| United States: A weed by any other name smells the same
Pubdate: Sun Dec 15 16:51:32 2002
Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)
Contact: oped@csps.com
Copyright: 2002 The Christian Science Publishing Society
Website: http://www.csmonitor.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/83
Webpage: http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1216/p09s01-... [translate]
Newshawk: Bot :-]
| |
[ topical analysis ] propaganda analysis
Science Tidbits
Monitorblog
A weblog about technology and its impact on our lives.
Liblog
Our staff librarians' weblog about informative and
interesting web sites
Commentary Stories:
for 12/16/2002
Lott's of Concern
A Cardinal Point
A weed by any other name smells the same
Our fractured response to Lott
Assessing the form, impact, of looming tax package
Letters to the Editor
In Alaska's Tongass forest, a new battle over logging
The Bush administration is working to increase timber
sales and build new logging roads in America's
rainforest.
Commentary > Opinion
from the December 16, 2002 edition
A weed by any other name smells the same
By Jim McDonough
TALLAHASSEE – Big excitement has hit the drug
legalization world. A recent RAND Drug Policy Research
Center study reported that marijuana may look, act, and
smell like a gateway drug to abuse of harder drugs, but
that possibly it is not a gateway drug after all.
The marijuana normalizers - as in, "let's make
marijuana use normal, or acceptable" - loved it; so did
some of the press. Both were quick to misportray the
study, so much so that the author of the study himself
was dismayed.
E-mail this story
Write a letter to the Editor
Printer-friendly version
Related stories:
Drugs take root in rural America
monitortalk:
Your opinion matters in our online discussion forums.
Share your views.
Andrew Morral of RAND believes he did everything he
could to explain he did not disprove the gateway theory
but, as he told me, "The story about it misrepresented
both our findings and my comments about the relevance
of our findings to US drug policy. RAND and I have
taken pains to emphasize that we do not believe we have
disproved the gateway theory."
The study did say that a high incidence of progression
from marijuana to heroin and cocaine use is apparent;
that the younger you are when you start using
marijuana, the more likely you are to end up using
cocaine and heroin; that the more often you use
marijuana, the more likely you will use cocaine and
heroin.
In short, the study shows the correlation between
marijuana and other drug abuse to be high.
Indeed, the study accepts previous studies that have
demonstrated the probability that heroin and cocaine
use increases 85 times for marijuana users when
compared with those who are not marijuana users; that
early teen use of marijuana is even more highly
correlated with other drug use than late teen marijuana
use; and that the more puffs of marijuana you take, the
more likely you move on to injections and snorting of
even more dangerous drugs.
But here's where the misunderstanding begins. The study
says that maybe these terrible things happen because
the people who use all these nasty drugs do it because
they have a propensity for drug use, and marijuana is
the first illegal drug to present itself to the young.
Dr. Morral calls that the "common factor" theory.
In other words, all drug users like all drugs;
marijuana just comes along first. He suggests that this
theory might be more accurate than the gateway theory.
But is a gateway not a gateway because it happens to
present itself in front of where you want to go?
Perhaps this study's findings appear trivial. They
aren't. If marijuana is merely the door through which
those inclined to use drugs pass because it is
convenient, all the more reason to keep that door
locked.
I'm convinced that's the best way to view Morrall's
findings, because the pro-marijuana lobby and much of
what the press missed in this study, as well as other
careful studies, were findings that suggest:
• There is a strong correlation between marijuana
and other drug abuse, with marijuana almost always
occurring first.
• Marijuana, all by itself, is a dangerous drug.
• There is a strong correlation between marijuana
use and schizophrenia.
• Marijuana itself is addictive.
• Youth marijuana use correlates highly with
violence, truancy, and other behavioral problems.
• The younger the marijuana user, the more
psychological and physiological damage done, and the
more likely that other drugs will follow.
• Smoking three marijuana joints a day can cause
the equivalent respiratory damage associated with 20
cigarettes a day. Marijuana smokers show significantly
more respiratory symptoms than people who don't smoke
it.
• Prolonged use can cause attention deficit and
deterioration in memory.
Over the years, I have talked with hundreds of addicts
and treatment counselors. They say that marijuana was
virtually always the beginning of a long, ugly journey;
that marijuana is the most insidious of the illegal
drugs because of the seductive, but often wrong,
rationale that you can quit any time you want; that
easy access to marijuana is a major part of the
problem; and that their lives would have been far
better if marijuana had been out of the picture.
As we do more studies, we might turn to these people
for insight.
So what of the utility of the "common factor" theory
over the "gateway" theory? A weed by any other name
still smells the same.
• Jim McDonough is director of the Florida Office
of Drug Control. He previously served as director of
strategic planning at the Office of National Drug
Control Policy.
E-mail this story
Write a letter to
the Editor
Printer-friendly
version
back to top
Make a donation
The Monitor's
How will you spread holiday cheer?Gifts Sure to Please
Holiday Festivities
Toys that Teach
Gourmet Gifts
Unique Gifts from Around the World
New! Purchase articles from the Monitor Archive for as
little as 15 cents each.
New! Subscribe to the Treeless Edition!
Print editions:Daily-US onlyWeekly-outside USGift
subscriptionSchool programsFree sample
Free sample issue
PDA edition
I thought this page was interesting because:
as .txt file
| 
(video)
