A generational thing?

Illicit drug use has shot up (no pun intended) 116 percent during the past five years for Americans ages 55 to 59, according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

When asked to comment on the statistic, John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, simply told Cox News Service, "This is the baby boomer generation. Millions of boomers who developed a dependency on marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens or other drugs as teenagers, he said, are now living with the disease of substance addiction. We are carrying the illness into the age group for the rest of our lives."