News (Media Awareness Project) - New Zealand: PUB LTE: Gateway Theory Disproved |
| Title: | New Zealand: PUB LTE: Gateway Theory Disproved |
| Published On: | 2000-04-06 |
| Source: | Press, The (New Zealand) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-09-04 22:37:50 |
GATEWAY THEORY DISPROVED
Sir - Some statements in the letter from Allan Grant (March 28)
require a response.
"According to Teun Stortenbeker ... the odds are that regular
soft-drug users will eventually become hard-drug users."
Rubbish. The gateway theory has been disproved and shown for the
deceit that it truly is. If the theory were correct, would there not
be many more "hard drug" users?
"In that centre, typical of many such Dutch centres, 80 to 90 per cent
of all hard-drug users had a history of soft-drug use."
Correlation, not causation. This proves nothing other than at some
point most "hard drug" users have used "soft drugs".
As for the assessment of Dutch "coffee shops", are they really that
much different from a pub?
DAVID HOUSTON
March 30, 2000
Sir - Some statements in the letter from Allan Grant (March 28)
require a response.
"According to Teun Stortenbeker ... the odds are that regular
soft-drug users will eventually become hard-drug users."
Rubbish. The gateway theory has been disproved and shown for the
deceit that it truly is. If the theory were correct, would there not
be many more "hard drug" users?
"In that centre, typical of many such Dutch centres, 80 to 90 per cent
of all hard-drug users had a history of soft-drug use."
Correlation, not causation. This proves nothing other than at some
point most "hard drug" users have used "soft drugs".
As for the assessment of Dutch "coffee shops", are they really that
much different from a pub?
DAVID HOUSTON
March 30, 2000
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