Thor Benson / Cannabis News Box Contributor

Though it’s almost a ridiculous trope at this point, many people still believe cannabis is a gateway drug to other, more dangerous drugs. According to new research from data analysis firm LiveStories, there is no correlation between someone using cannabis and them being more likely to use harder drugs.

“Since legalizing marijuana, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska all had a significant increase in marijuana use. However, these states did not experience similar trends for more addictive substances like alcohol, tobacco, cocaine, and heroin,” the analysis says. “Meanwhile, education and unemployment have stayed the same or improved since marijuana legalization in these four states. The percent of residents with college degrees has remained the same and the unemployment rate has decreased, similar to national trends.”

So, as you probably could have predicted, the sky didn’t start falling when those states legalized cannabis, and there wasn’t suddenly a huge spike in heroin, meth or cocaine use. The myth of the gateway drug has existed for decades, and it may finally be time to put it to rest. Actually, some researchers have found alcohol is more likely to be a gateway drug than cannabis.

Daniele Piomelli, a professor of anatomy and neurobiology at the University of California, Irvine, told Cannabis News Box that there is no clear connection between using cannabis and trying harder drugs. He said there is “evidence that THC in cannabis sensitizes animals to other abusable drugs,” but there is no evidence this means humans are more likely to use hard drugs after using cannabis.

Furthermore, Piomelli said “an increasing number of studies suggest that cannabis availability (legal status, presence of active dispensaries) predicts lower opioid overdose death and lower use of opioids and other medications. This is good news.” Not only does cannabis not lead to hard drug use, there is evidence it might actually help prevent hard drug use. Considering the horrors we’re facing within the opioid epidemic, that could be a huge deal.

The federal government spent decades spreading misinformation about cannabis, and it’s going to take time to educate people on what cannabis actually does and does not do. However, with the large numbers of people supporting legalization, it appears most are much better educated than they used to be.