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Core Topics => Seniors, Geriatrics => Topic started by: Chip on August 24, 2015, 10:09:19 PM

Title: Illegal drug use rises among the middle aged
Post by: Chip on August 24, 2015, 10:09:19 PM
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11807016/Illegal-drug-use-rises-among-the-middle-aged.html

Illegal drug use rises among the middle aged

(https://forum.drugs-and-users.org/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.telegraph.co.uk%2Fmultimedia%2Farchive%2F03409%2Fjoint__3409856b.jpg&hash=c3822f442c9f1840df7ad9008b7f5194dcdd4ab6)
The report found that more than half a million people aged between 40 and 59
had taken drugs in the past year, with almost 400,000 smoking cannabis and 92,000 using cocaine
Photo: Alamy

By Victoria Ward on 17 Aug 2015


Middle-aged parents are increasingly smoking cannabis while their children are giving up the drug, a Home Office report has revealed.

Illegal drug use has steadily increased amongst the 40 and 59 age group over the last 18 years, according to the figures.

The proportion of those people who admit having taken drugs has risen from 2.5 per cent in 1996 to 3.6 per cent.

By comparison, drug use has fallen among the young, with 17.4 per cent saying they had taken drugs in 1996 compared to 13 per cent in 2014-15.

Experts said the figures suggested that many who took drugs in their youth in the 1960s and 1970s had continued to do so and that they had become an integral part of their lifestyle.

• What happens if you decriminalise drugs?

Harry Shapiro, a drug expert, told The Times: "I suspect most older people who smoke cannabis recreationally would regard it as not much different in terms of their own health and wellbeing as somebody else who comes home and decides to have a gin and tonic.

"One assumes everyone is going to stop using drugs when they stop clubbing, have a family and get a mortgage. But it's not surprising really that people will carry doing something which they do not regard as dangerous."

The report found that more than half a million people aged between 40 and 59 had taken drugs in the past year, with almost 400,000 smoking cannabis and 92,000 using cocaine.

Roughly half the middle-aged cannabis users were taking the drug more than once a month, the report said.
It described the longterm decline in the use illicit drugs among young adults as "statistically significant".

But it said the figures on older drug users made them of "particular interest" as they had not been following the overall downward trend.

"This [increase among older adults] is likely to be down to cohort effect, with a greater number of those who have used drugs when they were younger continuing to do so as they age," it said.

A Home Office spokesman said: "We are working with our independent experts, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, to look more closely at older drug users and how best to respond to their specific needs."
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