- Joined
- Jan 2, 2011
- Messages
- 70,750
- Reputation
- 33,540
- Reaction score
- 271,584
- Points
- 0
- Currently Smoking
- Dragon
What's your Poison..?...:Hookah:
[h=2]Marijuana is often attacked as a 'gateway drug'. But a look at drug use data shows that others may be worse[/h]
Is marijuana a 'gateway drug', luring users into a cycle of dependency on ever-more dangerous substances? That's one theory, but a look at data on actual drug use tells a different story.
The annual US federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration survey maps the drug habits of around 70,000 randomly-selected Americans, to draw a picture of the ways in which drug use changes.
Advocacy group Treatment4Addiction analysed this year's data and created an interactive that traces how users switch from one drug to another.
[h=3]Here's how that looks for marijuana:[/h]
For about one in five drug users in the survey marijuana was the first substance they tried. Some 60% of those went on to try other drugs.
But once you take alcohol out of the equation, just 43% of marijuana smokers went on to harder stuff. Some quick maths reveals that 8.6% of our starting group began with marijuana and moved onto other drugs.
8.6 %
Marijuana first-timers who took another drug
[h=3]Now let's look at alcohol:[/h]
treatment4addiction
Quite a different story.
For an overwhelming 88% of our study group, alcohol was the first drug they tried. And 50% of those then moved onto other drugs, including marijuana.
The same maths as above says that an astonishing 44% of our original group began with alcohol before moving to harder stuff.
44 %
Alcohol first-timers who took another drug
[h=3]Meth: That one drug that makes you try ALL the drugs[/h]
treatment4addiction
By way of comparison, there's just a 3% chance that people who try methamphetamine WON'T go on to try other drugs. But hardly anyone takes meth as their first drug experience.
[h=3]Tranquilisers:[/h]
treatment4addiction
And at the other end of the scale, 51% of tranquiliser users never bother to go find another drug.
[h=3]Is alcohol the REAL gateway drug?[/h]Maybe. It looks that way from this exercise, but then alcohol is a really socially-acceptable drug. Lots of people drink and it might have no connection to them later taking crack.
What this survey shows is correlation, not causation. There's no information as to why these changes happen, only that they do and that they're striking.
The infographic's creators also note that this is a snapshot of people - some of whom will go on to try other drugs later in life. Also, you have to be alive to fill in a survey, so people killed by their drug abuse are not represented here.
[h=3]Absent: The REAL 'real gateway drug'?[/h]One drug isn't mentioned in the survey, because abusing it is rarely seen as a social problem. That drug is nicotine.
Tim Ireland/PA Wire
Buy this photo » Studies have shown that exposure to alcohol and THC (the active ingredient of marijuana) can increase 'drug-seeking' behaviour in lab animals. But the drug with by far the greatest effect? Nicotine. It made the rats particularly fond of cocaine.
[h=2]Marijuana is often attacked as a 'gateway drug'. But a look at drug use data shows that others may be worse[/h]
Is marijuana a 'gateway drug', luring users into a cycle of dependency on ever-more dangerous substances? That's one theory, but a look at data on actual drug use tells a different story.
The annual US federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration survey maps the drug habits of around 70,000 randomly-selected Americans, to draw a picture of the ways in which drug use changes.
Advocacy group Treatment4Addiction analysed this year's data and created an interactive that traces how users switch from one drug to another.
[h=3]Here's how that looks for marijuana:[/h]
But once you take alcohol out of the equation, just 43% of marijuana smokers went on to harder stuff. Some quick maths reveals that 8.6% of our starting group began with marijuana and moved onto other drugs.
8.6 %
Marijuana first-timers who took another drug
[h=3]Now let's look at alcohol:[/h]
treatment4addiction
Quite a different story.
For an overwhelming 88% of our study group, alcohol was the first drug they tried. And 50% of those then moved onto other drugs, including marijuana.
The same maths as above says that an astonishing 44% of our original group began with alcohol before moving to harder stuff.
44 %
Alcohol first-timers who took another drug
[h=3]Meth: That one drug that makes you try ALL the drugs[/h]
treatment4addiction
By way of comparison, there's just a 3% chance that people who try methamphetamine WON'T go on to try other drugs. But hardly anyone takes meth as their first drug experience.
[h=3]Tranquilisers:[/h]
treatment4addiction
And at the other end of the scale, 51% of tranquiliser users never bother to go find another drug.
[h=3]Is alcohol the REAL gateway drug?[/h]Maybe. It looks that way from this exercise, but then alcohol is a really socially-acceptable drug. Lots of people drink and it might have no connection to them later taking crack.
What this survey shows is correlation, not causation. There's no information as to why these changes happen, only that they do and that they're striking.
The infographic's creators also note that this is a snapshot of people - some of whom will go on to try other drugs later in life. Also, you have to be alive to fill in a survey, so people killed by their drug abuse are not represented here.
[h=3]Absent: The REAL 'real gateway drug'?[/h]One drug isn't mentioned in the survey, because abusing it is rarely seen as a social problem. That drug is nicotine.
Tim Ireland/PA Wire
Buy this photo » Studies have shown that exposure to alcohol and THC (the active ingredient of marijuana) can increase 'drug-seeking' behaviour in lab animals. But the drug with by far the greatest effect? Nicotine. It made the rats particularly fond of cocaine.
..Auto-Erotics...
