Music icon Elton John has weighed in on the debate over marijuana in the United States, calling the drug addictive and considering legalization a mistake.
The ‘Benny and the Jets’ singer told Time magazine, which named him Icon of the Year: ‘Legalizing marijuana in the United States and Canada is one of the biggest mistakes of all time.’
The EGOT winner, who has been sober since 1990, called the substance “addictive” and said using marijuana leads to other drug use.
While legalization advocates have long argued that cannabis is neither addictive nor harmful, but in fact helpful, a growing number of researchers and doctors point to harms associated with the drug, including psychosis and brain damage.
A growing body of research has found that an estimated 16 million Americans qualify as marijuana addicts.
John said that marijuana was a constant early in his career, with his band in the 1970s smoking “for years” before his manager introduced him to cocaine, although he has not indicated that his marijuana use influenced his transition to cocaine.
The belief that marijuana is a gateway drug dates back to the 1980s and is still held by millions of people of older generations, although numerous studies have shown this to be untrue.
The legalization of marijuana for recreational use in 24 states and Washington, D.C. has been celebrated by millions of people, but has been viewed cautiously by mental health and addiction experts, who have consistently noted inadequate research on the list of a drug that has not been able to understand if it is as harmless as its defenders say.
Music icon Elton John shared his opinion on the marijuana debate in the US, describing the drug as addictive and calling its legalization a mistake.
Recreational marijuana is legal in 24 states, although others have legalized it for medicinal purposes only.
The musician has battled drug addiction since the 1970s, admitting in his 2012 memoir that he spent much of the 1980s “in and out of a drug-fueled haze.”
Since getting sober, he has offered to help other high-profile faces, including Eminem, Robbie Williams and Lady Gaga.
He said it was his own struggles with drugs, as well as his involvement in other people’s lives and problems, that changed his view on legal cannabis and its potential as an invitation to try even stronger drugs.
“It leads to other drugs,” John told Time, “and when you’re high (and I’m already high) you don’t think normally.”
Marijuana has been called a “gateway drug” for years, a hypothesis that psychiatrists around the world say has not been conclusively proven.
Various studies dating back to 2000 conclude that “a large proportion, but not all, of individuals who use cannabis go on to use other illegal drugs.”
A 2016 report published in the International Journal of Drug Policy found that about 45 percent of people who ever used cannabis ended up using other illegal drugs at some point in their lives.
In the second year after first using cannabis, there was less than a nine percent chance they would try other illicit drugs.
The ‘Benny and the Jets’ singer (center)’s own history of substance abuse and his experiences with others have shaped his perspective on legal marijuana. He is pictured with Cher and Diana Ross in 1975, about a year after John was introduced to cocaine.
The link between recreational marijuana use and alcohol use in recent years has been most significant among younger adults ages 18 to 24.
On the other hand, a survey Studies conducted by the American Addiction Centers found that, after alcohol, marijuana and tobacco were widely used as the second and third substance of choice.
The hitmaker’s perspective is in the minority in the United States, where the Pew Research Center reported that 29 percent of Americans believed legal access to marijuana would increase the use of other drugs, such as heroin, fentanyl and cocaine. , while 42 percent said there would be no impact.
Meanwhile, marijuana dependence is receiving increasing attention from researchers.
Long believed to be non-habit-forming, about 30 percent of current smokers meet the criteria for addiction, in part because the marijuana of the 2020s is much more potent than that of the 1990s, and Smokable products contain up to 25 percent THC.
And the number of regular users. is on the rise. A 2019 federal survey found that 31.6 million people ages 12 and older used marijuana in the past 30 days, up from about 22 million five years earlier.
In 2023, that number will skyrocket to 61 million people.