Study questions ‘gateway’ theory of drug abuse

[Warpy]

A new study suggests that a tendency toward delinquency or living in a neighborhood where drugs are readily available are just as important in determining whether a young person will abuse marijuana as whether or not he tries cigarettes or alcohol first.

The findings call into question the “gateway” hypothesis — that is, that youths at risk of drug abuse progress from using alcohol and cigarettes to illegal “soft” drugs like marijuana to “hard” drugs like cocaine and heroin, Dr. Ralph E. Tarter of the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and colleagues write in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Instead, Tarter and his team say their findings support the common liability model, which proposes that factors such as behavioral deviancy and “genetic risk” can predispose a person to abusing any type of drug, illegal or otherwise.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16639367/

The War on Drugs, more a war on our CIVIL LIBERTIES, has been fought on the premise of the "gateway drug" theory, a revamping of those long debunked "slippery slope" and "domino theory" idiocies. Give 'em an inch, they'll take a mile, you know, and one toke will lead to a lifetime spent with a needle in a precious child's vein.

This bogus "war" fought on a bogus premise has cost us the Fourth Amendment along with bits and pieces of several others.

I'm glad someone is finally standing up to challenge this. The medical profession has known for many years that the whole thing was a load of hooey. It's political, folks, and it's dedicated to stripping away our rights.

[Fovea]

1. It is the same system of social control

that brought us Vietnam.

The real danger is a non-docile working/middle class.
So they have to be distracted with endless wars.

[maxsolomon]

2. "abuse" marijuana?

the author buys into the drug warrior framing.

[tridim]

3. The only reason Pot can lead to harder drugs..

is because the same guy who sells pot also sells hard drugs.

If pot were legal and controlled, that wouldn't be an issue.

[nashville_brook]

4. this goes to the heart of "what is addiction"

you don't become an addict thru simple exposure. otherwise, anyone who ever drank a beer would be an alcoholic. it's a tendency toward addictive behavior (delinquency?) that puts people on the road to addiction.

the gateway thing has always been a red herring -- an excuse to grab power.

[Warpy]

5. I've always said they needed to look more closely at

people who do not get addicted. They've studied the people who do with everything we have available. They've never bothered to study people like me, the majority who tried every drug out there and reacted with a big "ho hum" to the so-called hard drugs.

It's opportunity + brain chemistry, not some silly domino theory of moral weakness.

[hashibabba]

6. Well said, and thank you.

[Gormy Cuss]

9. I think that's right. Without looking at both populations it's hard to determine addiction source.

I am intrigued by the notion of studying the "ho-hum" subset because you are at the opposite extreme from the easily addicted. I'd bet the addiction is mostly brain chemistry and has very little to do with social or economic issues.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Gormy Cuss]

8. No, the user sucks.

That's how one gets the full effect, by inhaling.

[Atomium]

10. You don't inhale...

you just suck.

[Gormy Cuss]

11. I hope your use of the second person pronoun was meant in the sense of "one"

otherwise your post is a personal attack and that is against the forum rules.
If you mean "one doesn't inhale, one just sucks" perhaps you would care to clarify what you mean.
My post was a play on words (suck and inhale.) What did your post mean?

[Ookie]

12. Anybody here seen Reefer Madness?

Great movie! Very funny! Of course it wasn't originally intended to be funny. It was an anti-marijuana propaganda piece. The "star" of the movie turns into a crazed marijuana "junkie" and his life goes completely to hell. What a buncha hooey! This idea that marijuana is a gateway to all these other drugs is just nonsense. Many people who try marijuana may very well try other drugs. That's probably because they are curious, not because the evil marijuana is luring them forward. Many people smoke pot to relax just as I choose to drink wine. The only difference between us is that my vice is currently legal, while their's is not. Doesn't mean it has always been this way (prohibition anyone?), or that it won't be different in the future. I really grow weary of this bogus "war on drugs". It is "high" time (pun fully intended) that street drugs are taken out of the hands of organized crime.