is marijuana a gateway drug?

[Tick]

when i first started smokin, i thought it was all i would ever do. then, as i got used to it, i became more receptive to trying other organic drugs. that sparked a curiosity into drugs, the mind/body, and the brain in general. i dont think weed makes you actively desire and search for other drugs, but it lowered my inhibitions for sure.

discuss

[Eyes420Alive]

its all dominoes man, you cant just blame one

[GoldenGopher]

which ever drug is used first is the gateway drug

holding a drug responsible for future abuse is retarded

[Tick]

i dig that, once youve used anything once it makes other stuff more approachable

[Eyes420Alive]

im not even talking just drugs, there are many determining factors at work, at all times, in all decisions made

[blaze it]

i do not believe for one second that ANY drug is the sole factor for this "gateway" idea. it is up to the user to determine that. if a person somehow cannot "resist" the "urge" to experiment with other substances, then that person has a low level of self-control. There isnt a thing on this Earth that brainwashes a person so severely that it is necessary to go and do Other drugs. I have been smoking reefer since the 7th grade. i am now a freshman in college and i have never once had the slightest desire Whatsoever to try something else. and it is all because i made a promise to myself to resist the pressuring "idea" that marijuana is a gateway drug. and it has well worked without a hitch this entire time. i see myself NEVER trying another form of substantial intoxication other than alchohol for the rest of my life. rock on

[4toke2up0]

No because it's more of a once you use a drug...you use a drug...usually starts with tobacco and alcohol though...

It can be...I guess if you're like "I'm only going to smoke pot," and then it 'doesn't get you high enough' (which there's your problem), and you start moving on to 'get higher' then yea, it can be a gateway drug...but that's the same with anything

just tryin' to precieve the world differently

[727-skateboarding]

It being illegal makes people more likely to move from it to other illegal drugs.


Any substance that is easy to get has a big chance of being the first substance you will try and you may end up try another if you want to.


Alot adicts of illegal drugs and pharms started out as alcoholics.

[deadhead]

MDA was my gateway drug


alcohol was my first though...but it's a gateway industrial poison

[Dr. Gonzo]

and lab solvent. after ethanol i moved up to harder stuff like hexane

[deadhead]

what a n00b, everyone knows cyclohexane is the good shit

[trippynet]

which ever drug is used first is the gateway drug

Yeah I agree with this, marijuana just cops most of the blame because it's the most common first drug.

[Dr. Gonzo]

people talk about marijuana being a gateway drug because someone had an opinion once upon a time and even the people who don't agree with it won't let the idea die

then again it's not like you can stop people from bitching about each other. hate is just too damn good of a thing

[bongmaster]

I tried caffeine and alcohol long before I first smoked pot, but I still don't think they led me to smoke. The idea of a gateway drug just seems silly to me. That's like saying because you listened to classic rock you felt the need to move up to metal, and then you had to go to metal concerts , and destroy your hearing, so now let's blaim classic rock that your parents introduced you to as a child for your hearing loss. It makes no sense , does it?

[Dr. Gonzo]

rex luscus thinks it does

[ntr4nc3d]

No it is not a Gateway drug and anybody who thinks that is just stupid and just listens to all that propaganda bullshit they feed the people.

I recommend everyone who smokes marijuana to watch "The Union:The business behind getting high". Very good documentary that shows facts and explains how marijuana should be legalized and regulated just like alcohol. It puts an end to the "Gateway Theory" and shows scientific studies about how marijuana is less harmful then tobacco and alcohol.

[Dr. Gonzo]

actually there's no proof that marijuana is less harmful. there's never been a study done on the sort of populations they've done studies with alcohol and tobacco on so there's no proof either way and people spin that however they want. if anything they've managed to verify the idea that marijuana can impair cognition for a while


the promarijuana people spew as much bullshit as everyone else so don't get too up your ass about disagreeing with the teevee

[Buddah_Lova]

it kinda is. it depends on the person though. i promised myself that i wouldnt even try any other drug when i started chiefin 4 years ago. i've stayed true to that. a lot of my friends started with weed and now they do other drugs. weed is more of a "gateway drug" than alcohol is because it associates you with the "underground" drug culture.

[deadhead]

that doesn't make it a gateway drug....

there is no pharmacological property of marijuana that makes you want to do other drugs...


prohibition is the gateway drug...

[Dr. Gonzo]

too bad the idea of a gateway drug is a social phenomenon

plus you don't exactly have all the cutting edge medical data. you just have what you can regurgitate from the erowid type websites and you'll take whatever they say on good authority

[mallrat]

prohibition is the gateway drug...

I agree wtih that.

By labeling groups of mind altering substances as illegal as well as a menace to your health and society at general it scares people away from trying them, in most cases yes. However those who do venture out of the boundaries are more than likely going to be drawn to Marijuana because it is not a fatal drug and the addicitive properties are mostly psychological. When they find that they are not on the streets or raping and killing they become imoboldened and to a certain extent a little jaded in the process and they often begin to develop a curiosity for other drugs they have heard about and maybe even become informed on upon their investigations or just whats around from their friends.

With prohibition removed then people would choose which drugs to ingest based upon their effects and possible consequences.

[Dr. Gonzo]

just like with acohol^

gateway drug is just a word that ad men spit out for the DEA. if you removed the prohibition tomorrow there'd still be the same millions of pretentious fucks smoking pot because they think it makes them cool

and anyone who starts doing drugs because someone tells them not to is a fucking tool

[727-skateboarding]

three things lead to me trying other drugs
a. knowing most of the bad things i heard about that drug are false
b. being interested that drugs effects
c. haveing acess to that drug

[mallrat]

Same here

In the case of Marijuana i had easy access t oit from my friends so i did some research on pot related web sites like high times and such which basically labeled it harmless and i began to go down thhe path of trying it. i sticked to it for a long time but eventually i became interested in other drugs such as ecstasy acid and cocaine. i didn't try them for years plus because i didn't have the guts frankly and when i did I had absolutely no way of obtaining them and more often than not no money. Once they became available mainly by means of my social circle I began to experiment and fell in love with all three. However if I hadn't tried marijuana first I highly doubt i would have cultivated a desire or intrest really in trying some of the "harder" drugs i have indulged in.

[Pie77]

Of course not. The notion that a single drug (any of them for that matter) could cause one to become a polysubstance abuser is laughable. hahaha <----see

edit; I guess I should mention that my first drug was robotussin, followed by alcohol, and marijuana would be third. Personally I think if I were only disciplined not to smoke marijuana by law and all other substances were legal. I'd still smoke herb and buy all the other hypothetically legal drugs, but even with that available I am confident my use ratio would be at least 7:1 (marijuana, all other available substances)

[Starkey]

I hate how the term is used to make marijuana look bad. I think bud can lead a person to other things tho. Any drug can lead a person to thinking that another drug might also be fun to try. And in the usual group of pot smokers there is most likely someone who does other drugs besides herb, like LSD or cocaine and most likely some of the other peeps in the group are curious about trying other drugs.

Not to mention pot heads usually like to go to concerts, more drugs! That's why it's labeled a gateway drug like it's evil. Even tho alcohol is much more of a gateway drug and is deadly, leads to violence, crazy sex, STDs, etc... Prescription meds are more of a gateway drug than herb.

[krunkykunky]

marijuana is medicine.

[Dr. Gonzo]

only according to people who know fuck all about medicine