Study Questions U.S. Policy on Pot

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

The study by the private, nonprofit Rand Drug Policy Research Center countered the theory that marijuana acts as a so-called “gateway” drug to more harmful narcotics, a key argument against legalizing pot in the United States.

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

Using data from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse from 1982 to 1994, the study concluded that 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’s possible marijuana is not a gateway drug. It’s just the first thing kids come across.”

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

He said the four-year gap in exposure to drugs raised doubt about the gateway theory.

Given limited resources, Morral said the U.S. should reconsider the prominence of marijuana in its much-publicized “war on drugs.”