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Marijuana not gateway drug

Health24.co.za

Tuesday 03 Dec 2002

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Warnings about the danger of marijuana as a gateway drug have been dealt a
blow by a new study that concludes that it does not lead to experimentation
with harder drugs like heroin and cocaine.

The study by the RAND Drug Policy Research Centre in the USA questions the
focus of anti-drug programmes that warn against the legalisation of
marijuana for this reason.

Marijuana merely the first drug encountered

Lead author of the study Andrew Morral believes that many policy makers
take for granted that the gateway effect is real. Yet the study finds that
this is not necessarily the case.

Using data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse between 1982
and 1994, the study concluded that teenagers who experimented with hard
drugs did so whether they tried marijuana first or not.

According to Morral, children get their first opportunity to use marijuana
years before they get their first exposure to hard drugs, so it is possible
that marijuana is merely the first thing they come across.

The findings, published in the British journal Addiction, found that 50% of
US teenagers had access to marijuana by the age of 16, while the majority
had no exposure to cocaine, heroin or hallucinogens until they were 20.

Morral believes that this four-year gap in exposure to the drugs raises
doubts about the gateway theory espoused by many social scientists, and
underpinning many anti-drug policies and education campaigns.

Change drug policy focus

The study does not advocate legalising or decriminalising marijuana, which
has been linked to side-effects including short-term memory loss. But,
Morral says, drug campaigns should reconsider the prominence of marijuana.

Researchers say predisposition to drug use has been linked to genetic
factors and a person's environment, including family dynamics and the
availability of drugs in the neighbourhood.

 

 

 

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