Out with the old: Rethinking marijuana as a gateway drug
For generations of Americans, marijuana’s description as a gateway drug was embedded into drug prevention education lessons. The federally endorsed D.A.R.E. program that ran from 1983 to 2009 demonized the substance itself, and often the users in the process, because the use of marijuana was believed to lead to harder and more dangerous drugs.
The term “gateway drug” was consistent with the ideology of Ronald Reagan’s administration’s War on Drugs that sought total elimination of drug use and trade.
The research of the day suggested that marijuana consumption was directly linked to the subsequent use of other licit and illicit substances and played a role in the development of addiction.
Studies of the time, from the likes of the National Epidemiological Study of Alcohol Use and Related Disorders, found that adults who reported marijuana use were more likely than non-users to develop an alcohol- or nicotine-use disorder.
Eventually, the correlation...
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