Is marijuana a gateway drug to the harder stuff, like opioids? Or is it, in fact, a safe high that actually discourages folks from seeker bigger drug kicks?

A new poll cited by The Hill suggests the latter. The survey of 1,000 U.S. adults was conducted by YouGov and found that, while only a slight majority of Americans support total pot legalization, less than a third believe marijuana users are at risk for graduating to the harder stuff.

This taking of the temperature of the masses on the gateway topic could be important to developing strategies to address the opioid epidemic. According to the survey, the idea of pot as gateway drug was rejected across the board. 

Continue Reading for Free

Register and gain access to:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Dan Cook

Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.