Have you heard that “marijuana is a gateway drug?” This is true for many reasons. One of those reasons is because opioids (i.e. heroin, oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, etc…) and cannabinoids (like THC - the cannabinoid that intoxicants in marijuana) run on the same “super family” of receptors in the brain. If the use of marijuana primes your particular brain to want more, opioids like heroin may be “the more” you turn to.
Additionally, the use of marijuana to soothe, handle stress, amplify joy, encourage social behavior all set-up behavioral addiction - one is training themselves to administer marijuana to achieve these things. This is true for all things that spike dopamine in the brain, especially intoxicating drugs.
With a broader understanding of addiction, drugs that intoxicate and brain science today, we consider there to be 3 major gateway drugs for adolescents:
MARIJUANA, ALCOHOL & NICOTINE
All 3 of these drugs are addictive and teen brains are especially vulnerable to their harm - all 3 affect brain plasticity and proper neural function.
These drugs are readily available to adolescents. The legal status of these drugs makes them more available than illegal drugs in general, and therefore more available to the under-aged. Legalization always means more underage use.
Statistically we now find that the use of one increases the use of the other two as well as other illicit drugs. Conversely, the absence of using one, reflects significantly less use of the others. See the data below from the most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)*
“Binge” drinking = 5 drinks within 2 hours (males) or 4 drinks within 2 hours (females) ”Heavy” Alcohol use = 4-5 “binge” events in past 30 days ”Alcohol” use = less that the first two, but still in the past 30 days
