Marijuana Is Not a Gateway to Other Addictive Drugs


In the following viewpoint Mitch Earleywine contends that most people who try marijuana never use hard drugs. Moreover, evidence shows that some who use hard drugs such as heroin did not use marijuana first, which means marijuana could not have caused them to use these drugs, he concludes. Lying to America's youth about marijuana leads them to question other information about the dangers of drugs and risks to their health and well being, he argues, even if that information is true. Earleywine, a professor of psychology at the University of Southern California, is author of Understanding Marijuana.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Earleywine, how many Americans who try marijuana never touch heroin?
2. According to the author, what determines the first drug users will select?
3. What substances do some teens choose to use if they believe that marijuana leads to hard drugs, in Earleywine's opinion?

Gateway theory suggests that marijuana is the first step toward painful drug addiction. Many fans of the theory think that marijuana creates an urge for hard drugs the way eating salt makes people thirsty. Two facts prove that the gateway theory is patently false. Perpetuating this lie is also incredibly dangerous.

Most Marijuana Users Do Not Touch Hard Drugs

We all may know heroin addicts who smoked marijuana, which may lead us to think that marijuana and heroin go together. But we forget the 83 million Americans who tried marijuana and never touched heroin. The chances of regularly using hard drugs after trying marijuana are small. In fact the chances of regularly using marijuana are small.
Data from the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug abuse show that if you've ever tried marijuana in your life, your chance of using other drugs in the last month is:

• 1 in 7 for marijuana
• 1 in 12 for any other illicit drug
• 1 in 50 for cocaine
• 1 in 208 for crack
• 1 in 677 for heroin

You're more likely to flip a coin nine times and get all 'heads' than become a regular user of heroin after trying marijuana.
In short, most people who try marijuana do not use it regularly and never try hard drugs.
Again, we all may know heroin addicts who used marijuana first. Nevertheless, research shows plenty of people, especially those with drug problems, use hard drugs before marijuana. One study showed that 39% of drug abusers started with a drug other than marijuana.
Users tend to start with whatever drug is most available. In neighborhoods filled with crack dealers, people could start with crack. But crack is not the gateway to marijuana use. Allen Ginsberg, the legendary 'Beat' poet, used heroin before marijuana. But heroin is not the gateway, either. Obviously, if marijuana use doesn't happen first, it can't cause hard drug use.
Even if every heroin addict used marijuana first, that fact alone would not prove that marijuana caused heroin addiction. They all ate bread before their heroin addiction, but nobody has called bread the gateway drug. (At least not yet.) Marijuana doesn't cause hard drug use. People may wonder, "What's the harm in scaring teens with this little white lie, especially if it keeps them away from drugs?" Like all lies, this one catches up later. Teens who believe that marijuana leads to hard drugs end up using substances with markedly worse effects. I've had clients and students explain: "We heard pot led to heroin, so we just sniffed glue." Inhalants cause more problems than marijuana ever will, including brain damage and death.
In addition, the gateway lie leads to hard drugs in unexpected ways. When kids try marijuana, they realize that the propaganda they've heard is untrue. They don't shoot their friends with handguns, wake up pregnant, or support terrorism. They soon suspect that other drug information is false. The teachers who said that marijuana leads to hard drugs were wrong. Why believe it when they say that crack is addictive?
The gateway lie costs us our credibility. Marijuana does not lead teens to hard drugs, but lying to them about it does.

I find that the vast majority of marijuana users I have encountered in my life are quite satisfied with only marijuana and do not do harder drugs.

I have seen the same. I know when I smoked, I didn't have any urge to go try something else... I enjoyed the weed for what it was...

To be perfectly honest, I much preferred coke to weed.

I don't do either anymore, though.

A rare few do think coke is better...
I can't understand it. I like to be mellow... not on the ceiling, grinding my teeth.

I know that weed is not a gateway drug and had many heated arguments with drug counsellors about this issue. There is nothing worse than debating with them about this..... Well, there is something worse to debate about, but I will stay on topic.

Well, last few times I smoked weed it made me sleepy, hungry, and caused the twitches something fierce. Except the twitches, I get that anyway, to a lesser degree, just after working a full day...LOL

For some reason, it doesn't mellow me. I guess, just like any other drug, it works on different people differently.

Coke, on the other hand, made me feel a lot more energenic. I guess that's what I liked.

Personally, I like weed for pain and it clams me down. Coke was once great for me when I went clubbing all night into the morning. Different drugs for different occasions.

The fallacy of the "gateway recreational drug" notion is a fallacy known even to the ancients.
They called it: "post hoc ergo propter hoc". (roughly: after that, therefore because of that)

If severely faded memory isn't failing me, the propaganda of the Drug Warriors abandoned the term "soft drug" around the time marijuana became a "Schedule 1" drug.

The "gateway drug" myth seems to have been largely discredited.

First of all, there's probably a closer statistical correlation between drinking water and abuse of hard drugs, than there is a progression from soft drug to hard drug.

Shall we ban water, for all the misery it's obviously causing?

I prefer the "shallow end of the pool" analogy.

Those of a mind to experiment with drugs may not wish to metaphorically plunge into the deep end, taking a huge dose of the most deadly drug they can find.
Instead, they find what they believe to be a relatively safe drug, and sample a small dose. If they like it they may experiment further.

But prohibiting marijuana use, on the premise that it will lead to heroin addiction is silly.

The dynamic here is caution, in the behavior of the experimenter.

What's revealing about the Drug Warriors is; they fear the relative innocence of human curiosity more than historically proven human rights catastrophes of martial oppression run amok.

It's more than just a bumper-sticker slogan. It's reality.
It's not a War against Drugs. It's a War against Americans.

PS

He's wrong. But at least he articulates how the wrong side thinks.
I don't think he makes his case very persuasively.
I think the following is more persuasive.
One of the (very few) nice things about troglodytes is, they reveal how they think.
There's no doubt about the traitorous, treasonous Drug Warriors.
If only they were but fools!