STRAIGHT DOPE

The Slippery Slope Of Addiction--For Me, And For Many Others--Began With
Marijuana

I began using marijuana at 15. At least that's when I think I started. The
reality is, I can't remember exactly when I began. Drugs do that to you.
But I guess it was right around the time my friends and I started sending
old men into liquor stores, delis and bars to buy Olde English 800 and
Coqui 900 malt liquor.

In looking at a Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA) study last month, it became apparent to me that my experience
parallels the numbers. I started with alcohol and marijuana in my early
teens, used for a few years, and then, in a progression that mirrors the
pattern that is documented in the study, I moved on to harder drugs.

By the time I was 20, I was getting bored with weed. So I started using
cocaine. Snorting it, lacing joints with it, dropping it on my tongue and
feeling the numbing sensation run through my body. When I decided to move
on to crack, my addiction was full-blown. Drugs literally took over my
life, so I went into treatment. Problem was, the treatment didn't work. Not
for any length of time, anyway.

Several treatments and a few relapses later, my addiction left me with
virtually nothing--again. I had to start from scratch more times than I
care to recall. When I finally understood that my addiction was killing me,
when I finally stopped depending on treatment programs and started to
depend on faith, perseverance and determination, when I finally made up my
mind to stop, life got better.

But I wasn't always so resolute. At my lowest point, I thought I would die
an addict. And that sense of hopelessness began with marijuana and its
trusty sidekick, alcohol.

Legalization advocates claim that marijuana has medicinal uses, that it
doesn't diminish I.Q. or memory capacity and that it has no long-term
psychological or physiological effects.

Depending on which studies you choose to believe, all those things may be
true. But here's what I've learned through hard-won experience.

Marijuana, which is most commonly used for a purpose no loftier than a
cheap high, is a gateway drug. It leads those with addictive tendencies to
other substances, and into the vicious cycle that is addiction--a cycle
that ultimately leads to death.

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a division of the
National Institutes of Health, "long-term studies of high school students
and their patterns of drug use show that very few young people use other
drugs without first trying marijuana. The risk of using cocaine has been
estimated to be more than 104 times greater for those who have tried
marijuana than for those who have never tried it."

That troubling assertion is mirrored by the SAMHSA study. The data, which
covers 1999 treatment admissions, showed that on average, those who sought
treatment for marijuana abuse began using the drug at 14. The average age
at which they sought treatment was 22. The average age of first use for
cocaine users was 23. They sought their first treatment for the drug, on
average, at 34.

The trend is evident. Addicts begin with alcohol (which consistently
accounts for nearly half of all treatment admissions) and marijuana. And
they often do so in their early teens. If, after a period of treatment,
they determine that they will continue using, they move on to something
harder, such as cocaine or heroin. And these drugs, in the hands of
addicts, lead to dire consequences.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse says researchers are examining the
possibility that long-term marijuana use may produce changes in the brain
that make a person more susceptible to becoming addicted to other drugs.

I'd like to see the results. But something tells me I already know them.

Though I've been clean for five and a half years now, though I've graduated
from college with honors, written a couple of books, won a few awards,
gotten married and moved on, I still remember where I came from. And I know
that the slippery slope of addiction--for me, and indeed for many
others--began with marijuana.

So while some may think it hip to rationalize a problem that has ruined so
many lives, I can't advocate the legalization of marijuana. And not just
because my faith and my experience tell me it's wrong to abuse drugs of any
kind.

I won't advocate legalization because common sense won't let me do so. I
won't because I'm not high these days. I won't because I don't need to be.
And neither does anyone else.

Solomon Jones (sjones@philadelphiaweekly.com)) last wrote about a proposed
computer network connecting Philadelphians to available services.