Pubdate: Thu, 29 Nov 2007
Source: Toronto Star (CN ON)
Copyright: 2007 The Toronto Star
Contact:  http://www.thestar.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/456
Author: Susan Brink, Los Angeles Times
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)

POT USERS MAY SHUN TOBACCO

Not All Teen Marijuana Smokers Start With Cigarettes, Study Finds

Young people who smoke cigarettes are more likely to move on to 
marijuana, studies have shown for years. So common is that pattern 
that it's called the gateway theory of drug use.

Now, Swiss researchers are among the first to look at the 
characteristics of teens who use marijuana but don't, and never have, 
smoked cigarettes.

The researchers looked at 5,263 Swiss students ages 16 to 20 and 
found that about one-fifth of those who smoked marijuana never smoked 
cigarettes. Those who smoked cannabis and not tobacco were more 
likely to play sports, live with both parents and do well in school 
than those who smoked both substances, according to the study in the 
November Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. When compared 
with students who didn't smoke anything, marijuana users were more 
social, but they also were more likely to take risks and less likely 
than abstainers to have good relationships with their parents.

In the new study, the majority of marijuana users, about 80 per cent, 
still followed the classic pattern of smoking tobacco first, then 
adding marijuana.

"But not everyone follows traditional pathways, and this alternative 
pathway may be important," says Dr. Wilson Compton, researcher at the 
National Institute on Drug Abuse, which was not involved in the Swiss study. 
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake