Gateway Theory
Published: 01/09/2008 - 17:06
1.
(Source of Gateway Effect) "The gateway effect, if it exists, has at least two potential and quite different sources
(Mac-Coun, 1998). One interpretation is that it is an effect of the drug use itself (e.g., trying marijuana increases the taste for
other drugs or leads users to believe that other substances are more pleasurable or less risky than previously supposed). A
second interpretation stresses peer groups and social interactions. Acquiring and using marijuana regularly may lead to
differentially associating with peers who have attitudes and behaviors that are prodrug generally, not only with respect to
marijuana. One version of this is the possibility that those peers will include people who sell other drugs, reducing the
difficulty of locating potential supplies. If the latter is the explanation, then legalization might reduce the likelihood of moving
on to harder drugs compared to the current situation."
Source:
Kilmer, Beau; Caulkins, Jonathan P.; Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo; MacCoun, Robert J.; Reuter, Peter H., "Altered State?
Assessing How Marijuana Legalization in California Could Influence Marijuana Consumption and Public Budgets" Drug
Policy Research Center (Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2010), p. 42.
http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/occasional_papers/2010/RAND_OP...
2.
(Cannabis and Progression to Other Drug Use) "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, p. 432.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/289/4/427.pdf
3.
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(Teen Marijuana Use and Progression to Other Drugs) "Our results indicate a moderate relation between early teen
marijuana use and young adult abuse of other illicit substances; however, this association fades from statistical significance
with adjustments for stress and life-course variables. Likewise, our findings show that any causal influence of teen marijuana
use on other illicit substance use is contingent upon employment status and is short-term, subsiding entirely by the age of 21.
In light of these findings, we urge U.S. drug control policymakers to consider stress and life-course approaches in their pursuit
of solutions to the 'drug problem.'"
Source:
Van Gundy, Karen and Rebellon, Cesar J., "Life-course Perspective on the “Gateway Hypothesis” Journal of Health and
Social Behavior (Thousand Oaks, CA: American Sociological Association, September 2010), p. 244.
http://www.asanet.org/images/journals/docs/pdf/jhsb/Sep10JHSBFeature.pdf
4.
(Alcohol and Tobacco As Gateway Factors) "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, p. 430.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/289/4/427.pdf
5.
(Other Associations Between Cannabis and Subsequent Drug Use) "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.
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"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, p. 430.
http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/reprint/289/4/427.pdf
6.
(Little Evidence of Causal Gateway Effect) "After applying these methods, there is very little remaining evidence of any
causal gateway effect. For example, even if soft/medium drugs (cannabis, amphetamines, LSD, magic mushrooms, amyl
nitrite) could somehow be abolished completely, the true causal link with hard drugs (crack, heroin, methadone) is found to be
very small. For the sort of reduction in soft drug use that might be achievable in practice, the predicted causal effect on the
demand for hard drugs would be negligible. Although there is stronger evidence of a gateway between soft drugs and
ecstasy/cocaine, it remains small for practical purposes. My interpretation of the results of this study is that true gateway
effects are probably very small and that the association between soft and hard drugs found in survey data is largely the result
of our inability to observe all the personal characteristics underlying individual drug use. From this viewpoint, the decision to
reclassify cannabis seems unlikely to have damaging future consequences."
Source:
Pudney, Stephen, "Home Office Research Study 253: The road to ruin? Sequences of initiation into drug use and offending by
young people in Britain" (London, England: Home Office Research, Development, and Statistics Directorate, December
2002), p. vi.
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hors253.pdf
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7.
(Other Hypotheses for Sequence of Initiation into Drug Use) "The causal significance of this sequence of initiation into
drug use remains controversial. The hypothesis that it represents a direct effect of cannabis use upon the use of the later drugs
in the sequence is the least compelling. There is better support for two other hypotheses which are not mutually exclusive: that
there is a selective recruitment into cannabis use of nonconforming adolescents who have a propensity to use other illicit
drugs; and that once recruited to cannabis use, the social interaction with other drug using peers, and exposure to other drugs
when purchasing cannabis on the black-market, increases the opportunity to use other illicit drugs"
Source:
Hall, W., Room, R. & Bondy, S., WHO Project on Health Implications of Cannabis Use: A Comparative Appraisal of the
Health and Psychological Consequences of Alcohol, Cannabis, Nicotine and Opiate Use, August 28, 1995 (Geneva,
Switzerland: World Health Organization, March 1998).
http://www.druglibrary.net/schaffer/hemp/general/who-probable.htm
8.
