Gateway theory or Conflict lensA Study of Drug Corralaries

Dylan Burns Political Science – Sociology – PhilosophyEastern Kentuckty University ‘17

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MTD2008 Database used

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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.