Wed, April 23, 2003
Mitch Earleywine, USC Professor and author of "Understanding Marijuana," debunks the Gateway Theory, outlining why marijuana use is not a stepping stone to harder drugs like heroin. This is the first installment in what will be a regular column on marijuana by Prof. Earleywine.
Join the discussion with Prof. Earleywine about this topic.
Gateway theory suggests that marijuana is the first step toward painful drug addiction. Many fans of the theory think that marijuana creates an urge for hard drugs the way eating salt makes people thirsty. Two facts prove that the gateway theory is patently false. Perpetuating this lie is also incredibly dangerous.
Fact 1: Most Marijuana Users Don't Touch Hard Drugs
We all may know heroin addicts who smoked marijuana, which may lead us to think that marijuana and heroin go together. But we forget the 83 million Americans who tried marijuana and never touched heroin. The chances of regularly using hard drugs after trying marijuana are small. In fact the chances of regularly using marijuana are small.
Data from the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug abuse show that if you've ever tried marijuana in your life, your chance of using other drugs in the last month is:
1 in 7 for marijuana
1 in 12 for any other illicit drug
1 in 50 for cocaine
1 in 208 for crack
1 in 677 for heroin
You're more likely to flip a coin nine times and get all 'heads' than become a regular user of heroin after trying marijuana.
In short, most people who try marijuana do not use it regularly and never try hard drugs.
Fact 2: Many Hard Drug Users Don't Start With Marijuana
Again, we all may know heroin addicts who used marijuana first. Nevertheless, research shows plenty of people, especially those with drug problems, use hard drugs before marijuana. One study (Mackesy-Amiti, Fendrich, & Goldstein, 1997) showed that 39% of drug abusers started with a drug other than marijuana.
Users tend to start with whatever drug is most available. In neighborhoods filled with crack dealers, people could start with crack. But crack is not the gateway to marijuana use. Allen Ginsberg, the legendary 'Beat' poet, used heroin before marijuana. But heroin is not the gateway, either. Obviously, if marijuana use doesn't happen first, it can't cause hard drug use.
Even if every heroin addict used marijuana first, that fact alone would not prove that marijuana caused heroin addiction. They all ate bread before their heroin addiction, but nobody has called bread the gateway drug. (At least not yet.)
Marijuana doesn't cause hard drug use. People may wonder, "What's the harm in scaring teens with this little white lie, especially if it keeps them away from drugs?" Like all lies, this one catches up later. Teens who believe that marijuana leads to hard drugs end up using substances with markedly worse effects. I've had clients and students explain: "We heard pot led to heroin, so we just sniffed glue." Inhalants cause more problems than marijuana ever will, including brain damage and death.
In addition, the gateway lie leads to hard drugs in unexpected ways. When kids try marijuana, they realize that the propaganda they've heard is untrue. They don't shoot their friends with handguns, wake up pregnant, or support terrorism. They soon suspect that other drug information is false. The teachers who said that marijuana leads to hard drugs were wrong. Why believe it when they say that crack is addictive?
The gateway lie costs us our credibility. Marijuana does not lead teens to hard drugs, but lying to them about it does.
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