AS POT-SMOKING, PILL-POPPING BABY BOOMERS AGE, NEW HEALTH PROBLEMS MAY ARISE

Legions of Pot-Smoking Hippies From Decades Past Have Apparently
Morphed into Middle-Aged Americans Who Carry With Them a Potentially
Large-Scale Drug Problem.

Roughly 8 percent of Americans ages 50 to 59 had used an illicit drug
in the past year, according to a recent survey by the federal
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Marijuana
was the most commonly used, but close behind was abuse of
prescription drugs, such as anti-anxiety medications, painkillers,
and sleeping pills.

The percentage of pot and pill abusers in this age group grew by more
than 50 percent between 2002 and 2008, as more baby boomers hit 50.

Now, researchers who conducted the survey worry that high rates of
lifetime drug use among boomers, that massive, society-altering
generation born between 1946 and 1964, is likely to create health
complications for millions of aging Americans and swamp the country's
drug-treatment programs.

"We are projecting that by the year 2020, we will probably have
enough people in the 50-to-59 age group needing [substance abuse]
treatment that we will probably need to double the number of
treatment facilities," said Peter Delany, the substance abuse
agency's director of the Office of Applied Studies.

Delaney said that illicit drugs may cause greater impairment as users
get older.

"We do know," he said, "that physiology slows down as you age, so the
stuff processed out of your body faster when you were younger won't
be processed out so quickly when you are older."

That means that marijuana and abused prescription drugs may be
lingering longer in people who are now also likely to be regularly
ingesting prescribed medications, such as cholesterol-lowering
medicine or pills to tackle high blood pressure. That could result in
harmful interactions and side effects. It also means that
unsuspecting physicians may, for instance, misdiagnose symptoms of
memory loss caused by chronic marijuana use as memory impairments
caused by the onset of dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease.

The substance abuse administration, which regularly queries Americans
on their drug and alcohol use, surveyed nearly 20,000 adults, ages 50
and over, between 2006 and 2008. It found that 5.2 percent of those
in the 50 to 59 age range had used marijuana during that time, and
that 2.9 percent had taken prescription drugs that were not
prescribed for them, most often painkillers. Overall, 7.9 percent
said they had taken some illicit drug.

"We are hoping that, out of this study, people start paying more
attention, and that primary care physicians say, 'I need to ask my
patients about their drug use, and not just their alcohol use,'" Delany said.

Precisely how many physicians specifically ask their patients about
drug abuse is an open question. The US Preventative Services Task
Force, a scientific panel established by the federal government to
set standards on disease prevention and primary care, concluded in a
2008 report that there was insufficient evidence to know whether such
routine querying of patients would help curb drug problems - even as
it noted that abuse of prescription drugs was a growing health
problem. The task force has recommended that physicians routinely ask
patients about their tobacco and alcohol use, saying evidence shows
that such screening can accurately identify patients with problems
and that brief counseling in primary care settings is effective in
helping patients curb drinking or quit smoking.

Now, the federal government is funding studies to determine whether
similar routine screening and counseling of patients for drug abuse
might also be beneficial.

Among those studying the issue is Dr. Richard Saitz, a primary care
physician at Boston Medical Center who specializes in addiction
screening and counseling. He said that getting patients to
acknowledge drug abuse can be trickier than screening for alcohol or
tobacco use because it is illegal.

"Folks are worried that when they disclose to someone, it will end up
in their legal records" and they will be stigmatized, Saitz said.

He said he has noticed an increasing level of drug abuse,
particularly marijuana, anti-anxiety medications, and sleeping pills,
among his boomer-age patients.

"People really do have symptoms like insomnia and anxiety, and they
may have had these problems earlier in life" and been prescribed a
medication for it, he said. "And then maybe they get a divorce, or
lose their job, or feel less useful in society, and they begin using
a prescription drug, that was prescribed in a legitimate way, and it
gets out of control."

Dr. Richard Dupee, chief of geriatrics at Tufts Medical Center, said
most primary care physicians are so time-crunched that they forget to
ask their older patients about their alcohol consumption, let alone
whether they are using marijuana or abusing prescription drugs.

"Most primary care physicians are not trained in geriatrics and are
hassled and busy and they are trying to deal with blood pressure and
strokes and heart attacks," said Dupee, who said he routinely screens
his patients for alcohol and drug abuse.

The average age of Dupee's patients is 55, smack in the middle of the
boomer generation. And already Dupee has patients, mostly men in
their late 50s, who have been regular and long-time users of
marijuana who are displaying short-term memory loss.

"It raises the question, are we going to see an increase in the
number of patients with dementias, as boomers get into their 60s and
70s?" Dupee said. "Regular users of marijuana are at significant risk."

The health risks for older pot users reach beyond memory problems.

"The physical and cognitive disability that occurs as a result of
marijuana use really goes along with what happens when we get older
and drink alcohol" in excess, Dupee said. "There are impaired
functional abilities, risk for falls."

Delany, who directed the recent study on substance abuse among older
Americans, said the toll of unchecked problems will extend far beyond
health effects to financial burdens for the nation - unless health
care providers start paying closer attention now.

"We need to help [patients] to either cut down or stop use earlier,"
Delany said, "so we will have fewer problems when they're older and
it is more expensive to treat them."