Letters to the Editor.

Pot not 'gateway' to harder drugs.

Sir I am writing in response to the letter entitled "Legalising 'pot' a
dangerous move". The writer claimed that cannabis is a gateway drug that
it causes the use of harder drugs.

His (or her) friends are very unusual. British Home Office figures show
that around 24pc of 1629 year olds in the UK have tried cannabis. If, like
his friends, these all went on to try LSD, amphetamines and ecstasy, then
the usage figures for these drugs should be about the same. They aren't.

Amphetamine use is at 9pc, LSD 6pc, ecstasy 4pc and cocaine 3pc.

This means that more than 60pc of cannabis users never use another illegal
drug in their lives.

Just because cannabis use is sometimes followed by harder drug use does not
mean that cannabis caused the harder drug use alternatively, a single
feature could cause both.

For example, day is followed by night. Day does not cause night, both are
caused by the mechanics of the Earth's rotation. Similarly, both cannabis
and harder drug use could be caused by a daring thrill seeking personality.

Usage rates of cannabis, cocaine and LSD over the past twenty years have
all varied independently. The personality cause theory fits this and other
data better than the gateway theory.

So, although it may be true to say that 97pc of Heroin addicts started with
cannabis, this does not mean that cannabis caused the heroin use, the cause
is a personality trait present before cannabis is first used. It is fair to
say that 95% of Heroin addicts were immunised by injecting as children.
Does this mean that injected vaccines are the first step on the road to
intravenous hard drug use?

If we are to accept the personality causes theory, then we can conclude
that if cannabis was more available and its use not so discouraged, then
the resulting increased use would not lead to an increased use of harder
drugs.

Paul Johnston, Knutsford, Cheshire.