Key Takeaways
Stoned seniors are an overlooked road hazard
1 in 5 weed users 50 or older said they’d driven while stoned during the past year
Men were 72% more likely to drive high than women
TUESDAY, Dec. 16, 2025 (HealthDay News) — Efforts to stop weed-impaired driving are ignoring the traffic risk posed by a stoned dad or grandpa, a new study says.
About 1 out of 5 (20%) people 50 and older who use weed reported they’d driven while high at least once during the past year, researchers report in the January 2026 issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
Further, middle-aged adults and seniors who use cannabis daily or nearly daily are three times as likely to get behind the wheel after toking, compared with those who use weed rarely, the study found.
“So much of the effort to reduce ‘driving while high’ through awareness campaigns has focused on young people, but our findings show this is a cross-generational issue,” lead researcher Erin Bonar said in a news release. She’s a professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor.
For the new study, researchers analyzed data from the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging. The poll surveyed 3,379 people 50 and older, including 729 who’d used weed at least once in the past year.
The poll found that more than a quarter (27%) of people 50 to 64 had used weed at least once in the past year, and 17% of those 65 and older.
Of those who used weed, 27% said they get stoned daily or almost daily. On the other hand, 43% said they used cannabis only once or twice during the past year, 14% said they used monthly and 16% weekly.
Overall, men were 72% more likely than women to drive after using weed products, researchers found.
The poll also asked people why they use weed. More than half (52%) said they use it to medicate a mood-related or mental health problem, and 67% said they use it to help them sleep.
Those who use weed for mental health reasons were twice as likely to say they’d driven stoned, researchers found.
This suggests a need to help middle-aged adults and seniors understand there are options for treating mental health, mood or sleep problems that are more proven and effective than cannabis, Bonar said.
“Targeting messages at those middle age and older adults with the highest risk of post-use driving could also include message about the options for addressing the health issues that they may be trying to self-treat with cannabis,” Bonar said.
Messages aimed at older weed users might also explain:
How today’s more potent cannabis could impact them, compared to the weed they had as teenagers and young adults.
The effects of aging on their cognitive and motor abilities and how weed might worsen those effects.
The potential for interactions between weed and prescription drugs.
More information
Stanford Medicine has more on cannabis and older adults.
SOURCES: University of Michigan, news release, Dec. 9, 2025; Drug and Alcohol Dependence, January 2026
What This Means For You
No one should drive while stoned, regardless of age.
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