Is marijuana a gateway drug? It’s 2017, and that’s the question many people are still asking.
Many people have long believed that marijuana use will lead to the use of other, stronger drugs. According to this theory, using marijuana creates a gateway to using drugs like heroin or cocaine.
Participants in 2017 Connecticut forum about adolescents and drugs have mixed opinions as to whether marijuana is such a substance. A worried parent explained how her teenage son began using marijuana as a teenager but later turned to crack cocaine, cocaine, and heroin, and has even stolen prescription medication from his friends’ homes.
Another participant at the same forum was not so sure that marijuana use could lead to other things. A recovering addict, this participant said that he gradually became addicted to other drugs. His drug of choice? Prescription opioids.
The recovering addict and the son of the concerned parent both had problems with prescription drugs. Although many people claim that marijuana is a dangerous substance, these examples illustrate how people abuse and misuse legally prescribed medications as well.
Doctors prescribe such medications legally, and people buy them in drug stores legally. The legal nature of these transactions leads some people to think that prescription medications are safer than marijuana.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Opioid overdoses killed 46 people died every day, according to 2014 statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Meanwhile, U.S. states that legalized marijuana experienced a 25 percent drop in opioid overdoses. Advocates of medical marijuana point to such statistics when they claim that marijuana is a safer way to treat chronic pain and other conditions.
Chronic treating chronic pain? Marijuana as a medicine instead of an illegal, demonized drug? Researchers want to conduct studies on marijuana and other potential painrelievers to test their safety and effectiveness. But given the potential of marijuana and other substances, shouldn’t we consider their ability to help instead of instantly criticizing them as agents of harm?
