Category Archives: Gateway Drug

Gateway Drug, Overdoses

marijuana to fentanyl pipeline continues …….until Death

On November 17, 2019, Michelle Leopold’s son Trevor died of an overdose after purchasing counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl. He was only 18. His drug use started a few years earlier, when he used marijuana as a freshman at Redwood High School in Marin County, CA.  He graduated from Tamalpeis High School in 2019. (Trevor is shown with his mother Michelle at a residential treatment center in Utah, above photo)

The nation was shocked when television therapist Laura Berman’s son, Sammy Chapman, 16, died of a fentanyl overdose earlier this year.  She and her husband knew he had been using marijuana and tried to stop him.  All it took was a pill that he purchased on Snapchat. 

The teens dying of overdoses in California are getting younger and younger —16, 15, 14, 13.

The number of overdose drug deaths this past year climbed past 100,000. Of these deaths, 75% were from synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. Initiation of marijuana use before age 18 is the predominant predictor of an opioid use disorder.

A revealing obituary in Illinois

An obituary of a young man from Illinois who died in October appeared in a local paper. Beloved to his family and friends, the tribute reads: “He was passionate about cannabis.”  

The announcement said he was in recovery but died of heroin laced with fentanyl.  Marijuana is often the “relapse drug” for those addicted to opioids, as well as the gateway. This webpage covers many explanations of how marijuana provides the gateway effect to other drugs.

Would he still be alive if his state had not joined the marijuana bandwagon last year?  By legalizing pot, under the guise of social justice and tax money, Illinois may have sabotaged his recovery, as they did for this man. Pot use wires the brain for other pathways of drug and alcohol addiction.

People in the more experienced drug markets of California understand the marijuana to fentanyl pipeline, sometimes followed by death. 

Tori Kropp’s son Xander also died of a fentanyl overdose:                                          “18 months after he first smoked weed, he died of an accidental fentanyl overdose,” his mom said.

The Northern California epidemic

We learned about Tori through The Pitch, a newspaper put out by the advanced journalism students of Archie Williams High School in San Anselmo, California.  Henry Pratt’s article, “Every parent’s worst nightmare”: fentanyl epidemic overtakes teens” won a national journalism award.  

In the article, Kropp explains that “marijuana is a “gateway drug” to other illicit substances and that it is more dangerous for the developing teenage brain. According to Kropp, marijuana sold today has much stronger concentrations of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main component of marijuana that gives users a high. “

Pratt also interviewed Michelle Leopold for the article.  Leopold explains that the cannabis industry’s anger at her comes from her truthful comments about marijuana as a “gateway drug” to other addictive substances.  The industry, unable to admit the dangers of their products, blames her as a parent for her son’s addiction. 

Pratt’s outstanding student article further explains what fentanyl is, how it’s infiltrating the world of students. COVID, the lockdown and social media have made the situation worse.  Pratt explains how Narcan may be able to stop a fentanyl overdose. However, it’s not a long-term solution to the addiction and overdose epidemic. Primary drug prevention will take us much further.

Marijuana to Fentanyl pipeline in other states

Officials from Connecticut Overdose Response and the Department of Public Health put out a warning about the dangers of marijuana laced with fentanyl. The press release of November 18 explained 39 overdose cases since July 2021, in which patients required naloxone but claimed to have only used marijuana.  Testing proved that the marijuana had been laced with fentanyl.

Two days ago Michigan Poison Control put out a press release warning of 8 such cases in Michigan since June.  Since fentanyl-laced marijuana shows up in states with legalized marijuana, it’s clear that state “regulation” doesn’t take away these dangers. 

Today COVID, the overdose epidemic and the marijuana-to-fentanyl pipeline converge for a very challenging period of time!

Gateway Drug

Is Marijuana A Gateway Drug?

The marijuana activists get very upset at any suggestion of marijuana being called a gateway drug.  Of course not everyone who starts using marijuana uses other drugs; some just go on to stronger versions of marijuana, such as “wax,” “dabs” or vapes.  Others may not use anything stronger than the old-fashioned weed of the last century.   

Yet the scientific evidence suggests it is a gateway drug which can open the doors to other addictions, including alcohol. Studies show that marijuana affects dopamine receptors and our brain’s reward system which may lead to the use of many other drugs. In one study done by the University of Michigan Medical School, researchers found a negative correlation between the amount of marijuana consumed over time and the amount of dopamine that was released in the brain in response. Smokers will then seek other drugs in order to achieve the high they used to experience with pot.

