Post on 09-Apr-2023
Gateway theory or Conflict lensA Study of Drug Corralaries
Dylan Burns Political Science – Sociology – PhilosophyEastern Kentuckty University ‘17
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One of the prevailing ideologies in the war against drugs,
and especially against the usage of what some may consider
moderate or low threat drugs such as marijuana, is the gateway
theory. That is, if individuals begin using less illicit
substances such as alcohol, and tobacco, and eventually
marijuana, that they are likely to move onto more harmful
substances such as cocaine or heroin. Given the prevalence of
marijuana, and the widening acceptance of its usage one would
expect, if this theory is true, for there to be a similar rise in
the usage of those more dangerous substances. This however may
not be the case. The purpose of the forthcoming survey data and
research is to show whether or not a pattern exists between the
usage of marijuana, alcohol, and tobacco, and substances such as
heroin or cocaine. Moreover, the illicit substance data will be
compared alongside a number of demographic determinants such as
sex, race, age, and as the data deals with adolescents it will
also deal with the GPA’s of those individuals. Given this, it is
expected that there is little if any reason to substantiate the
gateway theory.
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Prior to explaining any of the pertinent variables, it is
pivotal to understand the demographic makeup of the students
surveyed. This data will also be used later as a means of
comparing and contrasting certain variables, and fishing out the
spurious information. AS such, the following charts represent
the female/male, and racial distributions of the sample
population.
Sex
Female Male
Race
Black WhiteHispanic
The majority of the respondents, by a slight margin are
female, and the majority of respondents are also non-Hispanic
white. According to the US Census bureau, the racial makeup of
the sample population is fairly representative of the US
population as a whole, this will help further extrapolate more
broadly concerning the data given. As such the first area of
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discussion is perhaps the most widely used illicit substance;
alcohol.
Given the social acceptance of alcohol use, at least when it
is done so moderately, the students surveyed where asked a number
of questions regarding their beliefs and experiences with
alcohol. When asked if they disapprove of adults (including
underage adults) drinking alcohol, the vast majority of students,
72% (72.1%) in fact, responded that they didn’t disapprove,
whereas only 13% did disprove. What this gathers is that there is
a distinct amount of approval for the usage of alcohol, which may
be tightly wound to its cultural use, and prevalence, the more
students are exposed to alcohol consumption the more likely they
are to find no fault in its use. Despite its approval, when asked
what grade they were when they had their first experience with
alcohol (which included more than mere sips), the most accepted
response, at nearly 28%, was never. That is, during a student’s
time in middle and elementary school they never had a true
experience with alcohol, this should be taken with caution as the
majority (60.2%) of students had their first experience between
8th and 12th grade.
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Although alcohol use is a widely accepted social practice,
the use of tobacco products is quickly becoming taboo. When asked
about their feelings regarding the use of tobacco, students
responded in agreement to this social trend. More than 80% of
those surveyed, responded with disapproval to its regular use
(28.7% disapproved and 51.15% strong disapproved). Accordingly,
54% of students surveyed also responded that they had never tried
cigarettes, while only 9% were regular users. Again this, data
compliments presuppositions surrounding the use of drugs (whether
legal or illegal). Perhaps the growing use of ad campaigns,
rising social stigma, and ready access to information has stunted
the use of the substances, and had negative impact on the overall
view of its usage.
These first two frequencies tackle legal drugs, however
their consumption by the majority of students is still considered
illegal because of age restrictions placed upon alcohol and
tobacco. Although the drop off in tobacco use is perhaps more
expected, what is somewhat odd is the distribution of those
consuming alcohol. The graph below will help illustrate this
point more clearly.
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Grade 6 Grade 7 Grade 8 Grade 9 Grade 10 Grade 11 Grade 12 Never0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Grade First Tried Alcohol
This graph shows a bell curve of sorts, disregarding the
outlier (i.e. never), perhaps there is some story which can be
derived from this pattern. Although the early grades are
understandably less likely to consume alcohol, and moreover are
perhaps less likely to be interested in it, it begins to make
sense why as one enters high school their chances of consuming
alcohol increase somewhat substantially. One may expect this
trend to continue further into high school, that more students
would feel comfortable consuming alcohol as they are older, but
according to the data, this is simply not the case. Societal
notions of teens and young adults as a rambunctious and
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uncontrollable group are perhaps groundless, especially given the
outlier. Interestingly enough, the statistics for marijuana
follow an almost identical pattern, where individuals have a
peaking period in 9th grade, but where never is a distinct
outlier.
Although the first two descriptive frequencies desalt with
legal drugs, the following section will deal with an illegal drug
with a presumptive acceptance. Marijuana is perhaps the most used
illegal drug, moreover, it is becoming much more accepted
nationally either for its medical benefits or for an
understanding of its recreational use. Drawing from this students
were asked to give their opinion on marijuana use; whether they
don’t disapprove (1), disapprove (2), or strongly disapprove (3).
