Pot’s bad rap as a gateway drug disputed: study

Cannabis’ reputation as a gateway drug may be turning over a new leaf, according to a study by researchers at the University of Victoria and UBC. The findings suggest that cannabis can be a safer substitute for potentially more dangerous drugs like prescription opiates, alcohol and illicit substances and that for some people, it might even be an "exit drug" to addiction.

It’s referred to as the cannabis substitution effect, says the paper’s lead author, Philippe Lucas, research scholar with UVic’s Centre for Addictions Research of BC (CARBC), a PhD student in the university’s Social Dimensions of Health program and vice-president of patient research and services at Tilray, a federally authorized medical cannabis company.

“While cannabis is not benign, most research suggests that it's safer and less addictive than many substances, particularly prescription opiates,” Lucas says. “So research suggesting that cannabis substitution could reduce harms and lessen the public health and safety impact of alcohol and other drugs has significant policy implications.”

In the study, based on data collected from the Cannabis Access for Medical Purposes Survey (CAMPS), the largest Canadian survey of medical cannabis patients to date, 87 per cent of respondents reported substituting cannabis for one or more of alcohol, illicit or prescription drugs.

The paper “Substituting cannabis for prescription drugs, alcohol and other substances among medical cannabis patients: The impact of contextual factors,” published in Drug and Alcohol Review, also examines how much age, affordability, substance use history and medical condition plays.

The biggest surprises in the study, says Lucas, was that younger respondents (under 40) are substituting cannabis for all substances and at a much higher rate than older ones.

The CAMPS study, from which this data on cannabis substitution effect was gathered, was supported by UBC Okanagan’s Institute for Healthy Living and Chronic Disease Prevention.

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