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MARIJUANA IS NOT A GATEWAY DRUG

Steve Dillon July 25, 2011 There is no valid scientific study providing that use of marijuana leads to use or addiction to more serious drugs. Marijuana is not a gateway drug as shown by the following valid scientific studies: 1. In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling, Docket 86-22, Opinion, Recommended Ruling, Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Decision of Administrative Law Judge (1988), the D.E.A.s own administrative law Judge, Francis L. Young concluded not only that marijuanas medical utility had been adequately demonstrated, but that marijuana had been shown to be one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. 2. Marijuana Myths/Marijuana Facts by Lynn Zimmer, Ph.D and John P. Morgan M.D. (1997) reported that 72 million Americans had tried marijuana (now over 100 million) but much fewer Americans have tried cocaine or hard drugs. For every 100 people who have tried marijuana, only 28 tried cocaine one timeand only 1 used cocaine weekly In conclusion, Marijuana does not cause people to use hard drugs. Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug in the United States today. Therefore, people who have used less popular drugs, such as heroin, cocaine, and LSD, are likely to have also used marijuana. Most marijuana users never use any other illegal drug. Indeed, for the large majority of people, marijuana is a terminus rather than a gateway drug. 3. National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM) report Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base (1999) concluded that there is no evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are casually linked to the subsequent use of other illicit drugs. Furthermore, it stated that marijuana is not a gateway drug to the extent that it is a cause or even that it is the most significant predictor of serious drug use. 4. American Journal of Public Health study led by Andrew Golub, Ph.D of the National Development and Research Institute (2001) reported a careful analysis of all the data suggests that the gateway phenomenon that characterized the drug use subculture of some baby boomers doesnt apply in the same manner to the generation that started using marijuana in the mid 1990s. Most importantly, all indications are that the rate of progression to harder drugs may be continuing to decline even today.

2 5. Canadian Senates study (2002) Cannabis: our Position for a Canadian Public Policy reports cannabis itself is not a cause of other drug use 6. The American Journal of Psychiatry reported a study at the University Of Pittsburg School of Pharmacy (2006) which found that adolescent marijuana use was not a reliable predictor of later substance abuse. Researchers found that adolescents who used marijuana prior to using other drugs, including alcohol, and tobacco, were no more likely to develop a substance abuse disorder than other subjects in the study. The study calls into question the long-held belief that has shaped prevention efforts and governmental policy for six decades. Investigators found that environmental factors (e.g., a greater exposure to illegal drugs in their neighborhoods) as well as subjects proneness to deviancy were the two characteristics that most commonly predicted substance abuse. They concluded, the emphasis on the drugs themselves, rather than other more important factors that shape a persons behavior, has been detrimental to drug policy and prevention programs. 7. The book, Marijuana is Safer by Steve Fox, Paul Armentano, and Mason Tvert (2009) addresses the myth that marijuana is a gateway drug as claimed, by Karen Tandy, D.E.A. Administrator (2005-2007). She said, Marijuana is a gateway drug. In drug law enforcement, rarely do we meet heroin or cocaine addicts who did not start their drug use with marijuana. The fact is that the overwhelming majority of marijuana users never try another illicit substance. Ms. Tandy neglects to mention that virtually everyone who has ever used cannabis tried tobacco and alcohol first. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services only 3.5% of U.S. citizens have ever tried crack and fewer than 2.0% of Americans have ever tried heroin fewer than 15.0% of Americans have tried cocaine. 8. Journal of Health and Social Behavior reported a study at the University of New Hampshire (2010) which found that the factors most likely to be associated with a subjects progression to hard drug use were age, stress, and whether or not they were employed following high school. According to the lead investigator Karen Van Gundy, it really didnt matter if someone used marijuana or not as a teen. She also implied that criminalizing marijuana users could inadvertently drive individuals toward more serious illicit drug use. She stated that if we overly criminalize behaviors like marijuana use among teens, this could interfere with opportunities for education and employment later on, which, in turn, could be creating more drug use. 9. In the article Closing the Gateway to Drug Abuse with Cannabis (2010) by Paul Armentano it states For decades, opponents of marijuana reform policies have falsely argued that marijuana is a gateway to drug abuse a guilt by association charge that implies that because tens of millions of people have used cannabis and a minority of these tens of millions have also tried

3 other drugs that somehow it must have been the pot that triggered the hard drug use. But while reformers have been consistent and accurate to point out that the so called gateway theory lacks any staticical support (for example, the U.S. Government contends that more than four in ten Americans have used cannabis, yet fewer than two percent have ever tried heroin), few in our movement have publicized the fact that for many people cannabis can be a powerful exit drug for those looking to curb or cease their use of alcohol, opiates, or narcotics. The author cites the Harm Reduction Journal with a 2010 study that found that cannabisusing adults enrolled in substance abuse treatment programs fared equally or better than non-users in various outcome categories, including treatment completion. He also refers to a 2009 study in the American Journal on Addictions reporting that moderate cannabis use improved retention in naltrexone treatment among opiatedependent subjects in a New York state impatient detoxification program. He refers to an additional study in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology (2009) demonstrating that oral THC suppressed sensitivity to opiate dependence and conditioning. In conclusion, as Dr. John P. Morgan stated: In the United States, the claim that marijuana acts as a gateway to the use of other drugs serves mainly as a rhetorical tool for frightening Americans into believing that winning the war against heroin and cocaine requires waging a battle against the casual use of marijuana. Not only is the claim intellectually indefensible, but the battle is wasteful of resources and fated to failure.