The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse conducted a survey to determine what tobacco use by 15-19 year olds indicates about their use of alcohol, cannabis, and other illicit drugs such as amphetamine and ecstasy.
Although the study stops short of calling tobacco a “gateway drug” the study concluded that “tobacco use among youth aged 15-19 is a powerful and effective marker of other substance use and a good indication that these youth are engaging in other risky behaviours.” Among the findings were the following:
60% of smoking youth also met the criteria for hazardous drinking as defined by the World Health Organization, compared to non-smoking youth.
91% of smoking youth reported using cannabis in the past year, compared with 28.8% of non-smoking youth.
31% of smoking youth under 20 reported using cocaine, heroin, amphetamine, ecstasy or hallucinogens in the past year, compared with 3.5% of non-smoking youth.
Interestingly, an article in Science Blog called Study says Marijuana no Gateway Drug referred to a 12 year study that cited environmental factors rather than a particular drug as the possible cause behind the use by youth of so called “hard drugs.” From this study researchers concluded:
“The emphasis on the drugs themselves, rather than other, more important factors that shape a person’s behavior, has been detrimental to drug policy and prevention programs.To become more effective in our efforts to fight drug abuse, we should devote more attention to interventions that address these issues, particularly to parenting skills that shape the child’s behavior as well as peer and neighborhood environments.”
The study referred to the common liability theory which was described as an emerging theory that states the likelihood that someone will transition to the use of illegal drugs is determined not by the preceding use of a particular drug but instead by the user’s individual tendencies and environmental circumstances.
To reconcile the two studies it seems that while environmental circumstances and a persons individual tendencies may lead to the experimentation and use of drugs, those that are smoking tobacco are more likely to continue on to use and abuse alcohol and illicit circumstances.
