Escalation of Drug Use in Early-Onset Cannabis Users vs Co-twin Controls

JAMA ^ | 1/22/2003 | Michael T. Lynskey, PhD; Andrew C. Heath, DPhil; Kathleen K. Bucholz, PhD; Wendy S. Slutske, PhD; Pa

[Lysander]

So, what they seemed to have proved is that people who use one drug are quite likely to use another.

Nope. Research never proves anything. It only supports a position or disproves it. Supporting the hypothesis is not proof. You can support it a zillion times and it is still not have proof. It only takes one example to disprove. You can never prove that one negative does not exist, even in an "unlimited" number of trials.

Find one kid who smoked pot and did not go on to hard drugs and you have disproved the hypothesis. Correlation does not show causation, it only shows that a relationship is present and that there could be a third or fourth factor, like availability.

There is a high correlation between alcoholics and the use of milk as a child, it does not show that milk use causes alcoholism.

[robertpaulsen]

"2. JAMA is a political, quasi-medical, organization who should be ashamed to publish this."

You're right! Quasi-medical organization, indeed.

The study should have been done by NORML, or High Times, or cannabis.org, or George Soros. You can count on them for unbiased reporting.

[robertpaulsen]

You were right the first time.

[robertpaulsen]

"I don't see anything here to tell me that use of marijuana led to the use of other drugs, and that if the person involved had not used marijuana, they wouldn't have picked up some other drug later on."

The study found those who had smoked early in life were between two and five times more likely than their nonsmoking siblings to abuse alcohol or harder drugs such as cocaine and heroin when they reached their 20s or 30s.

The study doesn't purport to give absolute cause and effect, just a general likelihood.

[aculeus]

Bump.

[unspun]

The ward, eh?

You mean like the institutions the Soviets used to maintain? When will the nice Libertartian doctors be visiting again? Let's see, which syringe should I opt for, this time, the sodium pentathol, or the high-saline solution? ;-`

[RonF]

"Research never proves anything. It only supports a position or disproves it. Supporting the hypothesis is not proof."

Actually, I made a poor choice of words. You're right. So then I'll say this:

"The study indicates that there's a high correlation that people who try using one drug tend to try and use others."

[RockandRollResurrection]

People (especially those employed by the government) will do anything to twist facts in order to support their socialistic mothering at the taxpayers expense. Funny how the same people constantly complaining about high taxes want to spend tens of thousands of dollars per year to pay for the room and board of one pot smoker. You might as well just rent them an apartment and give them food stamps. It would have the same effect.

[MrLeRoy]

"While covariates differed between equations, early regular use of tobacco and alcohol emerged as the 2 factors most consistently associated with later illicit drug use and abuse dependence."

Hypocrisy bump.

[jammer]

I never said they were unbiased. This thread duplicates, with actual text from the study, the gist of the story on another thread. I made the point there that none of the "studies" were reliable.

[philman_36]

Cross-linked one way, now let's link the other way...Marijuana Is Gateway to Hard Drugs in Twins Study
While the findings of this study indicate that early cannabis use is associated with increased risks of progression to other illicit drug use and drug abuse/dependence, it is not possible to draw strong causal conclusions solely on the basis of the associations shown in this study.