STUDY SAYS MARIJUANA 'GATEWAY' IDEA A MYTH

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

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

The researchers did not advocate easing restrictions in marijuana but
questioned the focus on this 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," said Andrew Morral, lead author of the RAND study. "We have shown
why this is not necessarily the case."

Using data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse between 1982
and 1994, the study concluded 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 is possible marijuana
is not a gateway drug. It's just the first thing kids often come across."

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

He said this four-year gap in exposure to the drugs raised doubts about the
gateway theory espoused by many social scientists, and underpinning many
U.S. anti-drug policies and education campaigns.

The study, published in the British journal Addiction, does not advocate
legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana, which has been linked to side
effects such as short-term memory loss.

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

"If our model is correct, to a certain extent we are diverting resources
away from hard drug problems," he said. "Spending money on marijuana
control may not be having downstream consequences on the use of hard drugs."

Researchers say predisposition to drug use has been linked to genetic
factors and one's environment, including family dynamics and the
availability of drugs in the neighborhood.