Those over 50 increase drug use 63%.

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Posted on Tue, Dec. 12, 2006

For aging drug users, it's hard to kick the habit

By Warren Wolfe
The Kansas City Star
McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

MINNEAPOLIS - It's the generation that came of age in the permissive 1960s and '70s, part of the counterculture revolution that embraced the mantra "turn on, tune in, drop out." Now they are graying - but some are still having a hard time breaking away from or resisting marijuana, cocaine and other illegal drugs.

A national drug survey by the federal government, for example, has found that between 2002 and 2005, use of illegal drugs fell 15 percent among teenagers, but increased 63 percent among people in their 50s.

"The good news is that they may seek us out - heck, they're already beginning to," said Dr. Marvin Seppala, medical director at the Hazelden Foundation, a treatment center in Minnesota. "The bad news is I'm not sure we're ready for them."

For older people, the roads to drug abuse vary: It's a longtime habit they can't shake. Or a step they take to ease the loneliness, boredom or physical pain old age that can bring.

As a college student in Iowa in the early 1970s, Ava majored in "sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll - especially drugs.

"Pot has been my friend, my good buddy since I was 16," she said. "When I'm using, I like the way it makes me feel, relaxed, content, happy. Maybe too relaxed. When I'm not using, I realize that's one reason I'm essentially poor."

Like other illegal-drug users interviewed for this article, Ava doesn't want her neighbors to know of her drug use, and realizes she could be arrested. She agreed to describe her life only if she were not fully identified.

"I used to think this was a victimless crime, but it's not. I'm a victim," she said. "They say you don't really get hooked on pot, not like on meth or heroin. But I know I'm addicted."

Marijuana has been her mainstay through the years, but she tried "a buffet of drugs" while in college. She quickly learned to avoid mescaline, LSD, even alcohol because they made her feel out of control or depressed.

"I'm poor and I hate it. Some days I feel suicidal, like I'll never get out of this," Ava said. "I don't like being this stereotype of a pot-smoking grandma. But smoking helps me forget for a while."

On many days she'd like to quit. "Right now I've been out of pot for a couple days and I'm OK," she said. "But before Christmas, I'm driving in to see my dealer. ... He gives me credit."

Like most people in treatment, older drug abusers rarely seek help on their own.

Counselors say they often are being led into treatment by their adult children, who sometimes demand they get clean before they can see grandchildren.

"Some are aging hippies who never stopped using alcohol, marijuana and other drugs. Some got into recreational use of cocaine or crack or meth later in life," said drug counselor Judie Heckenliable, lead counselor at Fairview-University Medical Center's chemical dependency program. "And some started using as a way of self-medicating, to erase emotional or physical pain."

Retired people living alone are especially vulnerable because they've lost their normal behavior regulators, she said. "They no longer have the job, they may have lost a spouse and friends, and they can become lonely and depressed."

Fairview offers six residential groups for alcoholics and other drug users. Counselor Lou Bardal leads one group for about a dozen people age 55 and older - the only such residential group in the state. It's not cheap, about $9,400 for the 20-day program, usually paid by insurance or Medicaid.

"Alcohol is the primary drug of choice, but we see everything," said Bardal, who has led the seniors program for eight years.

Bardal and Heckenliable have counseled scores of older addicts, some several times.

Programs such as Fairview's are rare, said Seppala, Hazelden's medical director. "The treatment can be very effective, but the sad thing is, there are very few treatment programs geared to work with older people."

Counselors deal with older addicts differently than younger ones, he said. The recovery goes at a slower pace for older people, and often includes psychological and medical help. Hazelden may start specialized residential treatment in Florida for older people, a service it offered through the Hanley Center in Florida until they severed their relationship a few years ago.

"For older people, treatment works best when it's in a medical setting - like Fairview offers - because older people often have complicating medical and mental health issues," Seppala said.

"The thing is, we've got a big chunk of baby boomers coming down the age pipeline, and we need to start paying more attention," he said. "Even if the rates of addiction weren't rising in that group, the sheer numbers tell us that a bunch of them will be asking for help."

