Marijuana users can now debunk a long standing myth surrounding it as according to an addiction psychiatrist, weed is not a gateway drug.
We all have heard about the popular notion that using marijuana will be the start of a life-long addiction to drugs as the logic goes; if you use marijuana, then you'll likely use crack, if you use crack, then you'll use heroin and so on.
But according to a report by the Independent, an addiction psychiatrist said that smoking marijuana does not necessarily cause addiction to other drugs later in life, directly contradicting the popular concept.
Dr. Kevin Hill, a director at McLean psychiatric hospital in Massachusetts and also an assistant professor at Harvard University, recently answered questions regarding marijuana on the popular site Reddit.
Dr. Hill said, "I think in the US, when people say 'gateway', they imply a causal relationship. If you use [marijuana], you will automatically move on to become addicted to other drugs later."
In a related note, Tech Insider reported that according to a research by US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC, high schoolers now smoke weed more than they smoke cigarettes, signifying that weed is really getting more and more popular with the youth.
However, CDC stated that based on the Youth Risk Behavior Surveys, they asked anywhere from 11,000 to 13,000 students, suggesting that the surveys are self-reported so it's likely the numbers are lower than the actual percentage of users.
The drug is currently experiencing legalization in some parts of the world, the International Business Times has learned. According to reports, Croatia is also eyeing the legalization of the drug, but only for medical purposes.
Doctors and other patients also spoke out regarding the benefits of the legalization of medical marijuana. But as of now, the rest of the European Union are unlikely to allow complete legalization of the substance.
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