Steve,
\n51, remembers well the first time he got high.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was
\na freshman in high school and my friend Chovi from India found me on the
\nhandball court where I had been spray-painting images of Alfred E. Newman with
\na stencil I\u2019d made,\u201d says Steve. \u201cChovi must\u2019ve been about 4\u20196\u201d and had this
\nmassive afro shaped like a square helmet that was three sizes too big for his
\nface. The guy was hilarious based on looks alone. I had low expectations,
\nbecause I had tried pot twice before and had never felt anything. And I didn\u2019t
\nnotice much from this at first, either, but it turned out to be a creeper.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heading
\nhome, Steve remembers \u201cfeeling like Albert Hofmann on his famous bike ride\u201d
\nafter discovering the formula for LSD. Then, suddenly, he found himself overly
\nhigh and met with a locked door at his parent\u2019s house \u2013 meaning he\u2019d have to
\nconfront his mom.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh
\nGod, my mom was going to have to let me in,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI couldn\u2019t face my
\nmom like that. As soon as she opened the door, I pushed past her and dashed up
\nthe stairs. She shouted up to me all concerned, \u2018Is everything okay?\u2019 And I
\nshouted back, \u2018Yep! Everything\u2019s great, Mom!\u2019 And I locked myself in my room
\nand played my KISS records.\u201d<\/p>\n
That
\nwas 1977. Three businesses and a home in the wealthiest zip code of the Bay
\nArea later, Steve finds himself enjoying a new wave of Mary Jane\u2019s alluring
\nwiles. Only these days, instead of rolling a doobie, he puffs his vape pen.<\/p>\n
Steve\u2019s story isn\u2019t particularly unique. Baby boomers across the nation are getting reacquainted with cannabis after a hiatus from pot through their middle years. According to a 2012 study<\/a>\u00a0by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration\u00a0comparing trends with 2002, cannabis use among people between the ages 50-54 and 60-64 has almost doubled. Meanwhile, pot use among boomers age 55-59 has more than quadrupled. And they\u2019re not merely dabbling. The\u00a0National Institute\u00a0of\u00a0Drug Abuse<\/a> reports that baby boomers are regularly consuming cannabis an average of once a week. And these numbers are expected to rise. By the end of 2015, nearly 111 million Americans over 50 were projected to be cannabis consumers, according to research by IBISWorld<\/a>. That figure could jump another seven percent by 2020.<\/p>\n Baby boomers across the nation are getting reacquainted with cannabis after a hiatus from pot through their middle years.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Partly \u201cWhen Indeed, studies suggest that boomers are using cannabis medicinally more than recreationally, often to deal with age-related issues such as chronic pain<\/a>, depression<\/a> and rheumatoid arthritis<\/a>. Even Steve calls his vape pen \u201cthe most entertaining anti-anxiety medicine I\u2019ve ever been prescribed.\u201d In fact, the only time he labels his cannabis consumption recreational is in the context of a bad trip.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I The budtender recommended OG Kush<\/a>, a name that he says he\u2019ll always remember just so that he can avoid its super strength.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was With \u201cI miss Despite the industry\u2019s race to breed strains with the highest THC<\/a> possible, options do exist for baby boomers who want to get pleasantly elevated without blasting off into the stratosphere. Cannabis with THC in the low double-digits \u2013 say, the 10-14 percent range \u2013 may provide a low-impact way to get a gentle buzz. And with the advent of the vape pen<\/a>, boomers are strolling the path back to pot with more ease and grace than ever.<\/p>\n \u201cLast \u201cI Vape \u201cThat\u2019s TELL US<\/strong>, do you have a cannabis-loving Originally published in Issue 20 of Cannabis Now. LEARN MORE<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The post Buds & Baby Boomers<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Steve, 51, remembers well the first time he got high. \u201cI was a freshman in high school and my friend Chovi from India found me on the handball court where I had been spray-painting images of Alfred E. Newman with a stencil I\u2019d made,\u201d says Steve. \u201cChovi must\u2019ve been aboutContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":81,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1993,1387,50,638,99,85,504,4317,410,2164,9526,1491,1004],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35596"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/81"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35596"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35597,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35596\/revisions\/35597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\nresponsible for this reefer renaissance is the rapidly increasing social
\nacceptance of cannabis as a medicine and recreational choice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nmedical marijuana became a thing and I realized I could get a pot prescription
\nand get my anxiety issues under control at the same time, that\u2019s when I got
\nreacquainted with pot,\u201d says Steve.<\/p>\n
\nfirst came back to it around 2009, I had just met a lady, so I asked the
\nbudtender to give me the very best they had. I didn\u2019t ask for a strain that
\ndoes a particular thing, or makes you feel any particular way \u2013 just the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nunbelievably intense,\u201d he says. \u201cWay too advanced for my old-school roots. I
\nbrought it with me to my lady friend\u2019s house, thinking I\u2019d impress her with how
\nhip I was. We had tickets to a show, but ended up just sitting on the couch for
\nabout four hours. Not talking, not moving; I wasn\u2019t even sure she was still
\nthere most of the time. Every now and then, she would laugh, then I\u2019d start
\nlaughing. Then it would be silent again for another hour. That was awkward. I
\nwill never smoke a strain that strong again, not unless I\u2019m method-acting for
\nthe role of a corpse. There was nothing recreational about that experience at
\nall.\u201d<\/p>\n
\npotency five to 10 times greater than the Mexican swag smokers enjoyed in the \u201970s,
\nbaby boomers are understandably trepidatious about coming back to cannabis.<\/p>\n
\nthe giggling,\u201d continues Steve. \u201cPot back then used to be really light and
\ngiggly. Today\u2019s pot is too heavy for me. It weighs me down.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nyear, I was bed-ridden after a skiing accident,\u201d recalls Judith, a 60-year-old
\nSan Francisco travel agent. \u201cAll I could do was lay in bed taking pain killers
\nand watching Netflix. The pain pills had me so groggy and out of it that I
\nwould suffer through [the pain] as long as I could before finally giving in and
\ntaking one. When my son came over and offered me a puff off his new vape pen \u2013
\nmy first thought was, \u2018My goodness, what kind of robot joint is this?\u2019 But let
\nme tell you, it literally changed my world.<\/p>\n
\nmean, it [worked] faster than the pain pills, and it didn\u2019t turn me into a
\nzombie,\u201d she says. \u201cPretty much one little puff every hour or two kept my pain
\nat bay, and I have to admit, it was pretty fun, too! I mean, I was laughing at
\nthings that, on the pills, I couldn\u2019t do more than stare at with my eyes glazed
\nover. With that little pen, I felt like myself again. And bonding with my son,
\nwatching documentaries and laughing at movies together, was a brilliant,
\nunexpected bonus. Now when I have friends over, we\u2019ll have a little vape with
\nour tea.\u201d<\/p>\n
\npens are becoming ubiquitous as a discreet way for cannabists, many of them
\nboomers, to consume concentrated versions of the plant. Because it lends itself
\nso easily to taking just one puff at a time, the vape pen provides users with
\nan easier way to manage dosage. And because the oil contains such a high
\nconcentration of THC to begin with, one hit will often suffice.<\/p>\n
\njust a classy way to get high, in my opinion,\u201d says Steve about vape pens.
\n\u201cMine even doubles as a stylus. It\u2019s my new favorite way to get high.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nbaby boomer in your life? <\/p>\n
\n
\nRead More: Buds & Baby Boomers<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"