cannabisnews.com: Gateway To Heaven? 










  Gateway To Heaven? 

Posted by CN Staff on December 11, 2002 at 12:10:09 PT
By Iain Murray, Columnist, TCS  
Source: Tech Central Station  

Nevada's state ballot this year included Question 9, which called for the legalization of marijuana for both sale and use. Drug Czar John Walters visited the state twice to argue against the initiative. He was quoted in the Boston Globe as calling marijuana "an addictive gateway drug," accounting for 60 percent of Americans in drug rehab. "It's the single biggest source of dependency of any of the illegal drugs, more than twice as important as the next most important drug, cocaine," the paper quoted Walters as saying. 
The proposition fell by a wide margin, 61% to 39%. It was interesting, therefore, that, of all the studies published since that result, many of which found increased evidence that marijuana was physically or psychologically harmful, the study that got the most attention was one that cast doubt on the existence of any gateway effect. Even more interesting was how it was reported. The gateway theory suggests that marijuana somehow affects people so that they are more likely to try hard drugs than those who have not tried marijuana. The relative risk between a marijuana user and a non-marijuana user for trying hard drugs has been shown to be as high as 85 to 1. But a new study, by Andrew Morral and a team from the RAND Corporation, published in the journal Addiction, postulated a different hypothesis to explain both this relative risk, the well-documented sequential progression in humans from marijuana to other drugs and the fact that the more frequently people use marijuana, the more likely they are to use hard drugs (the 'dose-response' relationship). The gateway theory accounts for each of these facts. Morral and his colleagues instead postulated a model of how adolescents come to use drugs. It was based on the following assumptions: that individuals have a random predisposition or propensity to use drugs, distributed normally throughout the population; that this propensity correlates to the risk of being able to use drugs and with the probability of using them given the opportunity; and that marijuana and hard drug use are not linked. The model produced a relative risk for marijuana users trying hard drugs substantially greater than the actual data shows, although that is probably a case of the model being very sensitive to small variations in data. It successfully predicted the ordering of drug use and also accounted for the dose-response relationship when it assumed a high correlation between high frequency marijuana use and hard drug use. Morral and his colleagues decided that their model adequately explains drug use patterns in America, and therefore suggested that the gateway theory might be an inappropriate basis for public policy decisions. This was not quite how the study was reported, however. It was first mentioned before official publication date (and therefore in breach of an embargo, presumably) by Bill Keller in The New York Times, in the context of John Walters' "obsession" with marijuana. The Reuters story, which was also picked up by The Washington Post, got the story flat out wrong, stating that the study proved that marijuana did not lead to hard drug use and that the gateway theory was disproved. The RAND Corporation was forced to issue a press release denying this interpretation. The gateway theory is, in fact, far from disproved. All Morral and his colleagues have done is provide an alternative explanation (it is also quite complicated, despite the authors' claims of "parsimony"). Three commentary articles accompanied the study in the journal, none of which suggested that the gateway theory was dead. One pointed out that economic evidence had shown a clear gateway effect between cigarette smoking and both alcohol and marijuana use and that research in a similar vein here could illuminate the issue. Another pointed out that even though a common underlying cause had been found that explained chickenpox, shingles and post-shingles neuralgia, nevertheless public health had been improved by targeting chickenpox first, because of the clear pathway between the three ailments. The third commentary mentioned perhaps the most important non-statistical argument in favor of the gateway theory, the neurological data that suggest that chronic exposure to the cannabinoids in marijuana may induce cross-tolerance to harder drugs. Research on this topic in humans has been held up by ethical considerations, but it would fit with other neurological data about how marijuana and other drugs work. If it is a genuine effect, then it would have to be incorporated into the RAND model as a form of the gateway effect. Although the RAND model adequately explains observed data, it cannot replace the gateway theory until further research is done. Interestingly, the Nevada quotations apart, the Drug Czar's office seeks to downplay the gateway argument, preferring instead to concentrate on the documented health effects of marijuana - marijuana does not lead to harmful drugs, it is a harmful drug. It is interesting, therefore, that of all the marijuana studies to have emerged over the past few months, this should be the one to receive major press space and that it should have been reported in such an unsatisfactory way in the nation's two most prestigious dailies. Source: Tech Central Station (DC)Author: Iain Murray, Columnist, TCS Published: December 11, 2002Copyright: 2002 Tech Central Station Contact: info techcentralstation.com Website: http://www.techcentralstation.com/Related Articles & Web Site:RAND http://www.rand.org/ Study Says Marijuana Does Not Lead To Drugs http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14880.shtmlMarijuana No Gateway To Cocaine and Heroinhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14879.shtmlStudy Finds No Cannabis Link To Hard Drugs http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11595.shtml 

