Is Cannabis a Gateway Drug?

CLAIM : MARIJUANA IS A "GATEWAY" TO THE USE OF OTHER DRUGS

Advocates of marijuana prohibition claim that even if marijuana itself causes minimal harm, it is a dangerous substance because it leads to the use of "harder drugs" such as heroin, LSD, and cocaine.

THE FACTS

Most users of heroin, LSD and cocaine have used marijuana. However, most marijuana users never use another illegal drug. Over time, there has been no consistent relationship between the use patterns of various drugs. As marijuana use increased in the 1960s and 1970s, heroin use declined. And, when marijuana use declined in the 1980s, heroin use remained fairly stable.

For the past 20 years, as marijuana use-rates fluxuated, the use of LSD hardly changed at all. Cocaine use increased in the early 1980s as marijuana use was declining. During the late 1980s, both marijuana and cocaine declined. During the last few years, cocaine use has continued to decline as marijuana use has increased slightly.

In 1994, less than 16 percent of high school seniors who had ever tried marijuana had ever tried cocaine-the lowest percentage ever recorded. In fact, as shown below, the proportion of marijuana users trying cocaine has declined steadily since 1986, when a high of more than 33 percent was recorded.

Percentage of Marijuana Users Ever Trying Cocaine, High School Seniors, 1975-1994

1975
 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987  1988  1989 1990 1991  1992 1993 1994 
19 19 20 22 25 27 28 27 28 29 31  33 30 26  23 22 22  18 17 16 

In short, there is no inevitable relationship between the use of marijuana and other drugs. This fact is supported by data from other countries. In Holland, for example, although marijuana prevalence among young people increased during the past decade, cocaine use decreased-and remains considerably lower than in the United States.

Whereas approximately 16 percent of youthful marijuana users in the U.S. have tried cocaine, the comparable figure for Dutch youth is 1.8 percent. Indeed, Holland's policy of allowing marijuana to be purchased openly in government-regulated "coffee shops" was designed specifically to separate young marijuana users from illegal markets where heroin and cocaine are sold.

From http://www.drugtext.org/articles/marijuan.htm Zimmer & Morgan on Myths.