Isn it true that, medicine or not, marijuana is a “gateway drug” that will inevitably lead to harder drugs?
In March 1999 the prestigious National Institute of Medicine in Washington D.C. issued a report on various aspects of marijuana. The study stated that there is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs. The report went on to note that patterns in progression of drug use from adolescence to adulthood are strikingly regular. Because it is the most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is the first illicit drug most people 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.
