Still Crazy: Some Dabble In Hard Drugs After 50, Researchers Find

TODAY:

The specter of a burned-out Baby Boomer using hard drugs way into middle age may conjure images of addiction, destruction and death.

That certainly can be true, but it's not the complete picture, at least according to a new study from researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who found that people who occasionally use drugs like cocaine, amphetamines and opiates over the course of their lives are more common than anyone might suspect.

Read the whole story: TODAY

Comments

[PapaKapp]

02:00 PM on 02/04/2012

For thosee that think this is jus harmless fun and no ones business I suggest you visit central and south America for a tour of what it takes to bring you your fun. the death, the fear, the children with no hope. I'm certainly not innocent but I am smarter now.

[mlhou7]

09:59 AM on 02/04/2012

I don't really care if people use drugs. I do care about the SOCIAL COSTS all of us must pay for their bad choices. The costs include taking care of them in rehab or in the ER whether they have insurance or not, the cost of law enforcement to chase them or prosecute them, or the fact that every DOLLAR they spend on this choice is a dollar wasted or a dollar that makes criminals stronger! Sorry folks this conduct affects us all! Buying illegal drugs just keeps the drug wars going and only corrupts our entire society. If you want to use drugs, great, just get a passport and go someplace outside of the USA. Thanks!

[mikennz]

08:58 AM on 02/04/2012

People who are doing this do yourselves and humanity a favor: STOP !!! Stop trying to numb yourself and get in the real world.

[J R M]

02:04 AM on 02/04/2012

Bad idea. I am 60 now. Many of the deaths of my peers were drug, alcohol, or tobacco related.

[janroc67]

01:49 AM on 02/04/2012

To do drugs at any age is stupid but to do them in midlife is a death sentence.......

[wil1601]

09:39 PM on 02/03/2012

When it comes down to it, this is the only life you've got and its your body- do what you want with it, even if its something I wouldn't do, and don't worry about what your government says about it because they can't even manage your money- why would you believe anything they tell you about drugs? If your government really cared about the so-called "War on Drugs", places like Mexico and Nicaragua would be smoking holes. This is supposed to be the Land of the Free, not Red China- live your life any way you see fit. Just remember that individual freedom is paid for by individual responsibility- if you get cancer or your digits rot off from the drugs, you only have yourself to blame.

[Will Hauntu]

10:24 PM on 02/03/2012

WOW..FINALLY A COMMENT I AGREE WITH..RIGHT OR WRONG IT IS THE LAND OF THE FREE! IF YOU WANT TO PUT STUFF INTO YOUR BODY THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD KEEP THE FUDGE OUT!

[FeelsLikeFrance]

10:36 PM on 02/03/2012

Well said. I agree.

[ddougl7502]

08:27 PM on 02/03/2012

I've found that many of my friends who have died in there forties and fifties, have actually died from substance abuse or alcoholism. Many surviving family members do not disclose actual cause of death to others to save face and embarassment.

[irrenmann]

08:08 PM on 02/03/2012

"While many dabblers may think there’s no harm in the occasional habit, Kertesz found those Baby Boomers and Gen Xers who continued to use hard drugs into their 50s were five times more likely to die earlier than those who didn’t."

I might have put this fact from the article in the lead, there, HuffPost—but I think maybe that isn't the part of it you want people to notice.

[blu366]

06:05 PM on 02/03/2012

Talkin' bout my generation.

[rxspence]

04:52 PM on 02/03/2012

60 year olds were teenagers in the 60s
if they were doing hard drugs then, they didn't expect to be alive this long
lucky me, my wife was born in 61 eight in 69

[George Hensler]

11:52 PM on 02/03/2012

Just in time to enjoy the coke of the disco era, eh?

[joebikerchef]

07:52 AM on 02/04/2012

when I think back on it...Enjoy may not be the right word to describe it.

[tom jr]

11:09 AM on 02/04/2012

I ate in 69, too. Oh!