The real ‘gateway drug’ is 100% legal

January 6, 2016 at 2:30 p.m. EST

<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/m3phisto1969/19613612234/in/photolist-vTbTAb-4G6p32-5ngQej-9H9Gs4-nrSmZU-fEu7s6-p1Yh7n-7s6GUU-j3KAJ2-q5Y7T-bivTw4-eekFFS-rjds4h-osZZLu-6sm2QW-9biBfm-pKkfou-5sbG6f-5PFK9-pKeVwv-8qPpVj-jH2CJ3-5Btrad-rNs3Me-pKioeF-35wUb5-2pkhm-5sbG75-4Lh5m-pKkivm-q2NqUG-pKh91o-q2uQYZ-duXKK6-61NwY3-oaMG8z-kJF2eK-5wzJ6e-8VfD9M-vQYf6-fbb93V-jXzMD9-dxHEu3-zpe2g-kUo1yn-dvbJtS-rpRpsh-e7YaNF-vfvJqq-6Vb2Bm" target="_blank">Paul K./Flickr</a>

You may have heard that marijuana is a gateway drug. Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie makes this argument seemingly every chance he gets. Anti-drug groups often make similar claims.

The evidence seems convincing enough at first blush: studies show that 99 percent of illicit drug users tried marijuana before they did any other drugs. But on its own, this line of thinking actually is pretty tenuous: we could also safely assume that 99 percent of illicit drug users also tried coffee, or soda, or chocolate milk before moving on to stronger substances.