"The findings, based on studies of rats, are being published today in the Journal of Science. They provide strong support for the emerging idea that all addictive drugs corrupt the same brain circuits, although to varying degrees, and suggest that chronic marijuana use may literally prime the brain for other drugs of abuse, a notion known as the ‘gateway effect.’ People who oppose the legalization of marijuana will be happy about these findings, while those who feel that marijuana is a benign drug will probably be upset, said Dr. Alan Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in Rockville, Maryland." (Brain Studies Tie Marijuana to Other Drugs, The New York Times, June 27, 1997)

"‘These two studies supply important evidence that marijuana acts on the same neural substrates and has the same effects as drugs already known to be highly addictive.' says David Friedman, a neurobiologist at Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. ‘They also,’ he adds, ‘send a powerful message that should raise everyone's awareness about the dangers of marijuana use.’" (Marijuana: Harder Than Thought?, Science, June 27, 1997)

"But the results may have a more hopeful message as well, because they may guide scientists in devising better strategies for treating marijuana dependence, for which some 100,000 people in the United States alone seek treatment each year." (Marijuana: Harder Than Thought?, Science, June 27, 1997)

"Chronic use of marijuana causes chemical changes that may prime the brain for addiction to cocaine and heroin, according to a study that provides the first hard scientific support for the contention that marijuana can be a gateway to harder drugs. (Studies say marijuana is gateway drug, USA Today, June 26, 1997)

"They (young teens) think they are immune and can limit their involvement to soft drugs. That is a delusion - like trying to be a little bit pregnant. The earlier and more frequently an adolescent uses a soft drug the more likely it is he will go on to the hard drugs. This is surely an argument for more vigilance, not less. Legalization would jeopardize a whole generation." (Great idea for ruining kids, U.S. News and World Report, February 24, 1997)

"The theory here is that marijuana is a ‘gateway’ to harder drugs. That isn’t Reefer Madness alarmism: reliable research shows that virtually all heroin and cocaine addicts started out with pot." (The War over Weed, Newsweek, February 3, 1997)

"The link between the use of marijuana and the other subsequent use of harder drugs has been the subject of much debate, with supporters of marijuana decriminalization and legalization arguing that many individuals who smoke marijuana never use hard drugs. While the later is true, the statistical association between teenage use of marijuana and the later use of other drugs such as cocaine is powerful. Even though the biomedical or other casual relationship for this has not yet been adequately explained, 12 to 17-year olds who smoke marijuana are 85 times more likely to use cocaine than those who do not. ...Sixty per cent of adolescents who use marijuana before age 15 will later use cocaine. These correlations are many times higher than the initial relationships found between smoking and lung cancer in the 1964 Surgeon General’s Report (9 - 20 times... (Clinical and Societal Implications of Drug Legalization, Kleber, Califano, and Demers, Copyright 1997)