Why Smoking Marijuana Doesn't Make You a Junkie

[Great Spirit]

Lol..of course we have known this for years. If you use hard drugs besides cannabis, you are just stupid and retarded and an addict.
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http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/45535/

Two recent studies should be the final nails in the coffin of the lie that has propelled some of this nation's most misguided policies: the claim that smoking marijuana somehow causes people to use hard drugs, often called the "gateway theory."

Such claims have been a staple of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under present drug czar John Walters. Typical is a 2004 New Mexico speech in which, according to the Albuquerque Journal, "Walters emphasized that marijuana is a 'gateway drug' that can lead to other chemical dependencies."

The gateway theory presents drug use as a tidy progression in which users move from legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco to marijuana, and from there to hard drugs like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Thus, zealots like Walters warn, marijuana is bad because it leads to things that are even worse.

It's a neat theory, easy to sell. The problem is, scientists keep poking holes in it -- the two new studies being are just the most recent examples.

In one National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded study, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh tracked the drug use patterns of 224 boys, starting at age 10 to 12 and ending at age 22. Right from the beginning these kids confounded expectations. Some followed the traditional gateway paradigm, starting with tobacco or alcohol and moving on to marijuana, but some reversed the pattern, starting with marijuana first. And some never progressed from one substance to another at all.

When they looked at the detailed data on these kids, the researchers found that the gateway theory simply didn't hold; environmental factors such as neighborhood characteristics played a much larger role than which drug the boys happened to use first. "Abusable drugs," they wrote, "occupy neither a specific place in a hierarchy nor a discrete position in a temporal sequence."

Lead researcher Dr. Ralph E. Tarter told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "It runs counter to about six decades of current drug policy in the country, where we believe that if we can't stop kids from using marijuana, then they're going to go on and become addicts to hard drugs."

Researchers in Brisbane, Australia, and St. Louis reached much the same conclusion in a larger and more complex study published last month. The research involved more than 4,000 Australian twins whose use of marijuana and other drugs was followed in detail from adolescence into adulthood.

Then -- and here's the fascinating part -- they matched the real-world data from the twins to mathematical models based on 13 different explanations of how use of marijuana and other illicit drugs might be related. These models ranged from pure chance -- assuming that any overlap between use of marijuana and other drugs is random -- to models in which underlying genetic or environmental factors lead to both marijuana and other drug use or models in which marijuana use causes use of other drugs or vice versa.

When they crunched the numbers, only one conclusion made sense: "Cannabis and other illicit drug use and misuse co-occur in the population due to common risk factors (correlated vulnerabilities) or a liability that is in part shared." Translated to plain English: the data don't show that marijuana causes use of other drugs, but instead indicate that the same factors that make people likely to try marijuana also make them likely to try other substances.

In the final blow to claims that marijuana must remain illegal to keep us from becoming a nation of hard-drug addicts, the researchers added that any gateway effect that does exist is "more likely to be social than pharmacological," occurring because marijuana "introduces users to a provider (peer or black marketeer) who eventually becomes the source for other illicit drugs." In other words, the gateway isn't marijuana; it's laws that put marijuana into the same criminal underground with speed and heroin.

The lie that marijuana somehow turns people into junkies is dead. Officials who insist on repeating it as a way of squelching discussion about common-sense reforms should be laughed off the stage.

Great Spirit Reviewed by Great Spirit on 12-19-2006. Why Smoking Marijuana Doesn't Make You a Junkie Lol..of course we have known this for years. If you use hard drugs besides cannabis, you are just stupid and retarded and an addict. ------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/45535/ Two recent studies should be the final nails in the coffin of the lie that has propelled some of this nation's most misguided policies: the claim that smoking marijuana somehow causes people to use hard drugs, often called the "gateway theory." Rating: 5

[Matt the Funk]

Lol..of course we have known this for years. If you use hard drugs besides cannabis, you are just stupid and retarded and an addict.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/45535/

Two recent studies should be the final nails in the coffin of the lie that has propelled some of this nation's most misguided policies: the claim that smoking marijuana somehow causes people to use hard drugs, often called the "gateway theory."

Such claims have been a staple of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under present drug czar John Walters. Typical is a 2004 New Mexico speech in which, according to the Albuquerque Journal, "Walters emphasized that marijuana is a 'gateway drug' that can lead to other chemical dependencies."

The gateway theory presents drug use as a tidy progression in which users move from legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco to marijuana, and from there to hard drugs like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Thus, zealots like Walters warn, marijuana is bad because it leads to things that are even worse.

It's a neat theory, easy to sell. The problem is, scientists keep poking holes in it -- the two new studies being are just the most recent examples.

