Senior Citizens and CBD

If you think about it for more than a second, it makes complete sense: Senior citizens like CBD products.

A conversation I had earlier this week with someone who is getting in on the financial side of this industry was what made me first think of this. The basic premise here is that in certain ways senior citizens benefit more from CBD than other age groups do because, generally speaking, senior citizens suffer from more aches and pains than other groups do.

As we have found out in a couple of studies of CBD users, pain is one of the big reasons people use CBD products and they generally think it is effective. If you are someone who suffers from pain, even low level but recurring pain, you know that it really starts to effect your quality of life. Being able to take a CBD tincture or eat a gummy that relieves the pain, even if only for a little while, can make the difference between an enjoyable day and another day of misery.

What made this topic come to the front of my mind again was an article I saw on Reader’s Digest’s website about the 13 Facts You Need to Know About CBD that got me thinking about the senior citizen and CBD connection again today. Another article I saw today, this one from Yahoo! Finance, also talked about senior citizens and CBD.

One of the things that stuck out to me was that both articles discussed how CBD can be used to replace prescription drugs for pain relief.

CBD as a replacement for prescription drugs is a huge selling point for the industry, especially considering the opioid epidemic. And it’s fairly common for senior citizens to frequently use prescription drugs to relieve their pain. On the plus side for CBD is that you don’t need a prescription to purchase it, it can be cheaper, and there is no evidence that CBD products are addictive. The only catch, of course, is that CBD companies can’t make medical claims.

I’m beginning to think that the demographics for CBD users are going to be bifurcated with the young and the old both using CBD products at a higher rate than people who are middle aged. I could be wrong on this, I haven’t seen anything dispositive on this one way or the other, but that is the sense I’m getting from all of my research into this industry.

CBD Marketing: Old v Young

For the older demographic, they are taking CBD products because they have aches and pains. On the other hand, the younger demographic are using CBD to help alleviate stress.

For marketers, the message here is clear: Stress pain relief for products you are marketing to seniors and stress, well, stress-relief for younger consumers.