Marijuana gateway theory suffers new setbacks

Scapegoating drugs for society’s problems is becoming increasingly difficult thanks to researchers who study childhood distress and how it affects a person’s adult life. Trauma has emerged as a leading culprit contradicting the claim that marijuana use leads to opioid addictions. A recent study from the University of Barcelona notes that:

“…children and adolescents who have suffered child maltreatment by adults show alterations, in early stages of life, in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA), one of the main biological mechanisms of stress regulation […]

…The study shows that, in those subjects who had been exposed to child maltreatment for a longer period of time, there was greater dysfunction in the HPA axis, regardless of the severity of the experiences they had suffered. […]

And from Ohio State University:

… new research suggests that those with substance misuse issues as adults may have had particularly difficult childhoods…scores assessing childhood trauma exposure among adults with substance misuse issues were 24% higher than previous estimates for other adults in the child welfare system, and 108% higher than the general population.

Not surprisingly, children in these families also have suffered more trauma. […]

And from the University of Exeter:

Experiences of childhood trauma (abuse and neglect) are disproportionately higher in those with opioid use disorder (OUD). Childhood trauma may affect the reinforcing and rewarding properties of opioid drugs and responses to pain, potentially via developmental changes to the endogenous opioid system. […]

The trauma group reported liking the effects of morphine, feeling more euphoric and wanting more of the drug over the session, as well as feeling less nauseous, dizzy, and dislike of the effects of morphine compared to the non-trauma comparison group. Morphine increased pain threshold and tolerance, yet this did not differ between the groups. Childhood trauma may therefore sensitise individuals to the pleasurable and motivational effects of opioids and reduce sensitivity to the negative effects, providing compelling evidence for individual differences in opioid reward sensitivity. This may explain the link between childhood trauma and vulnerability to OUD, with consequent implications on interventions for OUD, the prescribing of opioids, and reducing stigmas surrounding OUD. […]

Excuses for foisting a war onto people due to their drug of choice presume the behavior is a vice meriting the severest punishments. It appears arresting and jailing people for drug use is considered simpler and more cost-effective than compensating or treating each individual for a screwed-up childhood. Prohibition is made the path of least resistance for certain politicians and law enforcement officials who fail to view science or medical technology as posing viable alternatives to the traumatizing brute force of arrests and incarceration.

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9 Responses to Marijuana gateway theory suffers new setbacks

  1. darkcycle says:

    This is good. But they are missing a vital link here. They go into detail about childhood trauma , and they also note that the pain reducing effects of opioids did not differ between trauma and non traumatized subjects. They observe that the trauma group had an affinity for the opioids, that they used them more and were not dissuaded by the side effects. They are missing the fact that trauma and pain are essentially the same thing. Psychic pain is pain, period. This pain is persistent, chronic and inescapeable.
    These folks are self medicating for psychic pain.

  2. Do you have an email list?

    • Servetus says:

      Welcome to the couch, Robert. No, we don’t employ email output here as some other blogs do, however you’re free to log onto the site each day to get the latest in drug war rants and news.

  3. Son of Sam Walton says:

    When America was in Afghanistan, neighboring China benifited because Afghanistan had cheaper copper, gold, silver, etc mining contracts–extremely cheaper labor than their own miners. Our long war, fighting 96% drug money in that region alone, gave American shoppers leverage over Afghanistan’s labor, revenue, tax, and wage laws. Plus foreign drug money in that place had the spending power of 4x-8x for the Taliban etc.

    Americans shoppers fed the machine the tax to keep the 1961 U.N. Single Laws alive which gave us drug money funded WTC bombers in the 90s and drug money funded 9/11 attackers in 2001 and drug money funded Taliban, Al Qaeda, insurgents, ISIs fighters in Iraq and Afghanistan. The American-funded U.N. Law fed the war for our enemies and at the same time, the American shopper fed the War and the U.N. Laws with money used to buy petrol-based plastics, fuel, oil, and tech from Iraqi oil and Afghanistan’s mountains that our war allowed us to exploit in the following years.

    I wonder how American Tech companies will be affected by Afghanistan since most of our computer chips/tech is manufactured by China/Asia Pacific? And neighboring India will be affected which will affect the big ‘Tech Race’ between China and India because of their populations. Will our Tech be more expensive or will the Taliban, now free of America and other 3rd party invaders, sell their minerals to China cheaper? Will this give China more leverage or will the savings go onto American shoppers as it has for computer chips and copper from Afghanistan, and plastics from Iraq via our American 2007 Iraqi Denationalization of Oil Law–that makes China/Asia Pacific the number one buyer of Iraqi crude, followed by Europe, and America as the 3rd largest buyer?

  4. strayan says:

    https://twitter.com/9newssyd/status/1445291181022322688?s=21

    innocent mother and daughter spending five months in a New South Wales prison.

    They were jailed for importing drugs, but a testing error later revealed it was in fact tea.

    • Son of Sam Walton says:

      They stayed in jail for so long because the authorities forgot to take the tea to the lab on the date scheduled for testing–like missing your chemo appointment.

      Life in Prison for tea then they tested it so they could go ahead and get life. Blam-o-it was tea.

  5. Son of Sam Walton says:

    THC Acetate?

    THC-0 or ATHC. Hardcore dabbers, vapers, and those of us who like to gunk up our pipes with flower, dabs, hashes, oil, and THCA crystals state it makes them feel really high, like when an Okie from Muskogee goes up into the mountains of Colorado or Montana and their high feels like they were 14yrs old doing it for the first time. They say this new stuff has a hallucinogenic effect akin to K2/Spice. But it is derived from hemp and isn’t even naturally occurring, though not synthetic, unlike Spice/K2.

    It is legal in most states because of our hemp laws. And videos are saying it could be dangerous and everyone is saying it really blazes them in comparison to dabs or flower, but it can take up to 20 minutes or longer to kick in, sometimes 2hrs, even when you vape it. This is why users say it is way stronger than weed because they take several or more hits than recommended, just because they are vaping and not feeling anything in the first few minutes or something like muscle memory that makes them keep taking hits until it kicks in the way one does with normal vapes or dabes or flower.

  6. Son of Sam Walton says:

    Karen’s Law in Colorado finally made it past the first huddle. In the past, Karen’s Law had been voted no because of Colorado’s Constitution. Now, by 2023, Dabs could be sold in 10th of gram packages and with codes making it where even Rec smokers cannot disp hop. And when it comes to those under 21 with a medical card, the patient might have to see a doctor every time they need more meds and qualifying conditions will be reduced.

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