Gateway Drugs
This is an excerpt from the paper...
So-called gateway drugs are those believed to be drugs for beginners, or drugs that young people use which lead them to harder drugs later. The rationale for many marijuana laws has long been that marijuana is a gateway drug so that even if marijuana use is not a problem in itself, it is the beginning point for greater problems in the future. Other substances seen as having the potential to be gateway drugs include tobacco and alcohol. Some commentators argue that one or more of these substances serve a gateway function and that those who smoke, drink, or use marijuana are at risk for the use of harder drugs such as heroin, cocaine, or crack. Others point out that any relationship is tenuous and that those trying to prove a relationship are misusing statistics to show a cause-and-effect relationship where there is none. At most, they say, users of any drug or stimulant may have a psychological predilection so that the cause is in their psychology and character and not in the fact of the use of marijuana, alcohol, or tobacco. Many studies of the subject simply assume that marijuana is a gateway drug and analyze the issue accordingly. A recent study reported by Jenkins stated, for instance, The three variables which best predicted self reported drug use at grade 10 were (1) number of friends using gateway drugs, (2) self reported average grade, and (3) involvement in enjoyable extracurricular activities. The stepwise entry of the latter two variables accounted for a
. . .
lfilling prophecy rather than an objective fact. Warnings have been issued to the effect that marijuana is a gateway drug leading to further experimentation and addiction, but young people know that most casual marijuana smokers do not continue on to other drugs or become addicts. While there are powerful and instantaneously reinforcing drugs like crack, heroin, and methamphetamine which addict users, as a rule it is not the particular substance involved that usually leads to addiction:
Rather, it's a combination of risk factors . . . If marijuana is a gateway to hard drugs at all, it is most likely due to its illicit status. . . . (Clark 14).
This means that young people may use marijuana just because it is prohibited and not because it is so addictive in itself.
The fear of marijuana as a gateway drug relates to the prevalence of its use and to the perception that it is a higher-order offense than either cigarette smoking or drinking. What emerges from an analysis of the history of substance abuse in this century is that the perception of what is or is not a gateway drug changes as different substance are abused, as is evident in the following statement:
It makes you stupid. It turns teenagers into ne'er do wells and
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
, Sullum Formulations, Drug Abuse, Benjamin Rush, Medical Association, Charles Towns, Robert DuPont, gateway drug, Substance Abuse, marijuana gateway, marijuana gateway drug, harder drugs, Teens Humanist, Reason March, gateway drugs, school seniors, heroin cocaine, hard drugs, drug abuse, cocaine heroin, 1 1996,
Approximate Word count = 1845
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
More Essays on Gateway Drugs
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
