Dr. Peter Grinspoon’s new book “Aging Well with Cannabis” reframes the plant as what one geriatrician calls an “exit drug”: a tool for helping older Americans reduce their reliance on the prescription medications stacking up in their medicine cabinets. With 60 million Americans over 65 and twice that over 50, the book targets the fastest-growing cannabis demographic in the country.
The senior cannabis audience finally has a book written for it.
Dr. Peter Grinspoon’s Aging Well with Cannabis: Feel Better, Sleep Better, and Live Better with Marijuana and CBD hit shelves on May 5, 2026, from Sterling Ethos. Grinspoon is a primary care physician and cannabis specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital, an instructor in medicine at Harvard Medical School, a certified addiction medicine specialist and a contributing editor to Harvard Health Publications. The book is the first major mainstream guide aimed squarely at what its publisher calls the “canna-curious senior.”
The framing is what makes it interesting.
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Cannabis as an exit drug
Dr. Mikhail Kogan, the chief medical officer of GW Center for Integrative Medicine and an associate professor of medicine at George Washington University, wrote one of the book’s most striking endorsements.
“In my work as an integrative geriatrician, I have seen firsthand that, when used thoughtfully, cannabis can serve not as a ‘gateway drug,’ but as an exit drug, helping many older adults reduce reliance on polypharmacy.”
Dr. Mikhail Kogan, GW Center for Integrative Medicine
“Polypharmacy” is the medical term for what happens when a patient is on five or more prescription medications at once. It’s the standard condition for a meaningful share of Americans over 65, and it carries documented risks: drug interactions, cognitive decline, falls, hospitalizations and worsening quality of life. The pharmaceutical alternatives commonly prescribed for chronic pain, anxiety and insomnia (the three conditions Grinspoon’ …
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Author: Javier Hasse / High Times
