For J. Michael Leddinger, cannabis isn’t what it used to be.
Recently, the 62-year-old tried a4-by-4-inch pot brownie, made by his daughter’s friend, a baker in Ann Arbor.
„Remember the flying toaster screensaver in the ’90s?” Leddinger said. „I stared at my ceiling and watched a multitude of pink toasters cascading.”
As is the case for many of his peers, Leddinger’s first cannabis experience was in college. A friend offered it and Leddinger coughed into the bong, spreading weed all over the floor.
Leddinger learned to enjoy the drug on occasion as a young adult, but he feels today’s cannabis is stronger than anything he sampled at his alma mater, the University of Florida, which was famed for a strain nicknamed the „Gainesville Green.”
The brownie, plus a few puffs from a friend’s joint shortly after Michigan legalized the drug for recreational use, were Leddinger’s first encounters with cannabis in 40 years.
Michigan voters legalized recreational marijuana in late 2018. Medical cannabis has been legal across the state since 2008.
Leddinger is not dying to use marijuana again — he prefers hard cider — but says he was curious about the newly licit drug. Among his generation, the Brighton resident is not alone in that curiosity.
A booming demographic
People between 55 and 75, also known as baby boomers, are a growing demographic of marijuana users.
Younger boomers, those in their late 50s and early 60s, are more likely to use the drug than the older half of their generation, data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows.
Still, marijuana use among Americans 65 and older nearly doubled from 2.4% to 4.2% from 2015 to 2018, according to a study published this year in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Those numbers are striking given that, 14 years ago, in 2006, less than half a percentage of people in that age range said they used marijuana.
Many boomers, part of the original counter-culture, never believed the „reefer madness propaganda,” said the 61-year-old attorney Matthew Abel, a Detroit resident and cannabis activist.
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And, faced with the complications of aging, boomers are turning to cannabis to treat medical ailments. For more than a decade, with a physician’s approval, Michiganders have been able to obtain medical marijuana cards for a host of conditions including chronic pain, glaucoma, cancer and agitation from Alzheimer’s Disease.
Some boomers, like Reddinger, are marijuana resumers — people who used marijuana in young adulthood, stopped for years and then took up the habit once they reached the dawn of their golden years.
Others, like 65-year-old Jeanne Day-LabBo, haven’t stopped toking since the 1970s.
Day-LaBo, a proud grandmother who goes by „G-ma” among friends and family, uses the drug to ease pain from severe arthritis and bone problems. And, for the self-described ex-hippy, cannabis is a fixture of social occasions.
Day-LaBo, a former office manager and volunteer coordinator for Michigan’s legalization campaign, attends infusion events where she enjoys multi-course gourmet meals cooked by chefs who blend cannabis and food.
„You don’t get nasty drunks, nobody’s aggressive,” Day-LaBo said. „By the end of the evening, you’re friends with everyone.”
When Day-LaBo travels to cannabis conventions in Chicago, she gives out joints as tips to waiters and valets. Illinois legalized recreational marijuana on Jan. 1, 2020.
„It’s always very much appreciated,” said Day-LaBo, who lives near Muskegon. „They might have to pay $12 for that at a dispensary.”
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Disposable income, retirement draws boomers
Boomers also are more likely to have disposable income to buy marijuana, a heavily-taxed commodity that could be pricing out millennials and Gen Z-ers, Day-LaBo theorizes.
In Michigan, the average wholesale price of a pound of legal marijuana flower was $2,917, according to a 2019 Leaflink report. In shops, a gram of flower could sell for between $15 and $25 before tax.
For many boomers, marijuana is a retirement activity.
Although recreational use of the drug is legal in Michigan and 10 other states, it remains illegal at the federal level and employers in Michigan have the right to fire workers who test positive for tetrahydrocannabinol, the active ingredient in marijuana.
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Tim Beck, a retired resident of rural Grand Junction, Michigan, uses cannabis once or twice a week. For him, it’s a treat, „the equivalent of a vodka martini” to some of his friends, he said.
When Beck started his own insurance company in 1998 he never required his employees to be tested for THC.
Beck pushed for the legalization of cannabis, although, because the drug was readily available, he says its illegality rarely had a direct impact on his life.
„One of the positives of aging is you don’t really care what other people think,” Beck said. „It’s all water off a duck’s back.”
Exec: Boomer interest highest in medical market
Narmin Jarrous, an executive vice president for Exclusive Brands, a vertically integrated marijuana company, says boomers make up a „very large” share of Michigan’s medical marijuana market, in particular.
Boomer interest in recreational cannabis is growing, she said, although some still harbor negative associations toward the drug.
„As the stigma lessens we’ll see more and more of an increase from that area of that market,” Jarrous said. „They’re less embarrassed to say, 'I use recreational cannabis’ or 'I use medical cannabis.'”
An Exclusive Brands product line called „Kushy Punch,” available at the company’s flagship retailer in Ann Arbor, appeals to boomers with micro-dosing and smoke-free options, Jarrous said. It’s also available in sugar-free varieties for diabetics who struggle with issues such as neuropathy.
Nearly 20% of cannabis users over 65 said a doctor recommended the drug, a New York University study, published in 2018, found.
„My line is that cannabis is wasted on the young, because it’s the old people who have aches and pains,” said Chuck Ream, an Ann Arbor resident.
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The 73-year-old leads an active lifestyle, swimming 50 laps a day, and says cannabis helps focus his mind each morning. The former Scio Township trustee, now retired, worked as a kindergarten teacher and counselor.
Ream says he knows plenty of successful professionals who use marijuana, challenging the lazy stoner stereotype.
„I’m very proud of my generation,” Ream said. „The baby boomers knew it was absolutely critical that we changed the world and cannabis was part of that.”
Compared to Ream, Linda Wehmueller’s interest in marijuana is more casual.
She smoked weed occasionally in college and, once the drug became legal, decided to give it another try.
At the start of this year, recreational retailers had not yet opened in Hazel Park, the city where she lives, so Wehmueller drove 45 minutes to an Ann Arbor pot shop.
There, she saw just as many gray-haired and balding people as bearded millennial hipsters.
„They looked completely normal, just people doing Sunday shopping,” Wehmueller said. „You shouldn’t have to drive all over creation to get it. I’m 65, I’m an adult. It’s about time.”
Contact reporter Sarah Lehr at (517) 377-1056 or slehr@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahGLehr.