Illicit drug use among baby boomers is on the rise, as are long-term health concerns – The Boston Globe

“…physiology slows down as you age, so the stuff processed out of your body faster when you were younger won’t be processed out so quickly when you are older.’’

That means that marijuana and abused prescription drugs may be lingering longer in people who are now also likely to be regularly ingesting prescribed medications, such as cholesterol-lowering medicine or pills to tackle high blood pressure. That could result in harmful interactions and side effects. It also means that unsuspecting physicians may, for instance, misdiagnose symptoms of memory loss caused by chronic marijuana use as memory impairments caused by the onset of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease….