WATCH: Is medical marijuana a blessing for older Americans?

Legalized medical pot may be a boon to older Americans, boosting their health and ability to work, a new study finds.

"Research [on medical marijuana] has largely ignored older adults even though they experience the highest rates of medical issues that could be treated with medical marijuana," said co-author Lauren Hersch Nicholas. She's an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

Excellent health reported

Her team analysed responses of more than 100 000 adults, 51 and older, who took part in the 1992–2012 Health and Retirement Study. The survey looked at health and job market situations among older Americans.

In states that legalised medical marijuana, there was a 4.8% decrease in reported pain for conditions that qualified for pot treatment (cancer, arthritis, glaucoma and pain), compared to states without medical marijuana. Similarly, 6.6% more seniors reported very good or excellent health in states with medical pot.

At the time of the analysis, 20 states had medical marijuana laws in place. By the end of 2018, 33 states and Washington, D.C. allowed medical use of marijuana.

The study also linked medical marijuana legalisation to increases in full-time jobs among older Americans.

Among those who qualified for medical marijuana, full-time work increased 7.3%, compared with a 5% increase among the entire study sample.

Effect on labour force participation

This suggests that any decline in productivity resulting from medical marijuana use is outweighed by an increased ability to work, according to the authors. However, the study only showed an association and not a cause-and-effect link between pain, work rates and medical marijuana.

"Our study is important because of the limited availability of clinical trial data on the effects of medical marijuana," Nicholas said in a Hopkins news release.

"These findings underscore the close relationship between health policy and labour supply within older adults," Nicholas said. "When we're doing policy evaluations, we have to think not only about whether the policy is changing health outcomes, but also whether it does it in a way that supports labour force participation."

The study found no evidence that medical marijuana legalisation was associated with changes in daily activities such as getting dressed, going to the bathroom or walking.

The US National Institute on Aging funded the study. The findings are in the spring issue of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

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