One of the top Republicans in Congress says he is concerned that marijuana causes people to use other, more dangerous substances as the Trump administration is moving forward with a proposal to federally reschedule cannabis.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told Marijuana Moment last week that he thinks “marijuana is a gateway drug, and it causes other problems down the road” for people who use it.
Research has routinely debunked the so-called “gateway drug theory” that cannabis causes people to go on to other substances like cocaine and heroin.
One study published last year, for example, noted that cannabis “is often labeled a ‘gateway drug,’” but found that “strong causal evidence for progression to other substances is limited.”
Use of marijuana “typically follows alcohol and tobacco, and rarely leads to further drug use,” the study found. “These findings challenge the gateway hypothesis.”
In any case, Scalise was responding to a question about recently released FBI data showing that his home state of Louisiana had among the highest number of marijuana arrests in the U.S. in 2025.
The majority leader largely sidestepped the issue, however, saying that marijuana policy is largely carried out at the state level and not in
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