MEDICAL MARIJUANA ATTRACTS OLDER CROWD

The stereotypical marijuana user is someone in his or her teens or early 20s. But most of Ohio’s medicinal cannabis users are much closer to retirement age, according to state figures.

More than two-thirds of medical marijuana cardholders are older than 40, according to figures released by the State of Ohio Board of Pharmacy in September. Roughly 21% are between 40 and 49, another 21% between 50 and 59, and around 20% between 60 and 69. By contrast, only around 10% are between 18 and 29.

“They're not drug tested, they have disposable income, and they're in pain,” Cindy Bradford, co-owner of the Ohio Cannabis Company dispensary in Coshocton, said of older users.

“As far as the 21 qualifying conditions the board has approved for (marijuana treatment), a lot of those are conditions

that people under 30 may not experience as much,” said Christopher Mastrilli, general manager of the Ohio Provisions dispensary in Carroll, in Fairfield County.

Chronic pain, for example, is the most commonly cited reason for medical marijuana use in Ohio. And many patients have spent decades doing manual labor that taxed their bodies and left them with lingering injuries, Bradford said.

David Eick, who is 63 and lives near Coshocton, about an hour and half northeast of Columbus, uses marijuana to treat chronic pain and other symptoms of the terminal lung cancer he was diagnosed with a year ago.

He said he used marijuana when he was young. “But then I stopped for many years because they had (drug) testing where I worked,” Eick said.

He is retired now and wishes medical marijuana would have been legalized years ago.

“I wish I could have had it when I was getting my chemo and radiation treatment,” Eick said. “I wouldn’t have had to take so many pills.”

Michael Mick, 68, of Newcomerstown in Tuscarawas County, is like many medical marijuana cardholders in his age bracket: He believes that illegal marijuana isn’t as safe as that from a dispensary.

“I’ve got a lot of friends that are my age and they still smoke (marijuana),” Mick said. “They have offered it to me and I said, ‘No, when I can get it legally, that will be different.’”

Mick, who describes himself as a “100% disabled” Vietnam War veteran, said he smoked pot during the war and occasionally when he came home. But now he fears buying illegal marijuana because it could be laced with other drugs.

Phillip Levering Sr., 68, of South Zanesville, said he once used illicit marijuana laced with crystal methamphetamine.

“I ended up in the hospital,” he said. Now, Levering has a medical cannabis card and uses the drug to manage pain from multiple sclerosis. He doesn’t worry about adverse effects, he said, because the drug has been tested for safety.

Anna Bernatowicz, 63, of Newcomerstown, offered another common sentiment among older users. She’s used traditional medications but didn’t like the way they made her feel.

Bernatowicz said she was prescribed opioids and then methadone to manage pain from a surgery 20 years ago. She prefers the state of mind that marijuana provides.

“It hasn't really taken away the pain, but it has a calming effect where I think I tolerate the pain better,” Bernatowicz said.

Nearly all of the patients who spoke to The Dispatch said they used marijuana in their 20s or 30s, and they consider the drug relatively benign compared with the opioid painkillers driving a nationwide overdose epidemic that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.

Mick said he was offered painkillers after having a tooth pulled several years ago but declined, worrying he could become dependent on the drugs.

“I could never get hooked on pot,” he said.