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Comment #13 posted by FoM on December 12, 2002 at 18:34:36 PT
CongressmanSuet
Did it work ok this time? They have been working on CNews program and maybe something was out of sync. Let me know if you still have problems and I'll report it right away. 
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Comment #12 posted by CongressmanSuet on December 12, 2002 at 18:30:48 PT
Posts...
    I have made a few posts to the board in the last couple of days, and get all kinds of error messages. Is there something up
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Comment #11 posted by pokesmotter on December 11, 2002 at 16:51:32 PT:
something occurred while reading this
Information about marijuana is cloudy. Cloudy to the people who vote against reform that is. They don't know what to think. What EVERYONE needs is a great speaker who can speak truth to everyone and has the conifdence to advocate for marijuana law reform. I have no idea who it will be, but someone with courage and the confidence to fight; a person who I would follow, and a person who all of us would follow. Everyone who stands to gain from continued marijuana prohibition will of course fight it with all their power. "But I also know, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths are disclosed and manners and opinions change with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also, and keep pace with the times..."   -- Thomas Jefferson, 40 years after ratification of the Constitution.
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Comment #10 posted by FoM on December 11, 2002 at 16:40:45 PT
p4me
You're right about the Internet. I have learned so much from being on line. I remember back in 97 when I first was getting around comfortably on the Internet I was a daily participant in the MSNBC News chat. I met some very nice people there and was active for a year and a half. I was making comments and one person said you sound like a liberal. I thought and said I don't know what I am but that's how I feel about the issue we at the time were discussing. Another time I was asked if I was a dead head and I said I don't know what a dead head is? Then they told me and I learned something new that day too. I didn't know about how bad the laws were against Cannabis and because I was learning about how they were trying to stop people from acting on the newly passed Prop 215 it started to show me that this topic really did matter. I'm still learning. Cannabis reform is only a small portion of the news anymore but it is an important part because it is about personal freedom to choose what we do to ourselves because we should have that right. No matter what, we should have control over our own bodies in a society that says we are free.
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Comment #9 posted by p4me on December 11, 2002 at 16:22:54 PT
FoM, we are the media
The media cannot be left out of the discussion of cannabis prohibition. We talk about mainstream media but Cnews is media too. People bring their experiences and local news here. Cnews has been a place for voice for people like Paul Peterson, Steve Tuck, Melendez, and even Robin Prosser's sort-of press agent. The woman from Alabama that had her house searched a month or so ago because she became a cannabis activist spoke here.While all people might not be concerned with the cannabis laws, everyone has an interest in the media. Everyone wants to know the story of corruption in government. It is a broader appeal that can summon everyone to make a better country/world and once we get people heading in that direction it is hard to sensibly argue that cannabis should be free. We all have a say-so to some extent in the media that prospers/survives. I am so grateful we live in the time of the Internet. Alternet has an article about the Associated Press hawking Attack Iraq. It is only two paragraphs long and is news you can use thanks to the voices carried by the Internet- http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/2002/12/000180.htmlFree Cannabis for Everyone, everyone.1
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Comment #8 posted by The GCW on December 11, 2002 at 15:04:02 PT
This type of union seems bad for america.
(off...) http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n2240/a02.html?397 
Unions for state prison guards will watch any deal closely. Those unions were leery of Doyle's campaign pledge to cut up to 12,000 state jobs over the next eight years if he is re-elected in 2006. (The unions for state prison guards are welcome to attempt good saleries, bennies, etc. but should be prevented from having a platform to have their way, when it is unhealthy for America.)
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on December 11, 2002 at 14:51:00 PT

