Marijuana isn't a gateway drug, if anything alcohol is

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Because if we're to, as Obama put it, "follow the science not the ideology" with regards to marijuana and have some hope of getting it decriminalised/legalised on a wider scale in the world, we must continue to dispel the myths surrounding it.

A chief one, regurgitated time and time again, is that weed is a 'gateway drug', a slippery slope to more damaging drugs. But is this really the case?

Data from the US's 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows that 60% of cannabis users go on to try other drugs. That might seem to prove that yes, it is, except that 88% of drug users started with alcohol.

Percent of 18- to 29-year-old illicit drug users whose first drug was cannabis (based on study of Japanese heroin users)

As The Atlantic notes, half of drinkers don't go further than alcohol,...

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URL: 
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/marijuana-isnt-a-gateway-drug-if-anything-alcohol-is-10214880.html