Released today, a new study conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reports that many baby boomers are continuing drug use well into the later years of their life.
In An Examination of Trends in Illicit Drug Use among Adults Aged 50 to 59 in the United States, the first in a series of reports, SAMHSA found that as the baby boomers age, we are seeing an increase in drug use in the population group aged 50-59 years–almost doubling since 2002 to 9.4 percent. Rates in other age groups studied have either remained constant or have decreased in the same period.
The study, says SAMHSA spokesperson, speaks to the importance of preventing drug use at an early age. The study does not, however, address whether these people sought drug addiction treatment, nor whether they continued their extended drug use as addiction.
Nonetheless, it does show an interesting, possibly cultural, trend in the Woodstock generation.