Alcohol is the Gateway Drug, not Marijuana

[Th1onein]

Study: The ‘gateway drug’ is alcohol, not marijuana

By Stephen C. Webster
Thursday, July 5, 2012 13:52 EDT

A study in the August edition of The Journal of School Health finds that the generations old theory of a “gateway drug” effect is in fact accurate for some drug users, but shifts the blame for those addicts’ escalating substance abuse away from marijuana and onto the most pervasive and socially accepted drug in American life: alcohol.

Using a nationally representative sample from the University of Michigan’s annual Monitoring the Future survey, the study blasts holes in drug war orthodoxy wide enough to drive a truck through, definitively proving that marijuana use is not the primary indicator of whether a person will move on to more dangerous substances.

“By delaying the onset of alcohol initiation, rates of both licit substance abuse like tobacco and illicit substance use like marijuana and other drugs will be positively affected, and they’ll hopefully go down,” study co-author Adam E. Barry, an assistant professor at the University of Florida’s Department of Health Education & Behavior, told Raw Story in an exclusive interview.

While Barry’s study shows evidence that substance abuse behaviors can be predicted with a high degree of accuracy by examining a subject’s drug history, he believes that the persistent and misguided notion of marijuana as the primary gateway to more harmful substances went awry because its creators — who called it the “Stepping Stone Hypothesis” in the “Reefer Madness” era of the 1930s – fundamentally misread the data and failed to conduct an adequate follow-up.


http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/07/05/study-the-gateway-drug-is-alcohol-not-marijuana/

[dchill]

1. And nicotine.

[Yul A]

2. washu meen by dat?

(belch)

[TexasTowelie]

3. Bookmarked to read

after my buzz wears off.

[Warren DeMontague]

4. There are very few OP articles to which I am tempted to respond "well, duh"

but this is one of them.

[Curtland1015]

5. Yeah, alcohol IS the gateway... TO AWESOME TOWN!

[jmowreader]

6. Makes sense, really

Alcohol, opiates, barbiturates and benzos are all CNS depressants. Cigarettes, cocaine and amphetamines (including meth and MDMA) are CNS stimulants. Weed is weed. Someone who likes the effect of weed may not like the effect of opiates or MDMA. But someone who likes vodka would probably like morphine.

OTOH, ditch weed is a gateway to quality buds.

[madrchsod]

9. if you do`t die from ditch weed first...

around here ditch weed has so many chemicals in it it will tear your throat and lungs up. we used to grow marijuana for rope during ww2 and despite chemical spraying it still hangs in there.

[intheflow]

12. I can't drink alcohol.

Dehydrates me something terrible, can't drink enough water to keep up with the dehydration. Or rather, if I did, I wouldn't get a buzz, so what would the point be in drinking the alcohol in the first place? It also disrupts my sleep patterns and makes me depressed. Weed doesn't dehydrate me and helps me sleep - and has the added effect of making keeping my carpal tunnel pain and PTSD at bay. It's complete madness it's illegal while booze is celebrated.

[jmowreader]

13. For the people who can drink alcohol, it's different

For you folk who both drink alcohol and smoke weed, which one did you try first? Almost certainly beer first.

[intheflow]

14. I started with schnapps.

I can't drink now that I live at altitude. I had no problem when I was a teenager living at sea level. So, yes, alcohol was my gateway drug.

[musiclawyer]

7. More data for the post Co/Wa litigation

If potus and DOJ are stupid enough to fight
There is an avalanche of data proving the economic and medical efficacy of weed

That's why I don't think potus and DOJ will meddle into state re-legalization. It's a dead end and a hill they won't risk dying on

[madrchsod]

8. anyone with a functioning brain knows that

alcohol is far easier to get for all age levels than pot.

[BlueMan Votes]

16. not true.

for many teenagers- pot is a LOT easier to get than alcohol.

not too many streetcorners in the city have someone standing around selling cans of beer or shots of whiskey.

[Iggo]

10. You're almost there.

Fact is, they're ALL "the gateway drug."

[Fozzledick]

11. I still don't buy it - they've got the causality backwards.

Those who are genetically predisposed to addiction begin drug use earliest and heaviest, starting with whatever is easiest to obtain.

The sequence is almost always tobacco, then alcohol, then marijuana or prescription sedatives, but it's not that one leads to another, just that the most available is tried first.

[BlueMan Votes]

15. and since the vast majority first try alcohol when they are still minors-

that makes alcohol the number one ILLEGAL gateway drug as well.

[Nye Bevan]

17. I think you'll find that most addicts started with milk (nt)