Study suggests marijuana prevents people from doing hard drugs

A new research has found that cannabis might not be the vilified ‘gateway drug’ it is widely thought to be.

In fact, the leafy substance might be the key to discouraging users from progressing to ‘harder’ drugs, such as cocaine and ecstasy, say scientists.

According to The Independent, the five-year-long study involved 125 participants, all of whom were suffering from chronic pain. 83 were taking cannabis as a prescriptive pain mediator, whereas 42 chose to abstain.

They found that 34 % of the cannabis users stopped taking their medication, in comparison to just 2 % of the non-smokers, with 98 % continuing to take their prescribed drugs. Lead author and psychology professor Jacob Miguel Vigil, noted, “Our current opioid epidemic is the leading preventable form of death in the US, killing more people than car accidents and gun violence.”

Adding, “Therefore, the relative safety and efficacy of using cannabis in comparison to that of other scheduled medications should be taken by the health providers and legislators.” He explained that painkillers and street heroin typically kill 90 people in the US every day; whereas some studies claim that cannabis consumption has never directly caused a fatality.

However, in 2014, a woman named Gemma Moss became the first British woman to die from cannabis toxicity, after she reportedly smoked 60 pounds worth of the drug in one week which led her to die from cardiac arrest.

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First Published: Sep 25, 2017 14:28 IST