The concept that marijuana is a ‘gateway drug’ to more damaging compounds such as opioids is questionable, yet has actually significantly affected drug policy, education, and how we conceive compound usage. A brand-new methodical evaluation and meta-analysis has actually discovered that individuals who utilize marijuana are disproportionately most likely to start opioid usage and take part in bothersome patterns of usage than individuals who do not utilize marijuana. But the quality of the proof for this finding is low.
One unexpected discovery in this meta-analysis, led by scientists at the University of Sydney’s Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use and released by the journal Addiction, was that there aren’t numerous great research studies on the entrance drug theory. Despite the frequency with which the subject of entrance drugs is gone over, just 6 research studies were of high adequate quality to consist of. A synthesis of the proof from those 6 research studies showed that individuals who utilize marijuana are more than two times as most likely to start opioid usage and establish bothersome patterns of usage than individuals who don’t utilize marijuana.
But the quality of the proof in those research studies is low and should be translated with care. All 6 research studies had a moderate threat of predisposition and ignored essential confusing variables such as marijuana usage frequency and association with marijuana or opioid-using peers. It is uncertain whether these unmeasured variables would have had a strong adequate effect to rationalize the cannabis-opioid usage relationship.
It is for that reason not possible, on the existing proof, to state conclusively that there is a causal relationship in between marijuana and subsequent opioid usage, however it is most likely that there is at least a partial causal relationship.
The 6 research studies supplied information from the United States, Australia and New Zealand in between 1977 and 2017, with an overall sample of 102,461 individuals.
Reference: “Weeding out the truth: a systematic review and meta-analysis on the transition from cannabis use to opioid use and opioid use disorders, abuse or dependence” 15 July 2021, Addiction.
DOI: 10.1111/include.15581
Funding: Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, University of Sydney’s Matilda Centre for Research in Mental Health and Substance Use, University of Sydney, Society for the Study of Addiction
