MIAMI, Fla. — In her 88 years, Florence Siegel has learned how to relax: A glass of red wine. A crisp copy of The New York Times, if she can wrest it from her husband. Some classical music, preferably Bach. And every night like clockwork, she lifts a pipe to her lips and smokes some marijuana.

Long a fixture among young people, use of the country’s most popular illicit drug is now growing among the AARP set, as the massive generation of baby boomers who came of age in the 1960s and ’70s grows older.

The number of people aged 50 and older reporting marijuana use in the prior year went up from 1.9 percent to 2.9 percent from 2002 to 2008, according to surveys from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

The rise was most dramatic among 55- to 59-year-olds, whose reported marijuana use more than tripled from 1.6 percent in 2002 to 5.1 percent.

Observers expect further increases as 78 million boomers born between 1945 and 1964 age. For many boomers, the drug never held the stigma it did for other generations, and they tried it decades ago.

Some have used it ever since, while others are revisiting the habit in retirement, either for recreation or as a way to cope with the pains of aging.

Siegel walks with a cane and has arthritis in her back and legs. She finds marijuana helps her sleep better than pills ever did.

Advocates for legalizing marijuana say the number of older users could represent a shift in their push to change the laws.

The drug is credited with relieving many problems of aging: aches and pains, glaucoma, macular degeneration and so on. Patients in 14 states make use of medical marijuana laws, but those elsewhere are breaking state law when they use the drug to ease their conditions.

Among them is Perry Parks, 67, of Rockingham, N.C., a retired Army pilot who suffered crippling pain from degenerative disc disease and arthritis. He had tried all sorts of drugs but found little success. About two years ago he turned to marijuana.

"I realized I could get by without the narcotics,” Parks said, referring to prescription painkillers.

Age increases risks

There’s also the risk that health problems already faced by older people can be exacerbated by regular marijuana use.

Older users could be at risk for falls if they become dizzy, smoking it increases the risk of heart disease and it can cause cognitive impairment, said Dr. William Dale, chief of geriatrics and palliative medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Center.

He said he’d caution against using it even if a patient cites benefits.

"There are other, better ways to achieve the same effects,” he said.

Pete Delany, with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said boomers’ drug use defies stereotypes. "As a nation, it’s important to us to say, ‘It’s not just young people using drugs, it’s older people using drugs.’”

In conversations, older marijuana users often say they smoke in less social settings than when they were younger, frequently preferring to use the drug privately.