Jake from State Farm's blog: "War On Drugs"

I am sure we all have heard it. From our parents, our teachers, those friends who overly stressed that they cared: MARIJUANA IS A GATEWAY DRUG!!

"One day its a harmless little joint on the couch; the next day your suckin dick in an alley for a nickel bag of crack.." is what they used to tell my friends & I.

But nowadays studies are showing different.

A recent study at the University of Pittsburgh tracked 214 boys beginning at age 10-12 (all of whom eventually used some sort of illegal or legal intoxicant), until they were roughly the age of 22; where they were categorized into three groups: (1)those who used only alcohol or tobacco,(2) those who started with alcohol and tobacco and then used marijuana (gateway sequence) and (3) those who used marijuana prior to alcohol or tobacco (reverse sequence).


A quarter of the studied population exhibited the reverse pattern of using marijuana prior to alcohol or tobacco, and those individuals were no more likely to develop a substance use disorder than those who followed the traditional succession of alcohol and tobacco before illegal drugs.

The gateway progression may be the most common pattern, but it’s certainly not the only order of drug use,” said Ralph E. Tarter, Ph.D., professor of pharmaceutical sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy...

While the gateway theory posits that each type of drug is associated with certain specific risk factors that cause the use of subsequent drugs, such as cigarettes or alcohol leading to marijuana, this study’s findings indicate that environmental aspects have stronger influence on which type of substance is used. That is, if it’s easier for a teen to get his hands on marijuana than beer, then he’ll be more likely to smoke pot. This evidence supports what’s known as the common liability model, an emerging theory that states the likelihood that someone will transition to the use of illegal drugs is determined not by the preceding use of a particular drug but instead by the user’s individual tendencies and environmental circumstances...

Check out the link for more info.