But not 54-year-old Charlie, a factory worker who said he smokes a few joints nearly every night, with the "very rare recreational hit" of meth, PCP or some other illegal drug.

"I've smoked pot since I was 14, and I lead a good life," he said. "But I'm careful. I don't work or drive when I smoke. I want to keep my job and my license.

"I used to party a lot, drugs and alcohol. I don't do that anymore. Now me and the wife just smoke a little weed," he said. "Getting older, I've gotten a little wiser about drugs."

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Drug culture follows many boomers into old age

ScrippsNews

By LISA HOFFMAN
Wednesday, January 24, 2007

They are perhaps best known for their youthful indulgence in an exotic menu of illicit substances such as Acapulco Gold, windowpane acid, mescaline and Quaaludes.

Now, experts warn, the 78 million-strong baby-boomer generation is bringing its propensity to use pills and pot to its senior years. In what researchers call the tip of an ominous trend, boomers are responsible for a spike in drug and alcohol abuse that is expected to mushroom in coming years.

"I think it's a silent, unappreciated problem that has the potential to tarnish the baby boomers' golden years," said Dr. Bruce Henricks, medical director of the Mutual of Omaha insurance company.

The few studies that have been done are upending what had been a long-standing assumption _ that substance abuse declines as people age. The boomers _ for whom Bob Dylan's "everybody must get stoned" refrain served as a mantra for many _ are proving the "maturing-out" theory wrong.

One of the few comprehensive studies of the problem found that 3 million Americans older than 50 in 2004 had used illicit drugs such as marijuana, cocaine or heroin, or had misused anti-anxiety, anti-depression or other prescription drugs. Research by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration estimates that number could more than double by 2020.

Boomers are generally defined as those born between 1946 and 1964.

Already, the drug-abuse toll is evident. Hospital emergency rooms reported treating more than 400,000 boomer-aged patients for drug overdoses in 2004, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Many do not make it, as was reflected in a recent Scripps analysis that determined boomers made up about half of all people nationwide who died of drug-related causes in 2003 _ most from overdoses.

A similar state health services department survey in California, where the counterculture first blossomed 40 years ago, found a nearly 30 percent increase in boomer drug deaths between 2000 and 2004. In Arizona, officials counted 250 boomers dead of drug-related causes in 2005, compared to 39 in 1995.

Henricks and other experts say a combination of physical and emotional factors portends an acceleration of those trends as boomers age.

While not all boomers have used illicit substances _ and millions merely experimented or engaged in occasional "recreational" use _ the "if it feels good, do it" philosophy that prevailed in their formative years remains for many.

This generation has more heavy drinkers than earlier ones, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The availability of such super pain relievers as Oxycontin is also snaring boomers _ including conservative radio-talk-show pioneer Rush Limbaugh, 56 _ who started out using it to ease chronic pain but in time become dependent on the pills.

And, for most boomers, turning to a pill to cope with dieting, insomnia, depression, menopause and a child's attention deficit disorder is an everyday act.

It is that predisposition that leads researchers to predict a new spike in illicit substance use, misuse of prescriptions and the mixing of alcohol with drugs as the inevitable aches and pains of aging set in. Loneliness, grief at the loss of loved ones, health woes, stress and lower standards of living all can contribute to "self-medication," they say.

And physiological changes _ such as a slower metabolism _ can magnify or distort the effect of both legal and illegal substances, sometimes in a deadly way.

Despite the signs that society is heading toward a new substance-abuse problem, little is being done so far to prepare for it, experts say.

"Today's health-care system fails to deal with this reality," said Samuel Korper, of the federal substance abuse and mental health agency, in a report on the future impact of elderly drug and alcohol use.

That is the conclusion as well of Peter Provet, president of Odyssey House in New York City, one of the first substance-abuse rehabilitation facilities to open after the 1967 Summer of Love.

Now, his treatment program is faced with a growing waiting list of older addicts, a situation he expects to occur across the country because of a lack of federal funds and facilities equipped to help older abusers recover. Compounding the situation, he said, is the virtual absence of public awareness of the problem.

"This is an untold story that needs to be told," Provet said.