Extract

Five years ago, when the Iowa legislature moved to become the 31st state to approve the sale of cannabis for medical purposes, testimonies about the benefits of cannabis were offered by the mother of a child with epilepsy and a young veteran who experienced post-traumatic stress disorder. Around that time, I also was observing a rampant increase in opioid prescribing within Iowa’s nursing and assisted-living facilities, with some older adults being admitted with fentanyl patches already in place. It struck me that cannabis might be a useful alternative: a way to decrease the rampant overprescribing and misuse of opioids among older Americans. Later in 2015, members of the United States Senate Special Committee on Aging also considered how cannabis could intersect with America’s aging population. At that time, analyses of the National Survey of Drug Use and Health revealed that cannabis use was increasing the most among persons over 50. However, researchers could offer few other insights.

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