The Issue

Medical cannabis is poised to revolutionize senior health care — but hurdles are currently depriving millions access to life-changing treatment.

Most states, including Massachusetts, have legalized the use of cannabis for medicinal use – 38 states, the District of Columbia and four territories.

While the DEA plans to reschedule cannabis, today it is still a Schedule I drug – a Controlled Substances Act classification for the most dangerous drugs such as heroin and LSD. As a result, studying cannabis is challenging and not integrated into comprehensive medical care, depriving millions of Americans aged 65 and older of potential life-changing alternative therapies for medical ailments.

Over the past five years, the Commonwealth Project — under the leadership of Howard Kessler, an accomplished serial entrepreneur and seasoned professional in the medical cannabis industry — has devoted its efforts to exploring how medical cannabis can revolutionize senior health care, driven by a compassionate desire to assist millions of seniors facing increasingly complex health issues as they age. The Commonwealth Project is focused on bringing that same commitment to seniors in Massachusetts through a state pilot using an existing Medicare Advantage provider and their provider network.

Data shows that seniors are already turning to cannabis-based therapies — which has the potential to save millions in health care cost savings.

Seniors are now the fastest growing group of cannabis users in the United States.

According to a 2022 federal survey, 8 percent of people 65 and older reported having used marijuana in the past year – a rate that has roughly doubled in seven years. The majority of older adults currently use cannabis-based therapies primarily for medical purposes to treat pain, fatigue, sleep disturbance, anxiety and depression. 30% of people over the age of 65 take five or more pharmaceuticals every day. Seniors have the highest health care costs and rate of hospitalization.

In a study conducted at a senior living facility in Florida where medical cannabis was administered by health care professionals, more than 80 percent of participants showed a positive impact and nearly three-quarters said their cannabis was more cost-effective than their prescription drugs — which is on par with what other studies have found.

In states where marijuana is legal, doctors prescribed an average of 1,826 fewer daily doses of painkillers per year to patients enrolled in Medicare Part D — which would result in a cost savings of up to $500 million per year if medical marijuana access was legal nationwide.

The Commonwealth Project is working to establish an integrated medical cannabis patient experience that will transform the senior health care landscape.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans ages 65 and older is projected to increase from 58 million in 2022 to 82 million by 2050 (a 47% increase), and the 65-and-older age group’s share of the total population is projected to rise from 17% to 23%. This means more people will require more advanced medical care. There’s a growing movement in the medical and scientific community that’s urging less pills.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta has investigated the expanding movement within the medical and scientific community for more than a decade, and more recently advocated for a shift from traditional pharmaceuticals towards a greater emphasis on alternative-based therapies. In his reporting he has highlighted marijuana as a potential transformative solution for seniors grappling with age-related conditions such as chronic pain, hypertension, insomnia, anxiety, and even neurodegenerative disorders like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

Seniors are already using cannabis for symptom relief, and it is important that they have clinical guidance on alternative therapies that they can discuss with their trusted physician and bring into their health care experience.

A pilot in a state where medical cannabis is legal would implement a systematic approach to deepen valuable insights and gather real world data over the next several months on the treatment diagnosis, usage patterns, dosing protocols, and efficacy of medical cannabis among Medicare Advantage members aged 65 and above. This data would further contribute to wide scale delivery and learning at both the practice and systems level and used to develop clinical guidance, provide education and support to clinical providers, and collect anecdotal data from patients using medical cannabis.