The average answer when assessed was a 1.86. This suggest that
although students are more likely to disapprove of it use, this
disapproval is somewhat weak, signifying that their answer is
perhaps flexible. In agreeance with this statistic a weak
majority, only 53% of students responded that they had never
tried marijuana, whereas nearly 47% percent had some exposure to
it. Interestingly, what is found is that although marijuana is
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illegal in most parts of the country, its use is slightly more
accepted than tobacco, and more students had tried marijuana as
well.
Although the previous three sections dealt with substances
which had either large approval or slightly disapproval, heroin
and cocaine will likely have far less support (much higher
disapproval). This may simply be a result of the social stigma
which is placed on these drugs above others, as well as the
caricature of the drug addict which is often portrayed in popular
media outlets. Nonetheless, as with the previous sections
students were asked questions concerning the use of heroin and
cocaine. The statistics for cocaine and heroin are the strongest
tested. With 74% and 80% strongly disproving of the use of
cocaine and heroin respectively, a much clearly picture is being
depicted. There doesn’t appear to be much debate on whether these
two substances should be used as the vast majority of those who
responded where against both substance. Oddly enough, more
students strongly disapprove of heroin use than cocaine, giving
credence to the idea that information may be a playing factor in
students determining what substances are bad, as chemically
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speaking heroin is much more addictive and harmful. Moreover an
even stronger majority of students (92%) had never tried cocaine,
and although no statistic was provided for it, it can be expected
that percentages concerning heroin use are even more drastic.
Although alcohol is the only substance discussed with higher
approval than disapproval and higher use than non-use, tobacco
and marijuana are on the cusp. A trend across time would likely
show tobacco use dropping somewhat, where marijuana use is likely
the opposite. Heroin and cocaine use may fluctuate somewhat, but
are likely to stay low, and that again may be a result of our
ready access to pertinent and peer reviewed information
concerning drugs. Figure 2 (Drugs Acceptance) summarizes the
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acceptance rates of the above substances.
Alcohol Tobacco Marijuana Cocaine Heroin0102030405060708090
Drug Acceptance
Don’t Disapprove Disapprove Strongly Disapprove
With this graph a much clearer picture is painted concerning
acceptance. The highest levels of acceptance or of those how
don’t disapprove are clearly within alcohol, but quite obviously
marijuana is second, followed by tobacco, cocaine, and eventually
heroin. What this means is that there are those who disapprove of
tobacco usage and yet approve/ don’t disapprove of marijuana use,
in fact tobacco acceptance is closer to cocaine and heroin than
marijuana.
Findings
Description statistics give enormous insight into usages of
various substances however, it is when these statistics are
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compared and contrasted, and when cross tabulations are performed
when real information and theory may result. Below, marijuana use
and acceptance is compared to cocaine, heroin, alcohol, and
tobacco. A number of these statistics are compared to sex, race,
and eventually GPA. The use of heroin is left out because heroin
use was not asked of the respondents.
The first cross tabulation concerned cocaine where marijuana
acceptance was the independent variable. Given such strong
negative statistics towards cocaine, and more moderate feelings
towards marijuana, it may be expected or theorized that
statistically these two substances share no significant
correlation, or if there is one, that it is a negative
relationship. Oddly, when the numbers are calculated out this
expectation isn’t quite as strong. Although the relationship is
significant given its chi square test (X2= 283.380 df=4
sig.=.000), 57% of those who don’t disapprove of marijuana are
strongly against the use of cocaine, and somewhat expected those
who strongly oppose the use of marijuana also strongly oppose the
use of cocaine. Although the latter is expected, the former is
somewhat curious, only 57% are against cocaine use, however
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determining whether this is a causal relationship will require
further research, for now what can be said is that some
correlation exists, whether it be temporal or otherwise.
Heroin acceptance follows a similar pattern, albeit a more
extreme one. The results of which can be seen in the graph below.
Although those who approve of the use of marijuana are
slightly more likely to approve of the use of heroin than those
who disapprove or strongly disapprove, it is only slightly so,
regardless of how slight once again, in some contrast to
expectation there is a statistically significant relationship
appearing here (X2= 168.162 df=4 sig.=.000).
Acceptance of Marijuana
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Somewhat more expected is the relationship found between
marijuana use and that of tobacco and alcohol. Those who smoke
marijuana are almost 93% more likely to approve of the
consumption of alcohol, where approval for tobacco use drops off
significantly at just 34%. This again follows what was mentioned
early, a general trend downward for the use of tobacco has been
occurring for some time, and as theorized is likely the result of
more information and an onslaught of ad campaigns targeting
cigarettes. Regardless significant relationships exists between
tobacco and marijuana and alcohol and marijuana as evidenced by
their respective chi square tests (X2= 414.370 df=4 sig.=.000,
X2=294.331 df=4 sig.=.000)
These previous crosstabs and chi square test have only dealt
with acceptance of certain drugs in comparison to others and how
they correlate. The following will intersect marijuana use and
cocaine use, instead of mere beliefs concerning the substances.