(Initiation of Use, 2011) "In 2011, about 3.1 million persons aged 12 or older used an illicit drug for the first time within the
past 12 months; this averages to about 8,400 new users per day. This estimate was not significantly different from the number
in 2010 (3.0 million). Over half of initiates (55.5 percent) were younger than age 18 when they first used, and 55.8 percent of
new users were female. The 2011 average age at initiation among persons aged 12 to 49 was 18.1 years, which was similar to
the 2010 estimate (19.1 years). See Section B.4.1 in Appendix B for a discussion of the effects of older adult initiates on
estimates of mean age at first use.
"• Of the estimated 3.1 million persons aged 12 or older in 2011 who used illicit drugs for the first time within the past 12
months, a majority reported that their first drug was marijuana (67.5 percent) (Figure 5.1). More than 1 in 5 initiated with
nonmedical use of psychotherapeutics (22.0 percent, including 14.0 percent with pain relievers, 4.2 percent with tranquilizers,
2.6 percent with stimulants, and 1.2 percent with sedatives). A notable proportion reported inhalants (7.5 percent) as their first
illicit drug, and a small proportion used hallucinogens (2.8 percent). Except for marijuana, all of the above percentages of first
illicit drug use were similar to the corresponding percentages in 2010. The percentage whose first illicit drug was marijuana in
2011 was greater than the percentage in 2010 (62.0 percent)."
Source:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Results from the 2011 National Survey on Drug Use and
Health: Summary of National Findings, NSDUH Series H-44, HHS Publication No. (SMA) 12-4713. Rockville, MD:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2012, p. 52.
http://www.samhsa.gov/data/NSDUH/2k11Results/NSDUHresults2011.pdf
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9.
(Alcohol and Tobacco as Gateway Factors) "In 2007, the rate of current illicit drug use was almost 9 times higher among
youths aged 12 to 17 who smoked cigarettes in the past month (47.3 percent) than it was among youths who did not smoke
cigarettes in the past month (5.4 percent).
"Past month illicit drug use also was associated with the level of past month alcohol use. Among youths aged 12 to 17 in 2007
who were heavy drinkers (i.e., consumed five or more drinks on the same occasion on each of 5 or more days in the past 30
days), 60.1 percent also were current illicit drug users, which was higher than the rate among nondrinkers (5.0 percent)."
Source:
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Results from the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and
Health: National Findings (Office of Applied Studies, NSDUH Series H-34, DHHS Publication No. SMA 08-4343),
Rockville, MD, Sept. 2008, p. 28.
http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/nsduh/2k7nsduh/2k7Results.pdf
10.
(Nonconformance with Substance Use Sequence of Stages) "The gateway hypothesis holds that abusable drugs occupy
distinct ranks in a hierarchy as well as definite positions in a temporal sequence. Accordingly, substance use is theorized to
progress through a sequence of stages, beginning with legal, socially acceptable compounds that are low in the hierarchy,
followed by use of illegal 'soft' and later 'hard' drugs ranked higher in the hierarchy. One of the main findings of this study is
that there is a high rate of nonconformance with this temporal order. In a neighborhood where there is high drug availability,
youths who have low parental supervision are likely to regularly consume marijuana before alcohol and/or tobacco.
Consumption of marijuana prior to use of licit drugs thus appears to be related to contextual factors rather than to any unique
characteristics of the individual. Moreover, this reverse pattern is not rare; it was observed in over 20% of our sample."
Source:
Tarter, Ralph E., PhD, Vanyukov, Michael, PhD, Kirisci, Levent, PhD, Reynolds, Maureen, PhD, Clark, Duncan B., MD,
PhD, "Predictors of Marijuana Use in Adolescents Before and After Licit Drug Use: Examination of the Gateway Hypothesis,"
American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 63, No. 12, December 2006, p. 2138.
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/163/12/2134.pdf
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11.
(Screening Young People for "Gateway Violations" Unproductive) "Deviations from normative patterns of drug use
initiation that involve the initiation of illicit drug use earlier than usual in the gateway pattern of initiation may carry small
risks for dependence, but other factors seem to be more important in the development of drug dependence. Drug use and
initiation are clearly nested within a social normative context, yet neither adherence nor deviation from this order signals
highly elevated risks of drug problems in and of themselves, although some violations are predicted by pre-existing mental
disorders that seem to be more powerful risk factors for subsequent substance dependence. Although a gateway violation
might be a marker of such risk factors, their associations with gateway violations are relatively modest. In targeting
intervention efforts, it would probably be more productive to screen directly for these factors (i.e. internalizing disorders,
early-onset substance use) than to screen for gateway violations."
Source:
Degenhardt, L.; Chiu, W. T.; Conway, K.; Dierker, L.; Glantz, M., Kalaydjian, A.; Merikangas, K.; Sampson, N.; Swendsen,
J.; and Kessler, R. C., "Does the ‘gateway’ matter? Associations between the order of drug use initiation and the development
of drug dependence in the National Comorbidity Study Replication," Psychological Medicine (Cambridge, United Kingdom:
Cambridge University Press, January 2009), p. 8.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2653272/pdf/nihms88815.pdf
12.
