A new survey on cannabis use has found that the two largest generations in the past 80 years have something in common, even if they often seem to intensely dislike each other in public.

The generations are the Baby Boomers and Millennials. Conventional wisdom has it that the  older generation thinks the younger one consists of lazy avocado toast eaters. The younger generation just shrugs and responds, “OK, Boomer.”

But, when they get home at night, apparently many Baby Boomers and Millennials are doing the same thing – using cannabis for relaxation. That was the No. 1 use for marijuana named by both generations in the survey, which was conducted by cannabis company Veralife.

The Generations Also Agreed On Many Other Cannabis Topics

Baby Boomers and Millennials agree on a surprising number of things when it comes to cannabis. For example, they also share the other two top reasons for using recreational cannabis: anxiety and to socialize.

Also, both Baby Boomers and Millennials spend about the same amount of money each month on marijuana. Millennials reported spending $78, while Boomers spent $75. Both also picked inhaling as their preferred way of consuming cannabis.

A majority of both groups also agreed that:

• Cannabis has medical benefits
• Prefer cannabis over a prescription to relieve pain
• There is a lack of information on how to obtain a medical marijuana card

The percentage of those who say they use more marijuana since the start of the coronavirus pandemic also was fairly close, with 44% of Boomers and 36% of Millennials saying they use more cannabis than they did before the pandemic.

Baby Boomers and Millennials Disagree On Cannabis In Many Ways, Too

While likeminded on many subjects, Boomers and Millennials do disagree on some cannabis issues. However, some of it seems more attached to simply their ages and where they are in life, more than anything else.

For example, 50% of Boomers said they use marijuana for medical purposes, compared to 22% of Millennials. In a reverse of those numbers, 49% of the younger generation use recreational marijuana, while only 28% of Boomers said that was their main reason for using cannabis.

When it came to medical marijuana, they also had big differences in their reasons why. Millennials reported using medical marijuana for the following reasons.

• Chronic pain (27%)
• Migraines (13%)
• Manage nausea (11%)
• Arthritis (8%)
• Manage weight loss (8%)

Boomers reported using medical marijuana for the following reasons.

• Arthritis (15%)
• Chronic pain (13%)
• Cancer (11%)
• Migraines (8%)
• Manage weight loss (8%)

Also, Baby Boomers like to “wake and bake” – 22% use cannabis in the morning, compared to just 10% of Millennials. Again, this seems a function of where they are in life. Many more Boomers are retired.

About the same amount of people from both generations said they had used cannabis before going to work at some point (28% of Millennials and 26% of Boomers), but Millennials are twice as likely to consume cannabis before a large event or public gathering to ease their stress.