Weed, they also found, simply isn't the "gateway drug" politicians and detractors have claimed it is for decades.
Published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, the study — comprised of 271 participants enrolled in Canada's Marihuana for Medical Purposes program — is considered one of the first to evince how cannabis can help alleviate substance addiction.
"[T]his study is the first to specify the classes of prescription drugs for which cannabis is used as a substitute, and to match this substitution to specific diagnostic categories," the study findings state.

Called the first comprehensive study of people enrolled in Canada's medical marijuana program, researchers pointedly found cannabis does not act as a gateway drug — the primary premise of pot prohibition.

Indeed, weed has been targeted by so-called anti-drug groups for years as the gateway to harder and ostensively dangerous substances, facilely providing the impetus for politicians and officials to keep it pegged as a Schedule 1 drug — alongside heroin, cocaine, and LSD.