I saw the headline (above) in The Washington Post and I was disturbed.
I am 75. Technically Joe Biden and I belong to the same generation. Apparently my friends who are my age and much older here in Portland, Oregon where we have legal recreational marijuana, have very different views than he does about national legalization. Just about everyone I know in the 65-100 year old age range supports it. I know lots of folks in this age range because I live in a 500 resident senior community where the majority of residents had careers in education and human services.
The Nov. 14, 2019 Pew data shows that two-thirds of Americans support marijuana legalization.
In addition to asking respondents about whether marijuana use should be legal in general, the Center asked a separate group of respondents about legalizing marijuana for medical and recreational use. Nearly six-in-ten Americans (59%) favor legalizing marijuana for medical and recreational use, while another 32% say it should be legal for medical use only. Only 8% say it should not be legal.
About two-thirds of Democrats (68%) say marijuana should be legal for both medical and recreational use, compared with 49% of Republicans. Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say it should be legal just for medical purposes (38% vs. 28%) or that it should not be legal at all (12% vs. 4%).
Younger adults are somewhat more likely than older adults to say that marijuana use should be legal for both medical and recreational use. About two-thirds (69%) of those ages 18 to 29 say it should be legal for both types of use, compared with 48% of those ages 65 and older. Most adults 65 and over nonetheless favor legalization in some form.
This is from The Washington Post:
This (generational) disparity on the topic came into full view at a town hall in Las Vegas over the weekend, when Biden drew some groans from the crowd by saying he wants to see more research on marijuana and suggesting that it may be a “gateway drug” that can lead users to harsher substances.
“The truth of the matter is, there’s not nearly been enough evidence that has been acquired as to whether or not it is a gateway drug,” Biden said. “It’s a debate, and I want a lot more before I legalize it nationally. I want to make sure we know a lot more about the science behind it.”
Answering an audience question, Biden indicated that he is not opposed to the drug entirely. He supports the use of medical marijuana and would decriminalize possession of the drug, he said, adding that he wants individual states to make decisions on recreational use.
The story is also on Forbes, and on MarketWatch, which are not behind paywalls.
I am troubled by the fact that it appears that Joe Biden has remained out of touch with the changes in societal values, beliefs, and sensibilities about this one topic. It is difficult to imagine that he doesn’t have people in his professional and private life of all ages who either use marijuana recreationally or know people who do. I wonder whether he’s talked to them about this.
It would seem to me that these people would know his doubt about national legalization and that Biden would have had spirited discussions with them. By now I think he should have taken a position. The reports that he drew some groans from an audience that made the effort to come to his Las Vegas town hall is telling. I interpret groans to mean “oh no, Joe.”
What I am very troubled about is his gateway drug comment. While there is some medical debate about some of the long term detrimental health effects of daily high dose use of marijuana and the negative effects on young users, the notion that it is a gateway drug depends on how you define gateway. If you define it broadly you could say that high caffeine soda is a gateway drug too.
The data is there. A candidate for president should have reached a conclusion by now.
The most recent article (updated Oct. 29) I could find on this is from the Verywell website: “Is Weed Really A Gateway Drug?”
The gateway drug theory states that so-called soft drugs, such as marijuana, provide an apparently safe psychoactive experience that makes naive users more open to experimenting with other, harder drugs.
Most people who develop severe problems with drugs, such as cocaine, meth, and heroin, had early experiences with marijuana before trying these other drugs.
The argument goes that if they had not taken marijuana in the first place, they would not have been lured into a false sense of security around drug use, and so would never have progressed to other, more harmful substances. Continued.
This is what the National Institute on Drug Abuse says on their website which was updated in September:
Some research suggests that marijuana use is likely to precede use of other licit and illicit substances 46 and the development of addiction to other substances. For instance, a study using longitudinal data from the National Epidemiological Study of Alcohol Use and Related Disorders found that adults who reported marijuana use during the first wave of the survey were more likely than adults who did not use marijuana to develop an alcohol use disorder within 3 years; people who used marijuana and already had an alcohol use disorder at the outset were at greater risk of their alcohol use disorder worsening. 47 Marijuana use is also linked to other substance use disorders including nicotine addiction.
Early exposure to cannabinoids in adolescent rodents decreases the reactivity of brain dopamine reward centers later in adulthood. 48 To the extent that these findings generalize to humans, this could help explain the increased vulnerability for addiction to other substances of misuse later in life that most epidemiological studies have reported for people who begin marijuana use early in life.49 It is also consistent with animal experiments showing THC’s ability to "prime" the brain for enhanced responses to other drugs. 50 For example, rats previously administered THC show heightened behavioral response not only when further exposed to THC but also when exposed to other drugs such as morphine—a phenomenon called cross-sensitization. 51
These findings are consistent with the idea of marijuana as a "gateway drug." However, the majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, "harder" substances. Also, cross-sensitization is not unique to marijuana. Alcohol and nicotine also prime the brain for a heightened response to other drugs52 and are, like marijuana, also typically used before a person progresses to other, more harmful substances.
It is important to note that other factors besides biological mechanisms, such as a person’s social environment, are also critical in a person’s risk for drug use. An alternative to the gateway-drug hypothesis is that people who are more vulnerable to drug-taking are simply more likely to start with readily available substances such as marijuana, tobacco, or alcohol, and their subsequent social interactions with others who use drugs increases their chances of trying other drugs. Further research is needed to explore this question. Continued
It isn’t like Biden hasn’t had time to research the gateway drug issue, or have staff members do this for him. There is currently enough information available to do more than waffle on the question.
I think Biden is equivocating. I think he is testing the political waters.
Afterthought