I disagree with reporter Kevin Endejan’s opinion about the legalization of marijuana, but I do understand his position. I’m not too excited about potential auto accidents with stoned drivers, either.

However, I must take issue with the “known fact” that marijuana is a gateway drug. Can you provide sources for that? According to Jaime Diaz, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at the UW, there is no proof that marijuana is a gateway drug:

“While it is true that many users of so-called harder drugs, namely heroin and cocaine, also are very likely to use Cannabis sativa, it is not true that Cannabis sativa use will cause an individual to use other drugs.

The La Guardia Report in 1944 concluded that marijuana smoking does not lead to opiate addition. Two longitudinal studies described the progression of legal drug use into illegal drug use in high school students and found that the most common entry drug to illegal drug use was alcohol, primarily beer and wine.

Appreciate that these data do not mean drinking beer and wine will cause individuals to use harder drugs, but rather that a larger proportion of those people who went on to hard drugs had earlier experiences with ethanol. The causal role of beer, wine or Cannabis sative in the progression to illegal drug use simply has not been proven.”

– From How Drugs Influence Behavior, A Neuro-Behavioral Approach p. 120

Amy Shappell, Issaquah