Jean Lapierre Resigns

normanchateau · January 14, 2007

I don't buy the whole gateway drug thing for a couple reasons

I buy it, I've seen it happen with my own eyes. I'll say with all the people I know that smoke pot 75% went on to worse stuff because of the same reason they tried pot in the first place.

If they "went on to worse stuff because of the same reason they tried pot in the first place", then the problem is not marijuana but why "they tried pot in the first place". Those reasons aren't going to disappear even if marijuana were to vanish from the face of the earth.

madmax · January 14, 2007

I don't buy the whole gateway drug thing for a couple reasons

I buy it, I've seen it happen with my own eyes. I'll say with all the people I know that smoke pot 75% went on to worse stuff because of the same reason they tried pot in the first place.

Wow, sounds pretty scarey. The people I know that smoked pot, oh probably my entire Grade 13 Graduating Class, went on to become Lawyers, Doctors, Airline Pilots, Pharamacy Pros, and Teachers.

I have yet to be worried about POT as a gateway drug. But there are drugs that one should be worried as gateway drugs including prescription drugs.

scribblet · January 14, 2007

I completely agree that stoned driving should be treated as seriously as drunk driving. I know that some police forces have begun training their officers to detect stoned driving and this should continue.
I don't buy the whole gateway drug thing for a couple reasons. Pot is so easy to get in Canada now that I don't think you would see a great increase in usage due to decriminalization or legalization. I think that if either happened people would be shocked at the number of Canadians who do smoke.

I don't smoke any more for health reasons. But what's the difference between buddy who puts down a 24 over the weekend and budy smoking a couple joints over the weekend?

I know many people don't buy into it but I do. I was involved for sometime with various agencies and schools in TO a number of years ago, and so far have no reason to change my opinion. I believe the Journal of American Medical Ass. reached the conclusion that young people who smoke marijuana are two to five times more likely to move on to harder drugs

Lots of people drink but don't become alcoholics, same with pot I assume. Either way they are not healthy habits to get into. What I don't understand is how we can be so adamant about harmful smoking, but the same people think its okay to smoke a substance that damages brain cells. In fact, a study by the British Lung Foundation found that just three cannabis joints a day cause the same damage as 20 cigarettes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2419713.stm

normanchateau · January 14, 2007

I believe the Journal of American Medical Ass. reached the conclusion that young people who smoke marijuana are two to five times more likely to move on to harder drugs

To refresh your memory, here's what the Journal of the American Medical Association has to say on the issue:

#1 A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association on cannabis and its possible role as a gateway drug found that "While covariates differed between equations, early regular use of tobacco and alcohol emerged as the 2 factors most consistently associated with later illicit drug use and abuse/dependence. While early regular alcohol use did not emerge as a significant independent predictor of alcohol dependence, this finding should be treated with considerable caution, as our study did not provide an optimal strategy for assessing the effects of early alcohol use."

Source: Lynskey, Michael T., PhD, et al., "Escalation of Drug Use in Early-Onset Cannabis Users vs Co-twin Controls," Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 289 No. 4, January 22/29, 2003, online at http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v289n4/rfull/joc21156.html, last accessed Jan. 31, 2003.

#2 A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association on cannabis and its possible role as a gateway drug concluded that "While the findings of this study indicate that early cannabis use is associated with increased risks of progression to other illicit drug use and drug abuse/dependence, it is not possible to draw strong causal conclusions solely on the basis of the associations shown in this study."

Source: Lynskey, Michael T., PhD, et al., "Escalation of Drug Use in Early-Onset Cannabis Users vs Co-twin Controls," Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 289 No. 4, January 22/29, 2003, online at http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v289n4/rfull/joc21156.html, last accessed Jan. 31, 2003.

#3 A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association on cannabis and its possible role as a gateway drug concluded that "Other mechanisms that might mediate a causal association between early cannabis use and subsequent drug use and drug abuse/dependence include the following:

"1. Initial experiences with cannabis, which are frequently rated as pleasurable, may encourage continued use of cannabis and also broader experimentation.

"2. Seemingly safe early experiences with cannabis may reduce the perceived risk of, and therefore barriers to, the use of other drugs. For example, as the vast majority of those who use cannabis do not experience any legal consequences of their use, such use may act to diminish the strength of legal sanctions against the use of all drugs.

"3. Alternatively, experience with and subsequent access to cannabis use may provide individuals with access to other drugs as they come into contact with drug dealers. This argument provided a strong impetus for the Netherlands to effectively decriminalize cannabis use in an attempt to separate cannabis from the hard drug market. This strategy may have been partially successful as rates of cocaine use among those who have used cannabis are lower in the Netherlands than in the United States."

Source: Lynskey, Michael T., PhD, et al., "Escalation of Drug Use in Early-Onset Cannabis Users vs Co-twin Controls," Journal of the American Medical Association, Vol. 289 No. 4, January 22/29, 2003, online at http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v289n4/rfull/joc21156.html, last accessed Jan. 31, 2003.

In any event, the Journal of the American Medical Association is merely one source of medical information. Senator Nolin's Committee examined hundreds of sources and came to the conclusion that on the balance of all the data, marijuana is not a gateway drug. The final report is available here in html and pdf format:

http://canadaonline.about.com/gi/dynamic/o...ive%2520Reports