Marijuana: The Gateway Drug
Isn't marijuana a gateway drug? Doesn't it lead to use of harder drugs?
This article is from the Hemp / Cannabis / Marijuana FAQ, by Brian S. Julin [email protected] with numerous contributions by others.
This is totally untrue. In fact, researchers are looking
into using marijuana to help crack addicts to quit. There
are 40 million people in this country (U.S.) who have smoked
marijuana for a period of their lives -- why aren't there
tens of millions of heroin users, then? In Amsterdam, both
marijuana use and heroin use went *down* after marijuana was
decriminalized -- even though there was a short rise in
cannabis use right after decriminalization. Unlike
addictive drugs, marijuana causes almost no tolerance. Some
people even report a reverse tolerance. That is, the longer
they have used the less marijuana they need to get `high.'
So users of marijuana do not usually get bored and `look for
something more powerful'. If anything, marijuana keeps
people from doing harder drugs.
The idea that using marijuana will lead you to use heroin or
speed is called the `gateway theory' or the `stepping stone
hypothesis.' It has been a favorite trick of the anti-drug
propaganda artists, because it casts marijuana as something
insidious with hidden dangers and pitfalls. There have
never been any real statistics to back this idea up, but
somehow it was the single biggest thing which the newspapers
yelled about during Reefer Madness II. (Perhaps this was
because the CIA was looking for someone to blame for the
increase in heroin use after Viet Nam.)
The gateway theory of drug use is no longer generally
accepted by the medical community. Prohibitionists used to
point at numbers which showed that a large percentage of the
hard drug users `started with marijuana.' They had it
backwards -- many hard drug users also use marijuana. There
are two reasons for this. One is that marijuana can be used
to `take the edge off' the effects of some hard drugs. The
other is a recently discovered fact of adolescent psychology
-- there is a personality type which uses drugs, basically
because drugs are exciting and dangerous, a thrill.
On sociological grounds, another sort of gateway theory has
been argued which claims that marijuana is the source of the
drug subculture and leads to other drugs through that
culture. By the same token this is untrue -- marijuana does
not create the drug subculture, the drug subculture uses
marijuana. There are many marijuana users who are not a
part of the subculture.
This brings up another example of how marijuana legalization
could actually reduce the use of illicit drugs. Even though
there is no magical `stepping stone' effect, people who
choose to buy marijuana often buy from dealers who deal in
many different illegal drugs. This means that they have
access to illegal drugs, and might decide to try them out.
In this case it is the laws which lead to hard drug use. If
marijuana were legal, the drug markets would be separated,
and less people would start using the illegal drugs. Maybe
this is why emergency room admissions for hard drugs have
gone down in the states that decriminalized marijuana during
the 70's.
``Who Says Marijuana Use Leads to Heroin Addiction?'' by Jerry Mandel
in ``Journal of Secondary Education'' Vol. 43 Iss. 5 pp. 211-217.
pub. California Association of Secondary School Administrators
Burlingame, CA May
``Marihuana reconsidered Lester Grinspoon. '' by Lester Grinspoon M.D.
1928- pub. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1977.
The Bicycle Analogy:
Lynn Zimmer, PhD, Professor Emeritus at Queens College at the City University of New York, stated in his 1997 book
Marijuana Myths - Marijuana Facts:
"In the end, the gateway theory is not a theory at all. It is a description of the typical sequence in which multiple-drug users initiate the use of high-prevalence and low-prevalence drugs.
A similar statistical relationship exists between other kinds of common and uncommon related activities. For example, most people who ride a motorcycle (a fairly rare activity) have ridden a bicycle (a fairly common activity). Indeed, the prevalence of motorcycle riding among people who have never ridden a bicycle is probably extremely low. However, bicycle riding does not cause motorcycle riding, and increases in the former will not lead automatically to increases in the latter.
Nor will increases in marijuana use lead automatically to increases in the use of cocaine or heroin."
=====================
This public service advertisement appears in the National Review, the New Republic, the American Prospect, The Nation, Reason Magazine, and The Progressive in the summer of 2008.Study of 4000 indicates marijuana discourages use of hard drugs.
A ground-breaking study of 4117 marijuana smokers in California1 reveals that the 'Gateway Theory' probably had it backwards. Instead of enticing young people to use other drugs, this study suggests that marijuana may have the opposite effect.
This first-ever clinical examination of a large number of medical marijuana applicants depicts a population that is remarkably normal. The percentages earning bachelors' degrees and doctorates are nearly identical to the national numbers. They are, in the main, productive citizens with jobs, homes and families who smoke marijuana weekly or daily – and have in some cases for decades.
For the vast majority of these applicants, their use of cannabis ultimately led to a decrease in the use of tobacco, alcohol, and hard drugs. Asked to compare their current alcohol consumption with their lifetime peak, over 10% claimed to be abstinent and nearly 90% claimed to have cut their drinking in half.
They also report using cannabis as self medication for stress and anxiety – with fewer side effects than the legal pharmaceutical alternatives.
As children, a significant percentage of the male applicants had been treated for ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Today their routine morning use of minimal amounts of cannabis strongly suggests that it enhances their ability to concentrate by allowing them to focus on one problem at a time.
As one construction company estimator said, "After two hits and my morning coffee, I'm the best estimator in the company."
Common Sense for Drug Policy
www.CommonSenseDrugPolicy.org www.DrugWarFacts.org
www.ManagingChronicPain.org www.MedicalMJ.org
www.TreatingDrugAddiction.org
[email protected]
[1] Long term marijuana users seeking medical cannabis in California (2001–2007): demographics, social characteristics, patterns of cannabis and other drug use of 4117 applicants. – Thomas J O'Connell and Ché B Bou Matar http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/4/1/16
