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Scientists at the University of New Hampshire recently did a study of almost 1,300 young adults from Florida, and what they found was that several other factors influenced the use of harder drugs more than whether the subjects had tried marijuana.

“There seems to be this idea that we can prevent later drug problems by making sure kids never smoke pot,” lead researcher Dr. Karen Van Gundy, associate professor of sociology at the university, told CBS News. “But whether marijuana smokers go on to use other illicit drugs depends more on social factors like being exposed to stress and being unemployed – not so much whether they smoked a joint in the eighth grade.”

The “gateway” theory has been proven faulty time and again. While most crackheads and heroin junkies have tried cannabis, the fact remains that most potheads never go on to “harder drugs.” But opponents of marijuana legalization like to use this theory to scare people about cannabis.

If you must use fear to advance your cause, it must not be a very good cause to begin with.

- Joe Klare