Is Marijuana Really A Gateway To Other Drugs?

The existing gateway theory regarding marijuana has paved the way for the stepping theory theory to step into the scene. This marijuana as stated in the theory is not potentially dangerous, but consumption of it will lead to other detrimental drugs. Through the years, marijuana has been thought to pave way for Heroin, Cocaine, or LSD. Should we accept this gateway theory then?

Congress will never allow the acceptance of such theory. Those cocaine-users likely tried using marijuana, which is more popular by far than cocaine, as a start-off drug. The medical marijuana in ca on the other hand never urged people to use LSD, heroin, or cocaine.

One simple analogy would be comparing bicycle riding versus motorcycle riding. Bicycle riding (in this example this is marijuana  use) has gained more popularity than motorcycle riding (in this case using cocaine). The amount of people who consequently rides a  motorcycle (use cocaine) and at the same time tries out riding a bicycle (smoked marijuana) is very high. Bicycle riding doesn't give birth to motorcycle riding as well as a drastic increase in bicycle riding doesn't necessarily prompt a relative increase in motorcycle riding. We can readily relate the analogy that an increase in medical marijuana usage will not increase as well the usage of hard drugs and cocaine.

The analogy stresses the occurrence of events but not the causation. Riding a bicycle will not provoke one to ride a  motorcycle as well as medical cannabis usage will not coerce one to use cocaine -  a typical illustrative sequence based on a high prevalence activity (smoking marijuana) versus a low prevalence activity (heroin, cocaine, or lsd use).

Some studies in animals are considering an  association between THC and the increase of dopamine availability. Studies have suggested that marijuana functions by "priming" the brain for cocaine and heroin use. But there has been no adequate research conducted to conclude that animals "primed" with THC injections are strongly desiring to self-administer heroin or cocaine. This is not obviously not reality-based.

Out of the 72 million Americans who used marijuana (about 100 million since the study has started), about 17% only have confessed to have tried out cocaine more than a hundred times according to facts presented by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. For every 100 marijuana users, only one currently uses cocaine as of the moment.

Marijuana is without a doubt the widely used illegal drug in the US today. It is believed that people who have used the less popular unlawful drugs like cocaine, LSD, and or cocaine started out with marijuana as well. Many  marijuana users never never resorted to any other illegal drug at all but identified  marijuana as an end drug, not a gateway drug.