(Behavioral Deviancy as Risk Factor for Illicit Drug Use) "The results of this study suggest that general behavioral
deviancy and not specific risk factors accounts for illicit drug use. When illicit drug use occurs first, it is very likely due to the
opportunity afforded by the neighborhood environment in context of low parental supervision. The probability and rate of
development of a diagnosis of marijuana use disorder and alcohol use disorder were the same whether or not there was
conformance with the gateway sequence. Evidence supporting 'causal linkages between stages,' as specified by the gateway
hypothesis, was not obtained. Nor were specific risk factors identified that were related to consumption of each drug. Our
results indicate that efforts to prevent marijuana use should utilize strategies directed at averting the development of the
characteristics prodromal to the manifestation of behavior problems."
Source:
Tarter, Ralph E., PhD, Vanyukov, Michael, PhD, Kirisci, Levent, PhD, Reynolds, Maureen, PhD, Clark, Duncan B., MD,
PhD, "Predictors of Marijuana Use in Adolescents Before and After Licit Drug Use: Examination of the Gateway Hypothesis,"
American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 63, No. 12, December 2006, p. 2139.
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/163/12/2134.pdf
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13.
(Specific Risk Factors do not Predict Future Drug Use) "Our key findings were that 1) there are no unique factors
distinguishing the gateway sequence and the reverse sequence — that is, the sequence is opportunistic; 2) the gateway sequence
and the reverse sequence have the same prognostic accuracy; and 3) a sizable proportion of substance users begin regular
consumption with an illicit drug. These results, considered in the aggregate, indicate that the gateway sequence is not an
invariant pathway and, when manifest, is not related to specific risk factors and does not have prognostic utility. The results of
this study as well as other studies demonstrate that abusable drugs occupy neither a specific place in a hierarchy nor a discrete
position in a temporal sequence. These latter presumptions of the gateway hypothesis constitute what Whitehead referred to as
the 'fallacy of misplaced connectedness,' namely, asserting 'assumptions about categories that do not correspond with the
empirical world.'"
Source:
Tarter, Ralph E., PhD, Vanyukov, Michael, PhD, Kirisci, Levent, PhD, Reynolds, Maureen, PhD, Clark, Duncan B., MD,
PhD, "Predictors of Marijuana Use in Adolescents Before and After Licit Drug Use: Examination of the Gateway Hypothesis,"
American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 63, No. 12, December 2006, p. 2139.
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/reprint/163/12/2134.pdf
14.
(IOM Report re Gateway Theory) In March 1999, the Institute of Medicine issued a report on various aspects of
marijuana, including the so-called Gateway Theory (the theory that using marijuana leads people to use harder drugs like
cocaine and heroin). The IOM stated: "There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to
the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs."
Source:
Janet E. Joy, Stanley J. Watson, Jr., and John A Benson, Jr., "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base," Division
of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Institute of Medicine (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999), p. 6.
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309071550&page=6
15.
(IOM Report re Gateway Theory) The Institute of Medicine's 1999 report on marijuana explained that marijuana has been
mistaken for a gateway drug in the past because "Patterns in progression of drug use from adolescence to adulthood are
strikingly regular. Because it is the most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is predictably the first illicit drug most people
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encounter. Not surprisingly, most users of other illicit drugs have used marijuana first. In fact, most drug users begin with
alcohol and nicotine before marijuana, usually before they are of legal age."
Source:
Janet E. Joy, Stanley J. Watson, Jr., and John A Benson, Jr., "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base," Division
of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Institute of Medicine (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999), p. 99.
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=6376&page=99
16.
(Medical Cannabis Patients) "Analysis of the demographic and social characteristics of a large sample of applicants seeking
approval to use marijuana medically in California supports an interpretation of long term non problematic use by many who
had first tried it as adolescents, and then either continued to use it or later resumed its use as adults. In general, they have used
it at modest levels and in consistent patterns which anecdotally-often assisted their educational achievement, employment
performance, and establishment of a more stable life-style. These data suggest that rather than acting as a gateway to other
drugs, (which many had also tried), cannabis has been exerting a beneficial influence on most."
Source:
Thomas J O'Connell and Ché B Bou-Matar, "Long term marijuana users seeking medical cannabis in California (2001–2007):
demographics, social characteristics, patterns of cannabis and other drug use of 4117 applicants," Harm Reduction Journal,
(November 2007).
http://www.harmreductionjournal.com/content/pdf/1477-7517-4-16.pdf
Related Chapters:
- Adolescents
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