Risk of Marijuana’s ‘gateway effect’ Overblown

[n2doc]

By Sasha Holburn posted September 2, 2010, 9:15 am | 0
New research from the University of New Hampshire shows that the “gateway effect” of marijuana – that teenagers who use marijuana are more likely to move on to harder illicit drugs as young adults – is overblown.

Whether teenagers who smoked pot will use other illicit drugs as young adults has more to do with life factors such as employment status and stress, according to the new research. In fact, the strongest predictor of whether someone will use other illicit drugs is their race/ethnicity, not whether they ever used marijuana.

Conducted by UNH associate professors of sociology Karen Van Gundy and Cesar Rebellon, the research appears in the September 2010, issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior in the article, “A Life-course Perspective on the ‘Gateway Hypothesis.’ “

“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,’ ” Van Gundy and Rebellon say.

more

http://www.techvert.com/marijuana-gateway-effect-overblown/

[msongs]

1. who has killed more people, religion users or pot users? hmm nt

[HuckleB]

2. From this report, it appears that mental health diagnoses were not a consideration in this study..

I'm fairly certain that this study confirms prior studies negating the "Gateway Effect," but I am too tired to check my memory right now.

Still, it seems odd that mental health diagnosis wasn't part of the equation in terms of who is most likely to use "other" illicit drugs.

[Bozita]

3. The unrec contingent has arrived.

Sad.

[frylock]

4. knr

despite the ostrich brigade.

[klook]

5. It was a gateway drug for me.

I gave up pot many years ago, but it was after smoking pot that I developed a coffee habit.

Other gateway drugs I have abused in my sordid past:

• Coca-Cola (gateway to Dr. Pepper, absinthe)


• aspirin (gateway to Ibuprophen, Oxycontin)


• basic cable (gateway to Netflix, Apple TV, Boxee)


• MS-DOS (gateway to Linux, OS X)


• Beatles (gateway to Zappa, Neutral Milk Hotel)

Ok, despite the kidding around, this is a good article. I wonder also what the relationship is between the "gateway effect" and the illegality of marijuana. Just the fact that it's illegal means you have to buy it from a dealer, who maybe sells other illegal drugs, or is involved in other shady activities (or connected to people who are). But the fact that people "age out" of the "gateway effect" when they become adults would seem to argue against this. Interesting field for further research.

[tridim]

6. I stopped short at Cannabis.

I don't drink, and I've never had any recreational drug other than Cannabis and 2 doses of LSD in my body, and that includes pharmaceuticals. Zero. Nada.

I observed harder drugs ruin lives, so I didn't try them. It was an easy decision.

[zbdent]

7. my point in the "gateway drug" argument is this ...

I would bet that most, if not all, of these teens who went to harder drugs after "starting" with marijuana actually started with regular, legal cigarettes before they "started" with marijuana ...

[bemildred]

8. And booze.

And all those perfectly legal pills Mom and Dad have in the medicine cabinet.