Continue reading Is Marijuana A Gateway Drug? →

Gateway Drug

Big Marijuana moves to exploit the Opioid Epidemic

Remarks prepared by Drug Free America Foundation, March 2018. Get a downloadable copy here.

Marijuana use is associated with an increased risk of prescription opioid use. The National Institute on Drug Abuse analyzed data from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions and found respondents who reported past-year marijuana use in their initial interview had 2.2 times higher odds than nonusers for having a prescription opioid use disorder and 2.6 times greater odds of abusing prescription opioids.[i]

Marijuana use seems to strengthen the relationship between pain and depression and anxiety, not ease it. A recent study that surveyed 150 adults receiving MAT examined whether marijuana use diminishes the relationships between pain, depression, and anxiety and whether self-efficacy influences these interactions. The study concluded that marijuana use strengthens the connection between feelings of pain and emotional distress. Marijuana use was also associated with a low sense of self-efficacy, making it harder for them to manage their symptoms.[ii] Continue reading Big Marijuana moves to exploit the Opioid Epidemic →

Gateway Drug

Australian Twins Study Supports Gateway effects of marijuana

Twins who use cannabis by age 17 are 2.1 to 5.2 times more likely to develop addiction issues.  An Australian twins study determined this likelihood by comparing twins who used pot to the co-twins who hadn’t used marijuana.

Although not a gateway for everyone, cannabis often is a gateway for those who become addicted and die.  Study after study has shown a relationship between the use of marijuana and other psychoactive and addictive substances.   Yet marijuana lobbyists twist the issue and say it’s not a gateway drug.

Marijuana is a major cause of drug-related medical and psychiatric emergency room episodes.   Liberalizing marijuana laws escalates this problem.  Some go to the hospital for marijuana-induced psychosis while others seek medical help for vomiting.

The Australian Twins Study

The January 22/29, 2003 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published the outcome of a well-controlled study designed to determine whether genetic predisposition or environmental factors determine if an underage cannabis user will progress to other drugs.  The findings from this research led to “Escalation of Drug Use in Early-Onset Cannabis Users vs. Co-Twin Control,” by LynskyM, HeathA and BucholzK.

The study found that a twin who had used cannabis by age 17 was significantly more likely to use other drugs.  The same twins were more likely to become drug and alcohol dependent, compared with their co-twin who had not used marijuana.  And there was very little difference whether the twins were fraternal or identical.

Which way will your child go? The Australian twins study found results similar for fraternal and identical twins, supporting the idea of the gateway effects.

In other words, environmental influences can trump genetic predisposition for those who progress from cannabis use to the use of other psychoactive and addictive substances.  For the sake of this study, “environmental factors” were “associations and circumstances” leading to this progression.

According to the authors, “In particular, early access to and use of cannabis may reduce perceived barriers against the use of other illegal drugs and provide access to these drugs.”

The study predicted what has happened in the USA and Canada. For example, a large group of young people who died of overdoses in Massachusetts began their drug use with marijuana.  Politicians continue to consider the overdose problem only an issue with opioids rather than a poly-drug addiction.  People continue to suggest that marijuana will substitute for opioid pain medications, despite the fact that most youth who overdose begin with pot.

Exposure to One Class of Drugs increases consumption of other drugs

The same issue of JAMA carried an editorial entitled “Does Marijuana Use Cause the Use of Other Drugs?”  The author referenced research which found cross-sensitization between repeated exposure to THC (The main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana) and opiates.  “With cross-sensitization, exposure to one class of drug increases consumption of other drug classes, consistent with the existence of a gateway effect.”

The editorial stated, “Prevention efforts will presumably affect the underlying risk and protective factors related to the onset of marijuana use, whether or not these factors are shared with the onset of the use of other illicit drugs. For youths who have already used marijuana, the issue is: can and should intervention programs be developed to target this group at very high risk for progressing to other substances? It appears so.”

Parents, please don’t take early teen marijuana use lightly.  It frequently leads to significant poly-drug abuse problems.   Sometimes the problem stops at marijuana addiction.  Addiction to pot occurs in 1 in 6 users who begin between ages 12 and 17.  Until we stop minimizing the harm of early pot use, we won’t get the drug epidemic under control.  

Heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine users are invariably poly drug-abusers.  Marijuana facilitates their drug abuse.  It can enhance the high, but cannabis also helps to minimize the withdrawal symptoms.

Why would a single policymaker still supports legalization of such a dangerous substance?   Follow the money to answer that question.