During a recent speech at the National Press Club, new Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey made several remarks that cast doubt on the validity of the “gateway theory.”
McCaffrey stated that out of the 90 million Americans who have experimented with illegal drugs, only 3 million are current addicts. In addition, he stated that the “overwhelming majority” of Americans who use illegal drugs simply “walk away and sa[y] it’s not for me.”
“In my mind, the Drug Czar is simply acknowledging what we at NORML have already known,” said Allen St. Pierre. “Federal statistics tell us time and time again that the bulk the Americans who experiment with illicit drugs experiment solely with marijuana and do not progress to harder drugs or run into drug-related problems later in life.”