Cannabis: gateway drug? 2 new studies

[Davey Boy 2.0]

From Alternet

Two recent studies should be the final nails in the coffin of the lie that has propelled some of this nation's most misguided policies: the claim that smoking marijuana somehow causes people to use hard drugs, often called the "gateway theory."

Such claims have been a staple of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under present drug czar John Walters. Typical is a 2004 New Mexico speech in which, according to the Albuquerque Journal, "Walters emphasized that marijuana is a 'gateway drug' that can lead to other chemical dependencies."

The gateway theory presents drug use as a tidy progression in which users move from legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco to marijuana, and from there to hard drugs like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Thus, zealots like Walters warn, marijuana is bad because it leads to things that are even worse.

It's a neat theory, easy to sell. The problem is, scientists keep poking holes in it -- the two new studies being are just the most recent examples.

In one National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded study, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh tracked the drug use patterns of 224 boys, starting at age 10 to 12 and ending at age 22. Right from the beginning these kids confounded expectations. Some followed the traditional gateway paradigm, starting with tobacco or alcohol and moving on to marijuana, but some reversed the pattern, starting with marijuana first. And some never progressed from one substance to another at all.

When they looked at the detailed data on these kids, the researchers found that the gateway theory simply didn't hold; environmental factors such as neighborhood characteristics played a much larger role than which drug the boys happened to use first. "Abusable drugs," they wrote, "occupy neither a specific place in a hierarchy nor a discrete position in a temporal sequence."

Lead researcher Dr. Ralph E. Tarter told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "It runs counter to about six decades of current drug policy in the country, where we believe that if we can't stop kids from using marijuana, then they're going to go on and become addicts to hard drugs."

Researchers in Brisbane, Australia, and St. Louis reached much the same conclusion in a larger and more complex study published last month. The research involved more than 4,000 Australian twins whose use of marijuana and other drugs was followed in detail from adolescence into adulthood.

Then -- and here's the fascinating part -- they matched the real-world data from the twins to mathematical models based on 13 different explanations of how use of marijuana and other illicit drugs might be related. These models ranged from pure chance -- assuming that any overlap between use of marijuana and other drugs is random -- to models in which underlying genetic or environmental factors lead to both marijuana and other drug use or models in which marijuana use causes use of other drugs or vice versa.

When they crunched the numbers, only one conclusion made sense: "Cannabis and other illicit drug use and misuse co-occur in the population due to common risk factors (correlated vulnerabilities) or a liability that is in part shared." Translated to plain English: the data don't show that marijuana causes use of other drugs, but instead indicate that the same factors that make people likely to try marijuana also make them likely to try other substances.

In the final blow to claims that marijuana must remain illegal to keep us from becoming a nation of hard-drug addicts, the researchers added that any gateway effect that does exist is "more likely to be social than pharmacological," occurring because marijuana "introduces users to a provider (peer or black marketeer) who eventually becomes the source for other illicit drugs." In other words, the gateway isn't marijuana; it's laws that put marijuana into the same criminal underground with speed and heroin.

The lie that marijuana somehow turns people into junkies is dead. Officials who insist on repeating it as a way of squelching discussion about common-sense reforms should be laughed off the stage.

[jayr]

gateway effect that does exist is "more likely to be social than pharmacological," occurring because marijuana "introduces users to a provider (peer or black marketeer) who eventually becomes the source for other illicit drugs." In other words, the gateway isn't marijuana; it's laws that put marijuana into the same criminal underground with speed and heroin.

Bingo

[edger]

In my experience, it's pretty dam difficult to even GIVE away free tokes to others who prefer to use the "hard drugs".

Sharing a doobie these days at a festival is like pulling teeth...

[The Chameleon]

Besides if you really want to talk gateway or first drugs then sugar and caffeine are it. We all tried those before we were teenagers!

I'm glad this part of the drug war propaganda is dying.

[balogna pogna]

Roophies are a gateway drug.

[traveler]

In alot of countries if they had access to good herb they would'nt need hard-drugs. We could turn crack heads into stoners with the right herb.

[zero]

I live in Guelph. I assure you - you could not turn Crackheads into stoners with the right herb. Crack sort of has it's own thing going. Also people do not administer $10 blowjobs for the 'right pot'.

I believe this research but doesn't that read like some sort of NORML pamphlet. Where'd that come from?

[timouse]

From Alternet

Such claims have been a staple of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under present drug czar John Walters. Typical is a 2004 New Mexico speech in which, according to the Albuquerque Journal, "Walters emphasized that marijuana is a 'gateway drug' that can lead to other chemical dependencies."

The gateway theory presents drug use as a tidy progression in which users move from legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco to marijuana, and from there to hard drugs like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Thus, zealots like Walters warn, marijuana is bad because it leads to things that are even worse.

so using this logic, cigarettes and booze are the real gateway drugs.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

so using this logic, cigarettes and booze are the real gateway drugs.

Shhhh, you'll tilt the balance of power for the next election in the US with that sort of thinking.

[paisley]

L.E.A.P. - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Criminal Justice Professionals Speaking Out Against The "War On Drugs"

saw an excellent show on Global last week all about LEAP... the organization is made up of law enforcement people who've worked full careers around drug busts and feel that prohibition creates most of the tragedies, crime and abuse problems associated with drugs (they're against the prohibition of all drugs, not just soft)... lots of police chiefs, mayors and DEA agents on board... some very convincing arguments from very highly qualified voices

same argument... the black market seperates users from society and in most cases their families... crime goes up because of black market pricing and groups fighting to hold control of that market (and supports a multi-billion dollar criminal justice industry)... the main people suffering are the poor, who when busted are forced into greater crimes to try to deal with court... and their criminal record makes it extremely difficult to be working, productive members of society

when alcohol prohibition was removed everyone didn't turn into drunks... drug prohibition isn't working at all, its easier for anyone to find any drug anywhere on the planet than it ever has been in history... and big busts no longer even create a tiny dent in supply

a certain population are/have been/and likely always will be inclined towards addiction... treat drug addiction like an illness rather than a crime and make the world a safer place... and ease up on Average Joe casual users, let along the merely curious, who if not busted for drug possession would never otherwise have been associated with any sort of criminal behaviour

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Shhhh, you'll tilt the balance of power for the next election in the US with that sort of thinking.

Hmmm, I'm starting to see a pattern here...

[paisley]

found it interesting that many of the LEAP members interviewed were actually former American DEA agents as well as Sheriffs/Deputies and state troopers from all over (none of them from anywhere on the continent claimed to be a user)

pretty sure the only way the states aren't getting a new president is if a giant comet obliterates the earth between now and election day... (if Jon Stewart has anything to do with it anyways, which I really think he does)

[FunkyBeats]

Being born is a gateway drug.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

Being born is a gateway drug.

- that's my quote of the day.