The current study is one of the first to look at the relationships between smoking, drinking and marijuana use. The vast majority of research in this area has focused on a single substance in isolation, especially among white middle-class suburban populations. The importance of Dr. Epstein's approach is backed up by evidence suggesting that teenage poly-drug use is a significant risk factor for adult poly-drug use.

One implication of these findings, according to Dr. Epstein, is that "comprehensive prevention programs focusing on multiple gateway drugs (alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana) may prove to be more valuable than programs focusing on a single drug."

Study co-authors included Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin, chief of the Public Health Department's Division of Prevention and Health Behavior and professor of psychology in public health and psychology in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College; and Margaret Doyle, formerly of Weill Cornell.

The study appears online in the July 1 issue of the Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse. The research was supported by a grant to Dr. Epstein from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to analyze data previously collected under a grant to Dr. Botvin from the National Cancer Institute (NCI). Some students in the NCI study received a prevention program called Life Skills Training (LST), while others did not. Dr. Botvin receives income from sales of the LST program. The data used by Dr. Epstein for the current NIDA study were from students who did not receive the LST program.

Source: New York- Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center/Weill Cornell Medical College