Pubdate: Tue, 20 Mar 2001
Source: Frederick News Post (MD)
Copyright: 2001 Great Southern Printing and Manufacturing Company
Address: 200 East Patrick Street, PO Box 578, Frederick, MD 21705-0578
Fax: 301-662-8299
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Website: http://www.fredericknewspost.com/
Author: Raymond Banz

MARIJUANA GATEWAY THEORY NOT CORRECT

I think it is ironic that the only problem that Cassie Hartzell's Feb. 26 
letter ("Pot not that bad?") could find with marijuana is that it is a 
gateway drug, and then go on to tell a story about someone who began 
drinking, and then tried marijuana. We have all heard stories about people 
and drugs, but anecdotal evidence won't help us understand the problem.

Let's get squared away on the gateway drug theory. There is nothing in the 
chemical composition of one drug (like pot) that automatically leads a 
person to progress to a different drug (like heroin). The reason people go 
from drug to drug is not because of the properties of the chemicals, but 
because of the way the person perceives the drug.

A lot of people do smoke pot before they do harder drugs, but as Cassie so 
effectively pointed out, rarely do drug users actually start with 
marijuana, because almost everyone that tries marijuana has already tried 
alcohol or tobacco. What people mean when they label marijuana the gateway 
drug is that marijuana is the first illegal drug that people try. But if 
marijuana were legal, perhaps kids wouldn't feel the need to experiment 
with harder stuff, because maybe they would be better able to distinguish 
between hard and soft drugs. Forget being legal. If our government would 
only try to give kids real information about illegal drugs (like, for 
example, that it is impossible to die from a marijuana overdose, but that 
it is easy to die from a heroin overdose), maybe that alone would make less 
kids try harder drugs. The truth is that when kids hear "Just Say No," and 
then smoke pot and find out how relatively benign it is, they are then 
informed enough to make their own decisions about it.

The way to end the gateway from one drug to another is information. All 
drugs are different and the dangers each represents are different. If kids 
and adults know this, they will be better able to make smart decisions 
about drug use. Parents should tell their kids that alcohol and heroin 
overdoses cause death, that tobacco and marijuana smoking causes lung 
cancer, and that drugs like ecstasy cause brain damage. For good or bad, 
people will always use chemicals recreationally, so instead of saying "Just 
Say No," lets try to give people real facts and science that will help them 
help themselves.

Raymond Banz
Upperco
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