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

[kpete]

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.

.................

That social misconception, largely driven by the sheer popularity of alcohol and the profits it generates for private industry, is diametrically opposed to the most current science available on drug harms. A study published in 2010 in the medical journal Lancet ranked alcohol as the most harmful drug of all, above heroin, crack, meth, cocaine and tobacco. Even more striking: The Lancet study found that harms to others near the user were more than double those of the second most harmful drug, heroin.

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

[Wounded Bear]

1. Well, d'uh!

I'm sure tobacco contributes, too.

And now, throw in energy drinks.

Anything that alters the consciousness is a potential trigger for the OCD, craving bug. Especially when they start young and build up a tolerance. The craving for "more" kicks in for so many people and they never get over the search for the next high.

Spend some time around real addicts and you get a sense about this stuff.

[loyalsister]

2. A lot of it is about specific highs

Stimulant vs. sedative, etc. I talked to a guy who went from coffee to over the counter stimulants to cocaine. Never touched pot.

[shanti]

6. and since alcohol

is a sedative, the switch to cannabis should be elementary.

[loyalsister]

9. Don't forget that alcohol does have some stimulant effects

Alcohol is a gateway to numerous illegal drugs, because it is a very generalized intoxicating substance that happens to also be legal.

[Wounded Bear]

7. Yeah, but that's just a "drug of choice" question..

Individuals seek different highs, to be sure, and as such can have different "gateway drugs."

Hell, you could make similar statements about food addictions, or sex and relationship issues.

Any addictive behavior or substance abuse follows similar patterns in my experience. At their root there always seems to be a bit of OCD.

[loyalsister]

10. Where does this OCD connection come from?

Found it... I know many many people who have mental illnesses and I don't see this connection to OCD. The role of illegal drugs in mental illnesses is typically self medication.

edited to add...

The OCD tendencies are only connected in terms of self medication. The idea that addiction is a manifestation of OCD is way off base.

Although the symptoms of people with OCD who develop substance use disorders are similar to those who do not, research has demonstrated that those who develop substance use disorders are often less educated, often have other forms of mental illness in addition to OCD, and had OCD symptoms that began at an early age. Indeed, most people report that their OCD symptoms developed well before they developed a substance use disorder. Importantly, people with OCD who develop substance use disorders are at a greater risk for suicide and hospitalization.

http://ocd.about.com/od/livingwithoc1/a/OCD_substance_use.htm

[HopeHoops]

3. I'll totally agree with that. I didn't touch pot or hash until well after I started drinking.

[Brickbat]

4. No shit.

[shanti]

5. ya think??

(not you personally, kpete! cannabis doesn't kill your liver....or anything, for that matter!

[Lint Head]

8. Aspirin opens the door and instills the idea to people from cradle to the grave that taking a drug

will make you feel better. I think the whole gateway concept is a crock. Obsession and addiction is the problem.