According to a new study, cannabis really is a gateway drug.
The study has found that cannabis leads users to harder illegal drugs such as cocaine by making them more sensitive to its effects.
US researchers studying adolescent rats found that when pre-exposed to cannabis, it had an enhanced reaction to their first exposure to cocaine.
The study suggests that if applied to humans, smoking a lot of weed as a teenager makes people more sensitive to cocaine and can lead to continued use and addiction.
‘This study suggests that teenagers who use cannabis may have a favourable initial reaction to cocaine,’ said study co-senior author Professor Denise Kandel of Columbia University.
‘[This will] increase their likelihood of engaging in its repeated use so that they eventually become addicted, especially if they carry additional environmental or genetic vulnerabilities.’
Researchers gave the adolescent and adult rats WIN, a synthetic cannabinoid that mimics the psychoactive effects of cannabis, followed by cocaine.
Adolescent rats who had already been given cannabis had an enhanced reaction to their first exposure to cocaine, the study concluded.
“These and other experiments are key to understanding the molecular changes to the brain that occur during drug use,” said co-author and Nobel Prize winner Professor Eric Kandel of Columbia University.
“This knowledge will be crucial for developing effective treatments that curb addiction by targeting the disease’s underlying mechanisms.”
“Our study in rats is the first to map the detailed molecular and epigenetic mechanisms by which cocaine interacts with brains already exposed to cannabinoids, providing much-needed clarity to the biological mechanisms that may increase the risk for drug abuse and addiction,” Eric Kandel also said.
