Identify any examples of bias presented by the author. If none exist, explain how you determined this?
Marijuana Use Leads to the Use of Other Drugs
Table of Contents: Further Readings
In 2002 the RAND Institute’s Drug Research Policy Center sponsored a study examining the “gateway theory,” which postulates that marijuana use leads to the abuse of other drugs such as cocaine and heroin. In the following viewpoint Jim McDonough argues that the media has misrepresented the results of the study by claiming that it found that marijuana is not a gateway drug. In fact, McDonough contends, the study’s researchers discovered that the correlation between marijuana use and other drug use is high, and that users who abuse marijuana on a frequent basis are more likely to use cocaine and heroin. McDonough is the director of the Florida Office of Drug Control and formerly served as director of strategic planning at the Office of National Drug Control Policy.
As you read, consider the following questions:
What previous study results are accepted by the author of the RAND study, according to McDonough?
What is the “common factor” theory, as cited by the author?
What are the RAND study’s important findings that were missed by the press and promarijuana lobby, according to McDonough?
Big excitement has hit the drug legalization world. A [2002] RAND Drug Policy Research Center study reported that marijuana may look, act, and smell like a gateway drug to abuse of harder drugs, but that possibly it is not a gateway drug after all.
A Misrepresented Study
The marijuana normalizers—as in, “let’s make marijuana use normal, or acceptable”—loved it; so did some of the press. Both were quick to misportray the study, so much so that the author of the study himself was dismayed.
Andrew Morral of RAND believes he did everything he could to explain he did not disprove the gateway theory but, as he told me, “The story about it misrepresented both our findings and my comments about the relevance of our findings to US drug policy. RAND and I have taken pains to emphasize that we do not believe we have disproved the gateway theory.”
The study did say that a high incidence of progression from marijuana to heroin and cocaine use is apparent; that the younger you are when you start using marijuana, the more likely you are to end up using cocaine and heroin; that the more often you use marijuana, the more likely you will use cocaine and heroin.
In short, the study shows the correlation between marijuana and other drug abuse to be high.
Indeed, the study accepts previous studies that have demonstrated the probability that heroin and cocaine use increases 85 times for marijuana users when compared with those who are not marijuana users; that early teen use of marijuana is even more highly correlated with other drug use than late teen marijuana use; and that the more puffs of marijuana you take, the more likely you move on to injections and snorting of even more dangerous drugs.
But here’s where the misunderstanding begins. The study says that maybe these terrible things happen because the people who use all these nasty drugs do it because they have a propensity for drug use, and marijuana is the first illegal drug to present itself to the young.
Dr. Morral calls that the “common factor” theory.
In other words, all drug users like all drugs; marijuana just comes along first. He suggests that this theory might be more accurate than the gateway theory.
But is a gateway not a gateway because it happens to present itself in front of where you want to go?
Perhaps this study’s findings appear trivial. They aren’t. If marijuana is merely the door through which those inclined to use drugs pass because it is convenient, all the more reason to keep that door locked.
Marijuana Is Dangerous
I’m convinced that’s the best way to view Morral’s findings, because the pro-marijuana lobby and much of what the press missed in this study, as well as other careful studies, were findings that suggest:
There is a strong correlation between marijuana and other drug abuse, with marijuana almost always occurring first.
Marijuana, all by itself, is a dangerous drug.
There is a strong correlation between marijuana use and schizophrenia.
Marijuana itself is addictive.
Youth marijuana use correlates highly with violence, truancy, and other behavioral problems.
The younger the marijuana user, the more psychological and physiological damage done, and the more likely that other drugs will follow.
Smoking three marijuana joints a day can cause the equivalent respiratory damage associated with 20 cigarettes a day. Marijuana smokers show significantly more respiratory symptoms than people who don’t smoke it.
Prolonged use can cause attention deficit and deterioration in memory.
Over the years, I have talked with hundreds of addicts and treatment counselors. They say that marijuana was virtually always the beginning of a long, ugly journey; that marijuana is the most insidious of the illegal
Written by Admin on January 11th, 2009 with 1 comment.
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