How Do We Prevent Cannabis Overuse in Young Adults and Seniors?

This year marks one decade since Massachusetts voters made recreational cannabis for adults legal in the Commonwealth.

In the last 10 years, the legal marijuana industry has taken off, with more than $10 billion in gross sales, about 18,000 jobs created, and nearly 3 million Bay State residents who reported using cannabis annually for a variety of reasons, including medicinally and recreationally.

But there are also questions about the use and effects of cannabis on people like seniors — the fastest-growing population of marijuana users: Is there such a thing as cannabis overuse? How do we prevent potential harms to this particular age group and also its opposite: teens and young adults?

With Question 8 on the November ballot, which would roll back legal cannabis in Massachusetts, we’re taking a closer look at cannabis use in youth and seniors with two local experts.

Guests

• Dr. Peter Grinspoon, primary care physician and board-certified addiction specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, author of “Aging Well with Cannabis: Feel Better, Sleep Better, and Live Better with Marijuana and CBD.”
• Dr. Kevin Hill, addiction psychiatrist, Chief of the Division of Addiction Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, author of “Marijuana: The Unbiased Truth about the World’s Most Popular Weed.”