was the most common delivery method, at 74 percent. Thirty-six percent said they consumed cannabis edibles and 16 percent vaped it.
While the researchers acknowledged the results may be skewed due to what they referred to as New York City’s “urban setting” and the relatively diverse participant demographic, they wrote that the relatively high usage rates in the survey “suggest that cannabis use among older adults may be more common and clinically significant than suggested by prior evidence.”
As always, Tom Angell’s reporting is first rate. To learn more, we urge you to read his article in the September 23, 2026 issue of Marijuana Moment.net.
Cannabis News and Notes
Top takeaway: Using medical marijuana can help those with lower back pain reduce opioid use and experience less pain.
There’s hopeful news for those who suffer from lower back pain. Findings from a study that monitored over 600 patients for ten years indicate using medical marijuana can help people who suffer from lower back pain significantly reduce their opioid use as well as experience lower pain intensity and functional disability.
According to researchers affiliated with Tel Aviv University, Rabin Medical Center and Clalit Health Services in Israel, chronic low back pain (CLBP) is a major global health burden and the leading cause of disability worldwide. They estimate it affects well over 600 million people globally and consistently ranks as the foremost cause of years lived with disability (YLDs), contributing to both individual suffering and economic costs to society estimated at $560– $635 billion annually in the United States alone.
To start, the research team enrolled 1,000 patients with chronic low back pain (CLBP) who had previously never used cannabis and tracked their pain, disability status and medication usage annually for a period of 10 years at a specialized orthopedic pain clinic. Of that initial group, 638 patients completed all 10 annual assessments.
During the study, patients received medical cannabis under physician supervision. Cannabis products included dried flower for vaporization and cannabis oils for oral/sublingual administration.
Initial dosing typically began at 2.5–5 mg THC, gradually adjusting the dose to find the most effective amount with the fewest side effects over a 2–4 week period.
During the study, participants continued to use other medications including opioids, or reduce their use, at the discretion of treating physicians based on clinical response.
Key Findings
Wrote the researchers in their journal article, “This 10-year observational study represents the longest follow-up of medical cannabis therapy specifically in CLBP patients and demonstrates sustained, clinically meaningful improvements exceeding pre-specified MCID thresholds for opioid reduction, pain relief, and functional disability.”
Specifically, after ten years of treatment with cannabis:
– 91 percent of patients achieved the target of at least a 50 percent reduction in opioid use.
– 62 percent of participants achieved a 30 percent reduction on a pain intensity scale
– 62 percent of patients achieved a decrease in functional disability scores of 10 points or more on a standardized scale.
The research team believes the results from their initial “observational” study should be followed with randomized controlled trials.
To read an abstract of the study, click on the following link.
link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00586-026-10290-y#Sec2
Tom Angell reported on the study for Marijuana Moment.net. To read his article, click on the following link.
Cannabis Corner
Top takeaway: Consumers are turning to “minor” cannabinoids and terpenes to manage pain and anxiety.
When it comes to treating pain or anxiety, a growing number of consumers believe some of the lesser- known cannabinoids bring them more relief than THC or CBD.
So says Sunehera Hasib in an article for Marijuana Moment. In an effort to get an “unfiltered” understanding of what medical cannabis consumers think about their cannabis experience she analyzed nearly 18,000 posts and comments across major cannabis and medical marijuana communities on Reddit.
Reddit is a giant online collection of discussion forums where people share news, post content, and talk about specific hobbies or interests.
What Hasib learned was that the cannabis compounds patients repeatedly mentioned when describing the relief they achieved from cannabis were often the compounds referred to as minor cannabinoids, such as CBG, CBN or CBC.
For example:
– CBG, posts about inflammation: 40 of 40 outcome-reporting posts described a positive experience.
– CBG, posts about pain: 97.1 percent of firsthand reports were positive (67 of 69)
– CBN, posts about sleep: 95.3 percent positive (122 of 128 firsthand reports)
– CBG, posts about anxiety: 90.1 percent positive firsthand (73 of 81).
She notes that instead of simple one-line statements, such as “it helped,” she learned in detail how individuals were really using cannabis products to achieve desired results.
For instance, people described actual routines such as stacking CBG in the morning with CBD in the evening and CBN before bed, choosing CBG because they felt it didn’t carry the sedation some associate with high-dose CBD or using CBG topically alongside THC during pain “flares.”
She described this raw consumer commentary as “the kind of granular, self-taught trial-and-error that hasn’t shown up much in mainstream product marketing yet.”
Wrote Habib, “Patients are essentially running a massive, decentralized process of personalized experimentation on their own. They test products, track outcomes and share insights publicly without relying on brand marketing or formal medical guidance.”
While she acknowledges “organic community data,” such as the information gleaned from her key word search and analysis will never replace clinical research, she also contends it points to an information gap the cannabis industry needs to acknowledge.
Specifically, the minor cannabinoids that receive far less attention in the mainstream market are often the same compounds patients repeatedly describe as helpful.
You can learn much more by reading Sunehera Hasib’s article in the September 17, 2026 issue of Marijuana Moment.net.
Senior Cannabis Digest is compiled and edited by Joe Kohut and John Kohut. You can reach them at joe.kohut@gmail.com and at 347-528-8753.