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A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Florida has shown that alcohol is far more of a \u201cgateway drug\u201d than marijuana is.<\/p>\n
Results from the Guttman scale indicated that alcohol represented the \u201cgateway\u201d drug, leading to the use of tobacco, marijuana, and other illicit substances. Moreover, students who used alcohol exhibited a significantly greater likelihood of using both licit and illicit drugs. The findings from this investigation support that alcohol should receive primary attention in school-based substance abuse prevention programming, as the use of other substances could be impacted by delaying or preventing alcohol use. Therefore, it seems prudent for school and public health officials to focus prevention efforts, policies, and monies, on addressing adolescent alcohol use.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
According to the study\u2019s co-author, Adam E. Barry, the later in life that a person consumes alcohol, the less likely they are to abuse drugs. Also, it seems that in most cases, use of alcohol and tobacco comes earlier in life than the use of marijuana.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy delaying the onset of alcohol initiation, rates of both licit substance abuse like tobacco and illicit substance use like marijuana and other drugs will be positively affected, and they\u2019ll hopefully go down,\u201d<\/em>Barry said in an\u00a0interview with Raw Story.<\/p>\n
Barry said that his studies were intended to correct some of the propaganda that has infected American culture since the \u201cReefer Madness\u201d era.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of these earlier iterations needed to be fleshed out, that\u2019s why we wanted to study this. The latest form of the gateway theory is that it begins with [marijuana] and moves on finally to what laypeople often call \u2018harder drugs.\u2019 As you can see from the findings of our study, it confirmed this gateway hypothesis, but it follows progression from licit substances, specifically alcohol, and moves on to illicit substances<\/em>,\u201d Barry said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, basically, if we know what someone says with regards to their alcohol use, then we should be able to predict what they respond to with other [drugs]. Another way to say it is, if we know someone has done [the least prevalent drug] heroin, then we can assume they have tried all the others. I think [these results] have to do with level of access children have to alcohol, and that alcohol is viewed as less harmful than some of these other substances<\/em>,\u201d Barry added.<\/p>\n
Just like prescription pills and tobacco, alcohol is seen as more socially acceptable in American society because the government approves of it. However, these substances are largely more dangerous than many of the illegal drugs that people have a deep fear of.<\/p>\n
Since certain drugs are taken less seriously, people are more likely to abuse them and not keep their addiction in check. That is not to say that these legal drugs should be banned as well, in fact, all drugs should be legalized so honest discussions can be had about the uses and dangers of each drug.<\/p>\n
John Vibes\u00a0is an author, researcher and investigative journalist who takes a special interest in the\u00a0<\/em>counter culture\u00a0and the drug war. In addition to his writing and activist\u00a0<\/em>work\u00a0he organizes a number of large events including the\u00a0Free Your Mind Conference, which features top caliber speakers and whistle-blowers from all over the world. You can contact him and stay connected to his work at his\u00a0Facebook page.\u00a0You can find his 65 chapter Book entitled\u00a0\u201cAlchemy of the Timeless Renaissance\u201d\u00a0at bookpatch.com.<\/em><\/p>\n
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\nRetrieved from: http:\/\/yourdailyideas.com\/study-shows-that-alcohol-not-mrijuana-is-the-major-gateway-drug\/<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Study Shows That Alcohol, Not Marijuana Is The Major \u201cGateway Drug\u201d A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Florida has shown that alcohol is far more of a \u201cgateway drug\u201d than marijuana is. Results from the Guttman scale indicated that alcohol represented the \u201cgateway\u201d drug, leading to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cannabis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lutzlivetotell.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}