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NEWS: The Age 23 Jan 03: Teen marijuana use leads to hard drugs: study

BigTrancer

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Teen marijuana use leads to hard drugs: study
January 23 2003
By David Wroe
Health Reporter

A study of Australian twins has found teenage marijuana smoking may open doors to harder drug abuse because smokers expose themselves to a drug lifestyle.
Researchers from Queensland and the United States studied 311 same-sex twins, some identical. In each pair, one twin had taken up smoking marijuana by age 17, while the other had not.
The twin that smoked was two to five times more likely to abuse hard drugs or alcohol as an adult.
This "gateway hypothesis" predicting the transition from soft to hard drugs has long been claimed.
However, the new study suggests genes and family background are not such important factors, because identical twins have the same genes and grow up in the same households.
Full article at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/01/22/1042911436690.html
Good quote from Paul Dillon at the end of the article!
BigTrancer :)
 
From the article:
The cannabis users were twice as likely to use heroin, and five times more likely to use hallucinogens such as LSD.
This in itself proves nothing. A lot of these people would use other drugs anyway, regardless of whether pot existed or not. All it shows is that "adventure seeking" people like marijuana as well.
 
Why do newspapers bother even putting something like this to print.
In an accompanying editorial to the research, published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Denise Kandel of Columbia University's psychiatry department, wrote that the study did not explain "whether or not a true causal link exists" between marijuana and hard drugs.
"An argument can be made that even identical twins do not share the same environment during adolescence," she wrote.
Margaret Hamilton, director of Melbourne's Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, agreed early marijuana use lowered barriers to other drugs by introducing them to the "drug marketplace".
But she stressed previous research had shown that social and emotional factors, such as family breakdown, having parents who used drugs, alienation and difficulties at school were the main causes of adolescent soft-drug abuse and later hard-drug abuse.
At least someone is looking at the broader picture.
 
Lets see if my logic is working today:[*]Marijuana exposes people to the drug lifestyle (ie: going out and finding a dealer, scoring the drugs, etc).[*]This exposure to the drug lifestyle leads to familiarity with it, which in turn leads to experimentation with other harder drugs. [*]There is no exposure to the drug lifestyle with alcohol because it can be purchased legally from a shop. (implied)[*]In order for people to help avoid harder drugs, they need to avoid exposure to the drug lifestyle.[/list=a]
So really, the problem here is not marijuana, but the drug lifestyle. So isn't this article really an argument for the legalisation of soft drugs such as marijuana? :D
 
All it shows is that "adventure seeking" people like marijuana as well.
This is what it showed me ;) How do we know that one twin wasn't born with a higher "adventure seeking" tendency, therefore resulting above. We would have to see this experiment performed on at least 3 or more sets of twins before we can come to any serious conclusions!
Pleonastic I like your logic a lot! It would take time for it to come into the same balance as alcohol, but it would definitely be a better situation for our youth in the long run...
 
I remember reading an article in New Scientist that comes at it from the other direction: There are people that are draw to the use of drugs/marijuana and then onto other drugs, not that marijuana CAUSES people to take "hard drugs". One study they mentioned was not that pot caused schizophrenia per se, but people with schizophrenia seem to smoke pot more than people with out it.
The problem with all these studies is that they are so damn objective. Sure, people who smoke weed may end up taking harder drugs, but unless a proper study is performed, we're never going to know WHY.
 
"90% of drug addicts smoked Marijuana first. Therefore, smoking Marijuana leads to harder drugs."
Yeah and Im willing to bet that 90% of them might of also rode a bike, attended church, drank, smoked a cigerette, shoplifted, lied, went to school, and owned a pet dog. What is your point? Junkies are Junkies....it is their destiny....not because they smoked marijuana.
hahah :D
PLUR +stay safe my friends.
 
its in human nature to experiement with things, therefore if u are experimenting with one drug, be it canabis or lsd or speed or ecstacy, then curiousity usually leads us to try something new, also environment/exposure to drugs has plenty to do with it, such as who u hang out with, what they do, their friends do etc. etc.
i mean, there has to be HEAPS of kids out there, who arent at all exposed to drugs due to their circle of friends or whatever, who never try it at all and live their whole lives not trying anything other than alcohol and cigarettes, and this is only because these are taxable controlable drugs who are sold legally and advertised. did i mention taxable? hehe is this the REAL reason canabis and other 'softer' drugs are illegal? but i spose thats a totally different arguement, i personally think canabis is one of the worst for its long term effects. bah im rambleing, time for bed.
[ 23 January 2003: Message edited by: monkey-- ]
 
I actually think that at least some people who smoke weed ARE slightly more likely than non-smokers to move on to 'harder' drugs, as they are more comfortable with the idea of using drugs in general. I agree that many weed smokers would be predisposed to take drugs in general, but a lot of people would have been 'peer pressured' into smoking weed at school or other social situations when younger, possibly making them more comfortable with the concept of taking other illegal drugs.
Also, since many people who use 'harder' drugs also smoke weed, many 'weed-only' drug users could become exposed to other drugs through association with these people.
I'm open for debate, but that's the way it seems to me...
 
Really, we all know here that ecstasy* is the real gateway drug in this country. I mean, would you have really thought of putting that wierd white stuff up your nose before you started having pills? ;)
* In this case, I say ecstasy meaning pills, whether speed, MDMA or Ketamine based, etc.
 
Well for me, Ecstasy was the first drug that i ever tried, so that i was my gateway into other drugs, i've never even tried marijuana before. I
 
I just re read the first post:
The twin that smoked was two to five times more likely to abuse hard drugs or alcohol as an adult.
Does that mean the other twin was able to keep a handle on their drug use, so it didn't become "abuse"? ;)
 
Ah this thread reminds me of the bevy of essays that i wrote on the many issues surrounding marijuana in school (my teachers must of thought i was the biggest stoner). I think it's completely logical to expect that people who smoke pot are more likely to uses other drugs (note that i didn't say hard drugs, just drugs in general). However as with most studies the findings have been overstated, reducing the pot to junkie relationship to a purely deterministic level. In regards to experimental design, they've brought out the good ol monozygotic twin studies, to a limit the variables of genetics and environment. By the tenets of year 11 biology these two factors control phenotype (or the trait expressed in this case drug use). However, i believe that drug use is deeply influenced by personality and psychology, as people have stated; adventure seeking, propensity for addiction, etc. This study doesn't account for these factors. In terms of exposure to the drug lifestyle, this article seems to be prima face against decriminalisation, yet as pleo stated it has the unintended effect of the damage that criminalising rather harmless behaviour such as marijuana use. But what of exposure to legal drugs, the first drug i was addicted to was caffiene, my parents gave me alcohol when i was young (infact my favourite childhood photo is of a fat chubby bubby me skulling an MB-- did someone say post natal foetal alcohol syndrome? Drain Bammage me, nah!). Surely if such a thing as a gateway drug exists (which i don't believe does) then these would be the prime suspects.
 
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