FACT #1
Research on alcohol and drug use, and addiction, has led to an increase of knowledge and to one clear conclusion: Addiction to alcohol or drugs is a chronic but treatable brain disease that requires medical intervention, not moral judgment. (ONDCP)
FACT #2
Long-term studies on patterns of drug use among young people show that very few of them use other drugs without first starting with marijuana. For example, one study found that among adults (age 26 and older) who had used cocaine, 62 percent had initiated marijuana use before age 15. By contrast, less than one percent of adults who never tried marijuana went on to use cocaine. (NIDA)
FACT #3
Teens who are past month heavy marijuana users are significantly more likely than teens who have not used marijuana in the past to: use cocaine/crack (30 times more likely); use Ecstasy (20 times more likely); abuse prescription pain relievers (15 times more likely); and abuse over-the-counter medications (14 times more likely). This clearly denotes that teens that use marijuana regularly are using other substances at a much higher rate than teens who do not smoke marijuana, or smoke less often. (NIDA)
FACT #4
Only 45% of teens believe that abusing cough medicine to get high is risky, which means that over half believe it is not. (CADCA)