STUDY QUESTIONS U.S. POLICY ON POT

WASHINGTON -- Casting doubt on a basic principle of U.S. anti-drug policies,
an independent study said Monday that marijuana use does not lead teenagers
to experiment with hard drugs such as heroin or cocaine.

The study by the private, nonprofit Rand Drug Policy Research Center
countered the theory that marijuana acts as a so-called "gateway" drug to
more harmful narcotics, a key argument against legalizing pot in the United
States.

The researchers did not advocate easing restrictions on marijuana, but
questioned the focus on the substance in U.S. drug control efforts.

"The evidence has seemed so strong in favor of the gateway effect that a lot
of policymakers and others have taken it for granted the gateway effect is
real. We have shown why this is not necessarily the case," said Andrew
Morral, lead author of the Rand study.

Using data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse from 1982 to
1994, the study concluded that teenagers who took hard drugs were
predisposed to do so whether they tried marijuana first or not.

"Kids get their first opportunity to use marijuana years before they get
their first exposure to hard drugs," Morral said. "It's possible marijuana
is not a gateway drug. It's just the first thing kids come across."

Morral said 50% of U.S. teenagers had access to marijuana by age 16, while
the majority had no exposure to cocaine, heroin or hallucinogens until they
were 20.

He said the four-year gap in exposure to drugs raised doubt about the
gateway theory.

Given limited resources, Morral said the U.S. should reconsider the
prominence of marijuana in its much-publicized "war on drugs."