Given the somewhat surprising data before, it seems as though
marijuana use may have some effect on the rate at which
individuals also consume cocaine. However, despite a
statistically significant relationship (X2=400.131 df=36
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sig.=.000), the majority (60%) of those who had used marijuana
recreationally more than 40 times, were among those who had never
used cocaine, moreover only 13% of those who had used quite
frequently (40+ times) had tried cocaine whatsoever.
Interestingly the few individuals who had used cocaine more than
40 times were almost all among the regular users of marijuana.
This suggest a different kind of relationship, that those use
cocaine are statistically more likely to be heavy users of
marijuana, however the reverse is simply not true. This helps get
to a more pertinent subject area concerning the gateway theory.
That it is not marijuana which lends individuals to use cocaine,
for if this were true, a higher percent of those heavy users
would likely be users of cocaine, rather some other
characteristic plays into this equation. Although it is
unexpected, in order to rule out any other effect; race, sex, and
GPA will be tabulated against these harder drugs (i.e. cocaine
and heroin), to see if there is perhaps a relationship there, and
if there is some way to theorize why those relationships exist.
The initial cross tabs dealt with a comparison of cocaine
usage and biological sex. In theory, men and women should be
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equally to use or not use cocaine. Accordingly, the data does
compliment this analysis. Although it appears as though men are
slightly more likely to be frequent users (1.6% compared to
1.2%), this difference is not substantial enough to be considered
statistically significant, which again can be seen given chi
square values (X2= 12.806 df=6 sig.=.046). This rules out another
characteristic with which one may hypothesize why individuals use
cocaine.
When the above cross tabs were run with race as the
independent variable, the results were the same. Although white
students were slightly more likely to use cocaine frequently,
regardless of race students had been readily abstaining from
using cocaine In fact no less than 90% of all students had ever
tried cocaine (HORRAY) (X2=20.892 df=12 sig.=.052).
Here is where the statistics get interesting. Grade point
average can be seen as an indicator of many things. Common sense
would lend to the idea those with higher GPA’s are likely to come
from more stable home environments, with wealthier families who
have more resources towards education. Those resources and stable
homes likely preclude many individuals from using cocaine. This
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notion is substantiated by statistically significant cross
tabulations (X2= 126.593 df=48 sig.=.000).Those least likely to
use cocaine are students with 4.0 GPA’s, in fact nearly 96% of
those students with straight A’s have never tried cocaine. On the
polar end, students with 1.0 GPA’s are nearly 35% (34.6) more
likely to use than those students graduating with highest honors.
Interestingly those with a C average are more likely than any
other GPA to be frequent users of cocaine (40+ times). In
comparison half of all students with a 1.00 GPA were frequent
users of marijuana, in fact only those with GPA’s at and above a
B average were likely to have never used marijuana. Here also
exists a statistically significant relationship (X2= 162.550
df=48 sig.=.000) that did not exist with either sex or race. GPA
and perhaps companion theories that exist with it give insight
into usage of both marijuana and drugs much more harmful.
These findings paint an interesting tail. Those who use hard
drugs such as cocaine are far more likely to be users of
marijuana than not. The reverse cannot be said, marijuana use
does not necessarily, and not statically, lend that an individual
is also a user of cocaine. Sex, and race were also not
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determinants as expected, but as the above paragraph illustrates,
a correlation exists between GPA and cocaine use (as well as
marijuana use). This correlation although spurious by itself is
helpful in determining what the root cause of cocaine use is.
Consider again the individuals with those stagnantly low GPA’s.
It may be theorized that those GPA’s are the result of a more
insidious cause. Poor home environment or poor stability can
birth students who have little interest in their education. In
turn, as feelings of social death, and social distance increase
these students turn to illicit substances as avenues for battling
depression and other issues which may arise from this poor home
environment. If the gateway theory were true, this relationship
of marijuana use should apply equally across GPA’s. However,
almost 25% of those students with the highest of GPA’s had tried
marijuana more than once, however less than 5 % had ever used
cocaine. There is a mitigating factor here not considered in the
gateway theory. It is not marijuana use which cause cocaine use,
it is an environment wrought with inopportunity and despair which
can breed use of both cocaine and marijuana. Here we see
sociological lens determining illicit substance use. Under the
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conflict lens, it can be seen that those who have fewer resources
(i.e. individuals from poor undereducated families) are
themselves less likely to achieve academically, this academic
short coming leads to feelings of social death, which can in turn
bread a drug user. Again, it is not the use of marijuana which
causes cocaine use, rather instability which can bring about both
of those two. Although further research is needed, the numbers
speak volumes against the outdated, and obviously politically
charged gateway theory.