Science underlines marijuana, used by politicians and others, not a gateway drug

 

Marijuana plant

While opponents of marijuana continue to maintain it is a gateway drug to more dangerous drugs, even though research from the University of New Hampshire. disputed that nearly five years ago.

 In fact research observes that statements about marijuana is a gateway drug are overblown.  Whether adolescents who use marijuana turn to other drugs depends on other life factors that can influence
drug-taking, including employment, stress and work relationships.

The research appeared in the September 2010 issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior and  entitled, “A Life-course Perspective on the ‘Gateway Hypothesis,’ disproves this thesis that marijuana is a gateway drug.  The observation that other factors, instead of marijuana, are key in drug-taking are particularly important, researchers said as they reported their findings.

“In light of these findings, we urge U.S. drug control policymakers to consider stress and life-course approaches in their pursuit of solutions to the ‘drug problem,’ ” they declared.

Data was obtained from 1,286 young adult college students from a variety of racial backgrounds and employment situations.

That "gateway"argument is not substantiated either by the fact that people tend to

grow out of that effect regardless of the stresses created by lack of education or employment.

Race/ethnicity has been found to be a better predictor of marijuana use turning to
other drugs.  Non-hispanic whites show the greatest instances of other illicit substance use, followed by Hispanics and African Americans.

The American Sociological Association (www.asanet.org),founded in 1905, is a nonprofit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by
society. The Journal of Health and Social Behavior is a quarterly,peer-reviewed journal of the ASA, where the research was reported in 2010.

Those who maintain marijuana is a gateway drug tell us that it leads to harder drug use since it takes increasingly larger amounts to get the same "high", so users turn to other drugs as a result when they see that marijuana no longer works.

And considering the record of politicians on the subject of marijuana, President Barack Obama said he used it in high school occasionally, while former President Bill Clinton observed that he did also but did not inhale. Jeb Bush, seen as a potential Presidential candidate for 2016, has been said to have smoked marijuana as well..

None of these politicians have been reported as either using marijuana presently or hard drugs such as cocaine or heroin, in spite of those who continue to espouse the myth that science had expelled with research findings nearly five years ago.