Study: daily cannabis use may delay the transition of at-risk youth to more dangerous drugs

Daily cannabis use could delay the transition to injection drug use among at-risk young people, according to a new study which discredits the « climbing theory »According to this view, cannabis acts as a gateway drug to more harmful substances.

Scientists at British Columbia's Centre on Addiction and Substance Use, who conducted the study, also suggest that cannabis could be used as a substitute for people addicted to opiates.

Researchers interviewed 481 homeless youth on the streets of Vancouver who had never injected drugs and found, after 10 years' follow-up of this at-risk cohort, that daily cannabis use was associated with a 34% decrease in the rate of people who had moved on to injecting.

«A common perception of cannabis is that it is a gateway drug to other, more harmful drugs. However, our study showed the opposite,» explains M. J. Milloy, infectious disease epidemiologist and co-author of the study.

«For them, cannabis was a strategy used to try to manage their drug use or to try to «detox» from opiates or stimulants.»

The research followed people aged 14 to 26 who were sleeping on the streets of Vancouver, over an average period of 2 years. The average age of people who started injecting drugs was between 19 and 23, with a higher risk for homeless people that also makes them more vulnerable to HIV and hepatitis C, overdose or criminal activity, according to the study.

Another study from the University of British Columbia, funded by medical cannabis producer Tilray, showed that more than half of the 271 patients treated with medical cannabis used it as a way of getting off prescription drugs, with the majority attesting to the effectiveness of cannabis as a substitute for opioid painkillers.