51吃瓜

Marijuana can help drug users prevent, control and even stop hard drug use.

With US states legalizing marijuana by popular vote, some politicians, including Boston Mayor聽聽and New Jersey Governor聽, are still calling marijuana a gateway drug.

The gateway theory argues that because heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine users often used marijuana before graduating to harder drugs, it must be a 鈥済ateway鈥� to harder drug use. The theory implies that there is a casual mechanism that聽biologically 聽drug users, making them more willing to try 鈥� and more desirous of 鈥� harder drugs.

Yet the gateway hypothesis doesn鈥檛 make sense to those who use marijuana 鈥� or have used in the past. Research shows that the vast majority of marijuana users聽do not go on to use hard . Most stop using after entering the adult social world of family and work.

So why is it still part of the rhetoric and controversy surrounding the drug? A closer look reveals the historical roots 鈥� and vested interests 鈥� that are keeping the myth alive.

When analyzing what acts as a 鈥済ateway鈥� to hard drug use, there are a number of factors at play. None involve marijuana.

1) Poverty and poor social 聽is a gateway to drugs, according to聽much

2) Association with people who use hard drugs is a聽better 聽of harder drug use

3) 颁别谤迟补颈苍听尘别苍迟补濒 , such as聽antisocial 补苍诲听产颈辫辞濒补谤 , are found to pre-dispose some people to use drugs

4) Other research that聽criminalization and prohibition are real gateways to harder drugs

With so much research challenging the gateway theory, it鈥檚 important to examine and dispel the research that proponents of the myth latch onto.

But What About All That Evidence?

Most of the research linking marijuana to harder drug use comes from the correlation between the two. However, as any junior scientist can tell you,聽correlation does not mean . Correlation is a first step. A correlation can be positive or negative; it can be weak or strong. And it never means a cause unless a rational reason for causality is found.

The brain disease , which describes聽 in the brain聽during the progression from drug use to addiction, currently gets a lot of attention as an potential causal link of the gateway theory. For example, in a 2014 article, neuroscientist Dr. Jodi Gilman聽聽that even a little marijuana use was associated with 鈥渆xposure-dependent alterations of the neural matrix of core reward systems鈥� in the brains of young marijuana users. The reasoning goes that this would predispose them to use other drugs.

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But other researchers were quick to point out the聽聽of the Gilman study, such as a lack of careful controls for alcohol and other drug use by those whose brains were studied. Nonetheless, Gilman鈥檚 research continues to be cited in the news media, while its critics are ignored.

In another 聽supporting the gateway theory, the authors admit to limitations in their research: that they excluded younger cocaine users from the analysis, as well as older cocaine users who had never used marijuana. This means those cases that might provide evidence of no gateway effect were left out of the analysis.

One the other hand, there鈥檚 a wealth of research showing the聽聽in the gateway theory. Unfortunately, the common thread among these studies is that much of them come from聽 the United States聽or from聽grassroots 聽within the US that are promoting marijuana legalization.

A Myth Ingrained in Politics, Perpetuated Through Policy

So why is it that most of the funded research pointing out flaws in the gateway theory comes from overseas?

As Nathan Greenslit聽聽in an Atlantic article in 2014, US drug policy began with racist fear-mongering by Federal Bureau of Narcotics Director聽聽in 1937. The Nixon administration strengthened drug control with the creation of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), which classified marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug,聽against the 聽of the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse. Because marijuana is still officially in the US as a聽Schedule I drug聽with no medical value, carefully controlled research using marijuana must receive approval from several federal departments. On the rare occasions that researchers do get approval, local politics can聽thwart the .

Meanwhile, in the United States, addiction researchers and addiction treatment professionals are heavily invested in the weakly supported claim that marijuana is a gateway to hard drugs. For decades, scientists who study addiction have received millions in聽government and pharmaceutical 聽to perpetuate the gateway hypothesis. Many would lose their respected reputations (or continued funding) if a gateway mechanism is not a legitimate research goal.

Those who work in the vast addiction treatment profession are especially invested in keeping the gateway theory believable, since the聽majority of their treatment patients are marijuana . Their jobs depend on a belief in聽 as a disease and on marijuana being an addictive drug.

Scare Tactics

Today, what started as scare tactics under Anslinger has been 鈥渕odernized鈥� (and mystified) by scientific jargon. Sociologists Craig Reinarman and Harry G. Levine described how the media and politicians manufacture聽drug 聽to influence policy. One fear perpetuated is that marijuana use will increase if decriminalized.

But a聽2004 聽compared Amsterdam, where marijuana was decriminalized, to San Francisco, where cannabis was, at the time, still criminalized. The authors found that criminalization of marijuana didn鈥檛 reduce use, while decriminalization didn鈥檛 increase use.

The gateway fear has focused mostly on youth. For example, newly-elected Maryland Governor Larry Hogan announced that he is against legalization, partly out of聽聽that 鈥渕arijuana use would increase among young people.鈥� Meanwhile, parents are concerned by recent research showing marijuana鈥檚聽effect on the . These studies showed聽structural and loss of white matter聽in marijuana users; although the limitations of these studies and implications were questioned by聽other .

But fears of decriminalization resulting in聽increased聽use among youth haven鈥檛 been by聽research聽from countries where drugs were decriminalized. Nor has this trend been noted in聽聽of US states that legalized marijuana for medical or recreational purposes. For example, in an article聽聽in the American Academy of Pediatrics, the authors found no evidence that young people had increased marijuana use in states that had legalized medical or recreational marijuana. The worst impact on kids, according to these authors, was the potential for criminal prosecution.

Studies consistently find that the traumatic experience of being聽arrested and incarcerated for possession聽is the most harmful aspect of marijuana among young people. Arrest for possession can result in devastating 鈥� often permanent 鈥� legal and social problems, especially for minority youth and low-income families.

According to聽 by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), nearly half of all drug arrests were for marijuana possession, and the majority of those arrested were African American. In some states, African Americans were more than eight times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than whites.

Unfortunately, marijuana legalization has not changed arrests and incarceration disparities for minorities. While African Americans聽have always been 聽for drug arrests and incarceration,聽new shows聽African Americans are more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession聽after聽marijuana reform than all other races were before marijuana policy reform. Although in some states decriminalization makes possession a 鈥渘oncriminal鈥� offense, it can still be illegal and聽can result in an , court appearance and stiff fines.

On the periphery of the marijuana-as-gateway-drug debates are studies showing marijuana as聽聽for the treatment of opiate addicts. These have been largely ignored. However, now that marijuana has become legal for medical purposes in some states, new research offers substantial findings that can鈥檛 be dismissed. Crime has not 聽in states that have legalized marijuana; it鈥檚 actually聽gone down. Surprisingly,聽opiate overdose 聽have gone down as well.

As this author has聽written , anyone who actually聽 with problem drug users聽(and doesn鈥檛 simply talk about聽them) knows that marijuana can help drug users prevent, control and聽even hard drug use.

If anything, marijuana can work as a gateway聽out聽of hard drug use 鈥� an exit strategy that needs to be studied and, possibly, implemented at the policy level. It鈥檚 time to move beyond marijuana as a gateway drug and start to study its use as treatment for the deadly, addictive and socially devastating drugs.

*[This article was originally published by .]

The views expressed in this article are the author鈥檚 own and do not necessarily reflect 51吃瓜鈥檚 editorial policy.

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