In the '70s, there was a lot of talk about "gateway" drugs, narcotics whose usage led to the consumption of other, more addictive substances.

So it may come as little surprise to some that researchers at UC San Diego have shown in a study that young marijuana consumers have a tendency to progress to the intake of tobacco products.

Karen Messer, who is a professor at the UC San Diego Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and director of biostatistics at UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center, conceived of the study and directed its first author, who is one of her grad students.

“This study challenges long-held assumptions about the pathways between cannabis and tobacco use among youth," Messer said.

Conventional wisdom has held since the '70s that smokers went

See Full Page