Dagga is not a gateway drug

Legal cannabis did not lead to an increase in Dutch users of heroin and other drugs‚ but actually reduced the number of people switching to harder drugs
The Sunday Times (South Africa)
Monday, August 7, 2017

The prohibition on dagga is the "gateway to harder drug use‚ not the use of cannabis itself"‚ Imperial College Professor David Nutt told the Pretoria High Court. Nutt‚ a psychiatrist and neuropharmacologist is testifying in the trial to have the current ban on dagga use ruled unconstitutional. Johannesburg residents Jules Stobbs and Myrtle Clarke are asking the Pretoria High Court to deem the laws banning the adult use and sale of dagga unconstitutional and thus instruct parliament to make new laws. "The gateway theory is a theory that has very‚ very little in the way of empirical evidence‚" Nutt said. (See also: Is the state trying to lose the dagga case?)