The “gateway theory” surrounding marijuana has been debunked time and again, but it’s useful to keep hammering the point home. After all, decades of propaganda are hard to overcome. A new study is reaffirming the fallacy of the “gateway theory” when it comes to marijuana has been published.

“By recognizing the important predictive role of alcohol and delaying initiation of alcohol use, school officials and public health leaders can positively impact the progression of substance use,” Adam Barry, study author and an assistant professor at the University of Florida, said in a statement.

Looking at data from over 14,500 students from 120 public and private schools in the United States, researchers tried to evaluate whether students had used any of 11 substances, including alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, heroin, LSD, amphetamines, tranquilizers and other narcotics. Alcohol was the first substance students tried before moving on to other drugs, more often than not.

“I am confident in our findings and the clear implications they have for school-based prevention programs. By delaying and/or preventing the use of alcohol, these programs can indirectly reduce the rate of use of other substances,” Barry said.

If you ask 100 crackheads if they have tried marijuana before, I’m sure at least 95 will say yes. That doesn’t mean marijuana led them to it. In fact, the vast majority of marijuana smokers will never go on to harder drugs. It seems the same can not be said for alcohol.

Students who used alcohol were up to 16 times more likely to use illicit drugs, according to researchers.

- Joe Klare