Latest Gateway drug theory Stories
While marijuana was long the first drug of abuse for many drug initiates, prescription drugs are now catching up – but have deadlier consequences. Canadian, OK (PRWEB) July 06, 2012 The change in the overall pattern of substance abuse is reflected in the types of drugs causing overdose deaths and trips to rehab. Since 2000, the drugs sending people to their graves or to rehab have been shifting away from illicit drugs and toward prescription drugs. The 2011 report on the subject from...
Until now, illicit drug use has not been common in older people. However, it is likely to become more common as generations that use drugs more frequently reach an older age. New research published today in the journal Age and Ageing has found that the lifetime use of cannabis, amphetamine, cocaine and LSD in 50-64 year olds has significantly increased since 1993 and is much higher than lifetime use in adults aged over 65. The study also found that drug use in inner London was higher than...
Despite the clichés surrounding the habits of adolescents, the results of a study by the University of Seville show that most young people do not fit the risk profile of taking substances. Some 60% of Spaniards aged 13 to 18 say they do not take drugs and rarely drink alcohol – only in moderation – and at the same time, less than 10% admit to have taken some form of illegal drug. "Although it is important that society, the media, the experts involved and young people themselves change...
Cigarettes and alcohol serve as gateway drugs, which people use before progressing to the use of marijuana and then to cocaine and other illicit substances; this progression is called the "gateway sequence" of drug use. An article in Science Translational Medicine by Amir Levine, MD, Denise Kandel, PhD; Eric Kandel, MD; and colleagues at Columbia University Medical Center provides the first molecular explanation for the gateway sequence. They show that nicotine causes specific changes in the...
NIDA-funded research in mice shows that nicotine primes the brain to enhance cocaine's effects A landmark study in mice identifies a biological mechanism that could help explain how tobacco products could act as gateway drugs, increasing a person's future likelihood of abusing cocaine and perhaps other drugs as well, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study is the first to show that nicotine might prime the brain to...
New research from the University of New Hampshire shows that the "gateway effect" of marijuana "“ that teenagers who use marijuana are more likely to move on to harder illicit drugs as young adults "“ is overblown.Whether teenagers who smoked pot will use other illicit drugs as young adults has more to do with life factors such as employment status and stress, according to the new research. In fact, the strongest predictor of whether someone will use other illicit drugs is their...
Weill Cornell study points to subtle differences between boys and girlsNew research by Weill Cornell Medical College researchers looks at the specific ways parents and peers influence teenagers to smoke, drink and use marijuana in combination. Among their findings: attitudes toward smoking influenced teenagers' use of multiple drugs (smoking, drinking and marijuana), and that this manifested itself differently in boys and girls.For girls, friends were shown to be central. Ambivalent or...
By Anne Harding NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Teens who experiment with marijuana may be making themselves more vulnerable to heroin addiction later in life, if the findings from experiments with rats are any indication. "Cannabis has very long-term, enduring effects on the brain," Dr. Yasmin Hurd of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health in an interview. Whether or not trying marijuana is a 'gateway' to use of so-called harder drugs...