p4me
I agree that talking about corruption would help but it won't happen until we seriously change campaign finance laws. As long as big corporations pay big money to the news and tv networks only what they want to be heard will be heard. If we reform those laws then maybe we will get more of what is truthful but until then I just don't know. Thanks for your explanation.
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Comment #6 posted by p4me on December 11, 2002 at 14:43:00 PT

FoM
Yes it would help if the press talked about corruption. One day I am going to look up who called called the press the guardian of democracy. Jefferson clearly saw the role of the press to offset the corruption of power that could talkover democracy. It is that bad journalism that keeps prohibition going. But there is a bigger problem than just not disclosing corruption with the US media, thay are part of the propaganda machine.I remember one time putting up a link to an article by Greg Pa;last that EJ used as an opportunity to go off on the Democrats. He talked about his 9 year old American born son growing up with a British accent and saying that there is no such thing as investigative reporting in America. He talked about how the courts were used as a weapon to silence him. The American media sucks. They are no guardian of democracy but a mouthpiece for fascism.Yes, it would help if people undertook to understand that the whole system is corrupted from the courts, to Congress, and to the media. Look at the article from Cannabis Culture that GCW first put up- http://www.hempbc.com/articles/2604.html - titled "Agents of Destruction." It talks of the FBI as an army of goons suppressing unwanted groups. It talks of the DEA and the CIA as corrupt agents of the government that is supposed to be of, for , and by the people. Does anything like this ever make it to the mainstream press that is free to report the corruption of government. No. Of course not. And it is a big deal that they don't.I know I am repeating myself when I say that I might shake my left fist at the absurd cannabis laws, but I shake my right fist with more fury at the wayward media.It all reminds me of that Chamberlain guy that went to seek peace with Hitler and when he got back to Engalsn with his treaty he held it up on the steps of the plane as if it meant something. It was just a piece of worthless paper that lulled the British into a temporary bliss that war might be averted while the whole time the tank and plane factories were setting them up for a rude awakening.A lot of this bullshit about gateway theory, anti-motivational ruin, and it might increase use crap is way overdone. They throw it out there and people jump on it while the corporations fix it where they pay no taxes and take over Congress and the press. Every aspect of marijuana the substance is done to death because people are baited into it and completely ignore the duty of a true patriot- to fight to eliminate corruption from government.Yes it would help to talk about corruption and to lead the attack for marijuana reform by swinging with the right fist at the media and talking about corruption. We have talked marijuana to death but we have not talked the media into talking about corruption which got them the phrase guardian of democracy.The fascist love conspiracy charges because it does not require the evidence that the direct charge does. You can use hearsay and other rules of evidence that can get anybody convicted. They could legalize possession in this country and still charge with conspiracy with the illegal drug dealer and you still end up in prison, this time with a conspiracy charge. So when I say hang them all, some Congressmen might not be guilty of the murder, or mass murder as Richard Cowan says, but they are guilty by association.The media is going to talk about marijuana when the government has someone they want parroted. It is up to us as citizens to raise the issue of corruption and establish the definition of freedom and not the fascist that have temporarily taken over the of-for-by WETHEPEOPLE government.It is the duty of a patriot to fight against the corruption in government and the media is all but totally unpatriotic. 34 million people still pay $23.90 a month to AOL for Internet service. This is a disgrace to our cause that we cannot get people to leave this ISP for another provider. Time Warner gave us a great opportunity to attack their bottom line when they merged with AOL and we have not exploited it. I will give MY ISP, Netzero, a plug because I sure appreciate only having to pay $9.95 a month.
I can do everything I want to do on the net and save $12.95 a month by not using AOL.Back in '74 when the oil companies withheld oil to drive the price up and the independents out of the gasoline business, there were people that called for a boycott of Shell and there was a slogan, "To hell with Shell." There was no way people could go without gas but they could make an example of Shell. This was about the time that the first four function calculators came out and people would type in the numbers so that when the calculator display was turned upside down it would read "SHELLOIL" which might have had something to do with why SHELL was singled out.We have an absolutely great opportunity to punish one of the great media conglomerates by boycotting their publications but more importantly their overpriced ISP service. We should advocate it and we should boycott them. We have an excellent chance to send a message everytie we buy gas or kerosene. If you are going down the road and you want to send a message just pull in a gas station and buy $4.20 of gas. I have sent 4 such messages at 4 different places and it is my course of action whether people want to join in or not. I ask that you do because it is an idea worthy of implimentation. It would not hurt to write a few reform slogans on the money either.1
 
