Older Americans aren’t just using cannabis more, they’re also consuming the sometimes-legal-sometimes-not drug in dangerous ways. From 2017 through 2022, rates of health care encounters involving cannabis-related disorders increased among Medicare beneficiaries, according to a new study by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A team of researchers led by FDA epidemiologist Silvia Perez-Vilar, PharmD, PhD , analyzed the data of nearly 56 million Medicare beneficiaries ages 65 and older.
Nursing home residents and patients receiving dialysis were excluded. More than three dozen cannabis disorders were included, from abuse with withdrawal, to dependence with intoxication delirium. Rates of such medical encounters increased during the six-year period—regardless of a state or territory’s cannabis laws.
However, rates were highest in locations where cannabis is legal for both medical and adult recreational use, about 45 encounters per 10,000 beneficiaries in 2022. The findings were published last week in the journal JAMA Network Open . The rate was 42 per capita in states or territories where only medical cannabis is legal and 28 in places where cannabis is illegal.
Across all legalization categories, researchers saw the greatest increases in nonemergency outpatient settings. In addition, beneficiaries enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans had higher average annual increases in cannabis-related disorder encounters than fee-for-service enrollees . “Data suggest that incr.