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"Most people who smoke pot do not move on to other drugs, but then only 5% to 7% of cigarette smokers get lung cancer. The point for parents and teens is that those youngsters who smoke pot are at vastly greater risk of moving on to harder drugs." (The grass roots of teen drug abuse, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse) In June, 1997 two breakthrough studies were published in the journal Science. Though these studies have long, complicated titles, they were frequently referred to in the media as the "rat studies." They are significant because for the first time scientific research shows that marijuana use causes the same changes in brain chemistry as cocaine, heroin, and alcohol. The studies support both the gateway theory (that the use of marijuana can lead to the use of harder drugs) and also support the addictive potential of marijuana use. In the first study: Activation of Corticotropin-Releasing Factor in the Limbic System During Cannabinoid Withdrawal by F. Rodriguez de Fonseca, M.R.A. Carrera, M. Navarro, G.F. Koob, and F. Weiss, researchers from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California and Complutense University of Madrid, Spain "... trace the symptoms of emotional stress caused by marijuana withdrawal to the same brain chemical, a peptide called corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), that has already been linked to anxiety and stress during opiate, alcohol, and cocaine withdrawal." Marijuana: Harder Than Thought? Friedbert Weiss, senior author of that study, states: "chronic marijuana use increases the sensitivity to anxiety and stress and the susceptibility to using cocaine or heroin to relieve symptoms of stress or drug withdrawal. It becomes a vicious cycle of dependence. The research is the first to lend clear evidence that marijuana use causes chemical changes in the brain that can be directly linked to stress and anxiety that are relieved by drug use." (Study finds new evidence that marijuana leads to harder drugs, Paul Recer, AP Science Writer, June 27, 1997). The second study: Cannabinoid and Heroin Activation of Mesolimbic Dopamine Transmission by a Common Opiod Receptor Mechanism by G. Tanda, F.E. Pontieri, and G. DiChiara was conducted by Italian researchers. "Gaetano Di Chiara and colleagues at the University of Rome, Italy, found that heroin and marijuana-like substances both sent the brain chemical dopamine coursing through a part of the brain linked to addiction. ...The study suggests that marijuana activates the same reward centers as heroin. ...'I would be satisfied if, following this evidence, people no longer call THC a "soft" drug,' says DiChiara." (Marijuana's active ingredient may cause addiction). Also, in October 1994 a report: Cigarettes, Alcohol, Marijuana: Gateways to Illicit Drug Use, from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Columbia University reported the following:
This study further states, "We know that millions of Americans who smoke and drink never move on to marijuana, cocaine, heroin or other illegal drugs. Nevertheless, the statistical relationships derived from the federal government’s extensive survey of drug abuse using accepted epidemiological methodology are so powerful and the risk to American’s 20 million 12-year-old children so great that the implications of this report are profound. The statistical message is clear: The younger an individual uses any gateway drug (cigarettes, alcohol or marijuana), the more gateway drugs an individual uses, the likelier that individual is to experiment with cocaine, heroin and other illicit drugs and the likelier that individual is to become a regular adult drug user and addict." Source Documentation: Cigarettes, Alcohol, Marijuana: Gateways to Illicit Drug Use, from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, Columbia University Also included in this section: Marijuana: Harder than Thought? (from the journal Science, June 27, 1997) USA Today Article: Marijuana’s active ingredient may cause addiction by Steve Sternberg
"A recent report by the center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), claiming that marijuana users are 85 times more likely than non-marijuana users to try cocaine." (The grass roots of teen drug abuse, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse) "In the sense that marijuana use typically precedes rather than follows initiation of other illicit drug use, it is indeed a 'gateway' drug." (The grass roots of teen drug abuse, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse) "Teens who drank, smoked cigarettes, and used marijuana at least once in the past month are more than 16 times as likely to use another drug like cocaine, heroin or LSD." (The grass roots of teen drug abuse, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse)
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