*America’s baby boomers are using more cannabis, but for some of their neighbors, the issue isn’t what seniors choose to smoke — it’s where the smoke ends up.
Past-month cannabis use among Americans 65 and older rose from 4.8% in 2021 to 7% in 2023, an increase of nearly 46%, according to federal survey data analyzed by researchers at the University of California San Diego and New York University. The findings were published in JAMA Internal Medicine.
The numbers are helping turn what was once associated with youthful counterculture into an increasingly common part of later life. But as The Sunday Guardian reports, that shift is also colliding with neighbors who say secondhand cannabis smoke is invading their homes.
Seniors Aren’t Exactly New to Weed
For baby boomers, marijuana doesn’t necessarily represent a newly discovered vice. Members of the generation came of age during the 1960s and 1970s, when cannabis became closely associated with the era’s counterculture.
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What’s changed dramatically is access and acceptance.
The increase among seniors was particularly pronounced among women, although men still reported higher overall use. Researchers also found a striking income shift: Adults 65 and older earning at least $75,000 annually went from having the lowest cannabis-use rate among income groups in 2021 to the highest in 2023.
A separate 2024 University of Michigan National Poll on Healthy Aging, which surveyed adults 50 and older, found that 21% had used THC-containing cannabis during the previous year and 12% used it at least monthly.
Their leading reasons weren’t exactly Woodstock 2.0. Relaxation topped the list, followed by help with sleep, enjoying the effects, pain relief and help with mental health or mood.
When Your Neighbor’s Smoke Becomes Your Smoke
The problem gets complicated when cannabis use doesn’t stay inside one person’s living space.
Washington, D.C., resident Josefa Ippolito-Shepherd spent years battling marijuana smoke she said entered her side of a shared duplex from a neighboring property.
In 2023, a D.C. Superior Court judge ruled in her favor, finding the smoke constituted a private nuisance and ordering neighbor Thomas Cackett not to smoke marijuana at his residence or within 25 feet of Ippolito-Shepherd’s property. Cackett used medical marijuana for pain and sleep.
The D.C. Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in 2025.
The dispute highlights the increasingly blurry line between legal cannabis use and another resident’s right to enjoy a smoke-free home. Legal permission to use marijuana does not necessarily mean smoke can interfere with neighboring property.
Secondhand Cannabis Smoke Isn’t Harmless
The health debate adds another layer.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says secondhand cannabis smoke contains many of the same toxic and cancer-causing chemicals found in tobacco smoke, with some occurring at higher levels. Researchers still need more evidence to determine the long-term health effects of secondhand cannabis exposure.
That’s an issue EURweb previously examined when reporting on research showing many Americans mistakenly believed secondhand marijuana smoke was safer than tobacco smoke.
For older users themselves, cannabis also deserves a conversation with a healthcare professional. The University of Michigan poll found 44% of adults 50 and older who used cannabis at least monthly had not discussed their use with a healthcare provider.
That’s particularly relevant because prescription drugs, over-the-counter medications and alcohol can interact with cannabis and potentially produce unwanted effects.
The New Weed Debate Is Happening Next Door
None of this means every senior cannabis user is smoking, much less bothering the neighbors. Cannabis can be consumed in multiple forms, including edibles, beverages and tinctures, and the federal study measured cannabis use rather than neighborhood smoke exposure.
That’s an important distinction.
Still, the rise in senior use and battles such as the Washington case expose a new wrinkle in America’s long-running marijuana debate. The argument is no longer simply whether adults should be allowed to use cannabis.
Increasingly, it’s about what happens when one person’s legal choice crosses the wall, balcony or property line and becomes somebody else’s involuntary experience.
For a generation that helped redefine America’s relationship with marijuana decades ago, cannabis is back on the cultural agenda — only this time, the battleground may be the condo next door.
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