NO EVIDENCE POT USE LEADS TO HARD DRUGS

No Evidence Criminalization Reduces Use Either, U.S.-Dutch Study Finds

OTTAWA -- Decriminalizing marijuana does not lead to increased use,
says a new U.S. study published in the American Journal of Public Health.

The researchers also found no evidence to back up claims that
marijuana is a "gateway drug" that leads to use of harder drugs.

The conclusions came from interviewing marijuana smokers in Amsterdam,
where marijuana can be legally purchased in licensed "coffee houses,"
and San Francisco, where people who are caught smoking pot can receive
a criminal record.

"Our findings do not support claims criminalization reduces cannabis
use and that decriminalization increases cannabis use," says the study
by a University of California sociology professor and two professors
with the Centre for Drug Research at University of Amsterdam.

Although the findings are a bit of a boon to the Canadian government's
plan to relax marijuana laws, a bill to decriminalize possession of
less than 15 grams is in jeopardy and may not pass should Prime
Minister Paul Martin call an election later this month as expected.
The bill has been stuck in its final stages for more than a month
because the Conservatives, who oppose the legislation, have proposed
numerous amendments in an attempt to block its passage.

"We'll have to see how it goes next week," said Mario Lague,
communications director in the Prime Minister's Office. "We would like
to see it move forward and now we're caught with this."

If the bill clears the House of Commons, it would still have to go to
the Senate for final approval, where it could receive a rough ride
because the upper chamber has already issued a report calling for
complete legalization rather than decriminalization.

Critics of the proposed legislation warn it will lead to increased
use, threaten public health and create a stepping-stone toward more
dangerous, harder drugs.

In the U.S. study, the researches interviewed about 500 randomly
selected marijuana users who reported that they had smoked pot at
least 25 times. The questions included their age when they started
smoking marijuana, how often they smoked, their level of intoxication
and their use of other illicit drugs.

The researchers, who say it is the first comparative study examining
whether criminalization constrains drug use or decriminalization
increases it, reported striking similarities between marijuana users
in the two cities.

The mean age when they started smoking was 16, and their mean age when
they started using marijuana regularly was 19. The study also found
that the majority of users smoked similar amounts, even during their
peak years of usage, and the vast majority in both cities did not
exceed 28 grams per month. That is about 28 cigarettes, depending on
how they are rolled.

The average age of interviewees was 31 in Amsterdam and 34 in San
Francisco.