In one National Institute on Drug Abuse-funded study, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh tracked the drug use patterns of 224 boys, starting at age 10 to 12 and ending at age 22. Right from the beginning these kids confounded expectations. Some followed the traditional gateway paradigm, starting with tobacco or alcohol and moving on to marijuana, but some reversed the pattern, starting with marijuana first. And some never progressed from one substance to another at all.

When they looked at the detailed data on these kids, the researchers found that the gateway theory simply didn't hold; environmental factors such as neighborhood characteristics played a much larger role than which drug the boys happened to use first. "Abusable drugs," they wrote, "occupy neither a specific place in a hierarchy nor a discrete position in a temporal sequence."

Lead researcher Dr. Ralph E. Tarter told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, "It runs counter to about six decades of current drug policy in the country, where we believe that if we can't stop kids from using marijuana, then they're going to go on and become addicts to hard drugs."

Researchers in Brisbane, Australia, and St. Louis reached much the same conclusion in a larger and more complex study published last month. The research involved more than 4,000 Australian twins whose use of marijuana and other drugs was followed in detail from adolescence into adulthood.

Then -- and here's the fascinating part -- they matched the real-world data from the twins to mathematical models based on 13 different explanations of how use of marijuana and other illicit drugs might be related. These models ranged from pure chance -- assuming that any overlap between use of marijuana and other drugs is random -- to models in which underlying genetic or environmental factors lead to both marijuana and other drug use or models in which marijuana use causes use of other drugs or vice versa.

When they crunched the numbers, only one conclusion made sense: "Cannabis and other illicit drug use and misuse co-occur in the population due to common risk factors (correlated vulnerabilities) or a liability that is in part shared." Translated to plain English: the data don't show that marijuana causes use of other drugs, but instead indicate that the same factors that make people likely to try marijuana also make them likely to try other substances.

In the final blow to claims that marijuana must remain illegal to keep us from becoming a nation of hard-drug addicts, the researchers added that any gateway effect that does exist is "more likely to be social than pharmacological," occurring because marijuana "introduces users to a provider (peer or black marketeer) who eventually becomes the source for other illicit drugs." In other words, the gateway isn't marijuana; it's laws that put marijuana into the same criminal underground with speed and heroin.

The lie that marijuana somehow turns people into junkies is dead. Officials who insist on repeating it as a way of squelching discussion about common-sense reforms should be laughed off the stage.

Using harder drugs doesn't make you an addict, some people have self control.But I agree with the article pretty much.

[Great Spirit]

Using harder drugs doesn't make you an addict, some people have self control.But I agree with the article pretty much.

Just look at the effects of hard drugs (coke, meth, crack, heroin, etc) and the people who are associated with them. That and the spiritual side effects (astral tears) from those drugs is more than enough to keep me away from them.

If people can keep from being addicted to hard drugs, than more power to them but it is very rare. It's not worth the risk. Besides, why would you want to put that garbage in your body anyway? People are dumb if they do that shit.

[Mr.Jesus]

interesting article.

[Matt the Funk]

Just look at the effects of hard drugs (coke, meth, crack, heroin, etc) and the people who are associated with them. That and the spiritual side effects (astral tears) from those drugs is more than enough to keep me away from them.

If people can keep from being addicted to hard drugs, than more power to them but it is very rare. It's not worth the risk. Besides, why would you want to put that garbage in your body anyway? People are dumb if they do that shit.

Dude I use pretty much every drug you can think of and I don't look like that. It's all about moderation man. I mean sure weed is pretty harmless but no need to go and diss ever other drug.

[Platinum Plus]

every other drug is complete shit...
Marijuana in my opinion isn't a drug
but other shit like cocaine and heroin
and whatever else is shit... alcohol to

[deftdrummer]

That reminds me of an article I read not too long ago where they were talking about the government bringing about the gateway drug theory in the first place. Think about it, if weed were legalized, people would pretty much go to a government agency or businesses where marijuana was sold to get it. This is very different than going to the average drug dealer to buy pot who at the same time is probably also selling cocaine and other shit. So in other words, if weed were legal there would literally be no gateway to harder drugs. Not only that, but children could not get pot easily at all, as it would be sold through a business that would card adults just like for alcohol. Right?

[ZeldaG.]

lol the best people to explain the drugs policies and the lies behind it are defenatley penn and teller

Penn and Teller: Bullshit! War on Drugs - Google Video

and about the article, yeah about time someone made it official lol

[MotleyCrueBoy24]

lol the best people to explain the drugs policies and the lies behind it are defenatley penn and teller

Penn and Teller: Bullshit! War on Drugs - Google Video

and about the article, yeah about time someone made it official lol

Awesome, I'm watching that now..

I'm semi drunk too..

Anyways..I think it's funny that quiet dude makes money doing jack shit!