Over 65? Do you long to relive your hippy days? Well do I have great news for you!
New research reveals that daily low-dose cannabis use can preserve and enhance working memory in adults over 65. (Working memory is the brain’s ability to temporarily hold and manipulate information, like remembering a phone number long enough to dial it or keeping track of multiple steps while cooking.)
Scientists at several institutions found that low-dose cannabis use in seniors produced cognitive benefits rather than impairments. A 2025 study in Psychopharmacology showed that aged rats receiving either cannabis smoke or oral THC demonstrated improved performance on tasks requiring them to remember and update information over short periods. A 2022 study found stronger brain connectivity between memory-related regions in older cannabis users compared to non-users.
The same effect doesn’t hold for young people. “Most studies of cannabis use have focused on younger users – for good reason, as the developing or adolescent brain can experience serious negative effects,” writes Gary Wenk in Psychology Today. But in older brains, cannabis appears to work differently, potentially by reducing inflammation and stimulating remaining cannabinoid receptors that naturally decline with age.
According to the study:
In contrast [to studies of younger users], numerous recent studies have shown the beneficial effects of long-term, low-level daily cannabis use in mature humans and animals. Zequeira et al (2025), for example, examined the cognitive effects of cannabis administered via routes that more closely mimic those used frequently by older adults, such as via inhalation of burning plant product or voluntary oral consumption of purified THC (such as gummies). Their results in aged rats showed that repeated exposure to cannabis smoke enhanced working memory. The drug exposure had no effects on episodic or spatial memory. Chronic oral consumption of THC also enhanced working memory in aged animals.
But wait, it gets better.
[…] In another recent study, changes in resting state functional connectivity of cannabis in older adults, aged 60 to 88 years, were determined as a measure of age-related cognitive decline. The results indicated that older adult cannabis users, relative to older adult non-users, had significantly greater neuronal communication between the cerebellum and hippocampus. The changes in these brain regions are important because they express very high levels of cannabinoid receptors, and both structures play important roles in cognition.
[…] Overall, the current evidence obtained from both human and animal research strongly indicates that low-dose, daily cannabis use does not impair—and may even provide significant benefit to – cognition in middle-aged humans and might effectively reduce the degenerative effects of chronic brain inflammation.
So instead of reaching for your morning cup of Earl Grey, reach for your morning cup of… what’s it called again?
Sources:
https://boingboing.net/2025/06/30/cannabis-improves-memory-in-seniors-new-research-reveals.html
