POT USERS MAY SHUN TOBACCO

Not All Teen Marijuana Smokers Start With Cigarettes, Study Finds

Young people who smoke cigarettes are more likely to move on to
marijuana, studies have shown for years. So common is that pattern
that it's called the gateway theory of drug use.

Now, Swiss researchers are among the first to look at the
characteristics of teens who use marijuana but don't, and never have,
smoked cigarettes.

The researchers looked at 5,263 Swiss students ages 16 to 20 and
found that about one-fifth of those who smoked marijuana never smoked
cigarettes. Those who smoked cannabis and not tobacco were more
likely to play sports, live with both parents and do well in school
than those who smoked both substances, according to the study in the
November Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. When compared
with students who didn't smoke anything, marijuana users were more
social, but they also were more likely to take risks and less likely
than abstainers to have good relationships with their parents.

In the new study, the majority of marijuana users, about 80 per cent,
still followed the classic pattern of smoking tobacco first, then
adding marijuana.

"But not everyone follows traditional pathways, and this alternative
pathway may be important," says Dr. Wilson Compton, researcher at the
National Institute on Drug Abuse, which was not involved in the Swiss study.