“Cannabis is dangerous.” “Weed leads you to other drugs.” “Marijuana opens the door to harder substances.”
How many times have we heard these claims, without clear support or solid scientific evidence behind them? Too many to count, right? Now, a study backed by the Japanese government itself is using hard data to dismantle one of the most persistent theories in prohibitionist discourse: the gateway drug hypothesis, as shared by Marijuana Moment.
In January 2021, the Japanese Clinical Association of Cannabinoids, with support from the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, conducted an anonymous survey of 3,900 people who had used cannabis at some point in their lives.
After an extensive analysis and review process, the results were published this month in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology Reports, marking a turning point in the scientific and political approach to cannabis in the country.
Booze, Smokes… Then the Bud
One of the most compelling findings is that cannabis is not actually the gateway drug to substance use. In fact, in most cases, it was the third substance used, after alcohol and tobacco: two legal drugs, widely socially accepted that, paradoxically, have the highest documented rates of harm.
The study reveals that almost half of the respondents who reported cannabis as their third drug did not subsequently use any other substance. The odds of marijuana users progressing to other substances were actually low:
1.25 for alcohol
0.77 for tobacco
0.08 for methamphetamine
0.78 for other illicit drugs
What If It’s Not Cannabis, But the World Around It?
Rather than a causal relationship between cannabis and problematic use, the authors point to what is known as the “common liability” theory, which suggests that shared factors (such as age, education, socioeconomic status, or social context) predispose a person to try different substances, regardless of which came first.
“Rather than implying a …
Read More
Author: Camila Berriex / High Times
