Pubdate: Tue, 20 Mar 2001 Source: Frederick News Post (MD) Copyright: 2001 Great Southern Printing and Manufacturing Company Address: 200 East Patrick Street, PO Box 578, Frederick, MD 21705-0578 Fax: 301-662-8299 Feedback: http://www.fredericknewspost.com/contact/contactfinalnew.cfm?contact=letters Website: http://www.fredericknewspost.com/ Author: Raymond Banz MARIJUANA GATEWAY THEORY NOT CORRECT I think it is ironic that the only problem that Cassie Hartzell's Feb. 26 letter ("Pot not that bad?") could find with marijuana is that it is a gateway drug, and then go on to tell a story about someone who began drinking, and then tried marijuana. We have all heard stories about people and drugs, but anecdotal evidence won't help us understand the problem. Let's get squared away on the gateway drug theory. There is nothing in the chemical composition of one drug (like pot) that automatically leads a person to progress to a different drug (like heroin). The reason people go from drug to drug is not because of the properties of the chemicals, but because of the way the person perceives the drug. A lot of people do smoke pot before they do harder drugs, but as Cassie so effectively pointed out, rarely do drug users actually start with marijuana, because almost everyone that tries marijuana has already tried alcohol or tobacco. What people mean when they label marijuana the gateway drug is that marijuana is the first illegal drug that people try. But if marijuana were legal, perhaps kids wouldn't feel the need to experiment with harder stuff, because maybe they would be better able to distinguish between hard and soft drugs. Forget being legal. If our government would only try to give kids real information about illegal drugs (like, for example, that it is impossible to die from a marijuana overdose, but that it is easy to die from a heroin overdose), maybe that alone would make less kids try harder drugs. The truth is that when kids hear "Just Say No," and then smoke pot and find out how relatively benign it is, they are then informed enough to make their own decisions about it. The way to end the gateway from one drug to another is information. All drugs are different and the dangers each represents are different. If kids and adults know this, they will be better able to make smart decisions about drug use. Parents should tell their kids that alcohol and heroin overdoses cause death, that tobacco and marijuana smoking causes lung cancer, and that drugs like ecstasy cause brain damage. For good or bad, people will always use chemicals recreationally, so instead of saying "Just Say No," lets try to give people real facts and science that will help them help themselves. Raymond Banz Upperco - --- MAP posted-by: Beth