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Comment #5 posted by Slatts on December 11, 2002 at 14:26:31 PT:

Gateway or Barrier?
A Gateway that lets in less than 2% is usually called a Barrier!Slatts
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Comment #4 posted by Ethan Russo MD on December 11, 2002 at 13:34:30 PT:

Revisionistic Drivel
I don't know this person, but he comes across as knowing all, through his use of definitive statements backed up by nothing.There is no gateway, and this has been known for 30 years. No people just cannot let go. Cannabis makes too good a scapegoat. Soon it will just be the Swedes, Saudis, Singaporeans and us among the true believers in the War on Weed. Lonely group.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on December 11, 2002 at 13:09:37 PT

p4me
I read what you said about talking about corruption and I understand where you are coming from. I guess I believe there is corruption in every facet of any society. When people try to do something on the up and up there will always be those who find a way to make it seem corrupt no matter how pure the ideas might be so if they start talking about corruption where would it end and would it help? Just my 2 cents.
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Comment #2 posted by p4me on December 11, 2002 at 12:49:12 PT

The author has a point....
although he does not have anything to say about how to fix the drug abuse problem in America. Conspiracy laws, stacks of charges for growing a plant, forfeiture laws with inanimate objects as defendants, disallowing any mention of medical circumstances or the mention of jury nullification don't have a thing to do with the gateway theory.Christians that have the body is a Temple attitude are going to skew things by that fact alone.People that won't even take aspirin got to do less hard drugs too, so should we ban aspirin?I will await the authors story that will never come in the list of lies that Walters has told or the role of the CIA in the drug trade. Why don't the prohibitionist get off the small stuff that is irrelevant to the definition of freedom and talk about corruption. The details of cannabis are beaten to death except to badmouth the government for not advancing the medical research of cannabis that could have saved many lives and eliminated much pain. Talk about corruption- the untold story.1
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on December 11, 2002 at 12:36:37 PT

The gate to hard drugs is due to the connection...
in that cannabis is only sold on the same market as hard drugs. Once Re-legalized, cannabis may not be sold next to coke, H, meth, etc.And since the gate swings both ways... there is no mention of cannabis being helpful in getting people off hard drug addictions. With education, people are apt to use cannabis and refrain from hard drugs.And I argue that cannabis is medicine not drug. God gave Us medicine and man gives Us drugs."an addictive gateway drug," ???According to the chart at: http://www.drugwarfacts.org/addictiv.htm.), caffeine is twice as addictive as cannabis and nicotine is more addictive than heroine. =-=This Christmas, since We ARE celebrating Jesus Christ, and He DID say to LOVE Our brother, perhaps the prohibitionists police state could extend brotherly Love for just one day, and not arrest a single cannabis user.Just Christmas and just because it would pleace the Living Christ.
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