is marijuana a gateway drug?

MDMA i would sadly say is on the dangerous side. Great stuff, but can be dangerous.

 

In my opinion it is all about what the person wants... If they generally don't care about possible harm they could do to their brains and such they will move on to harder drugs, but just because you take a few tokes now and again doesn't mean you'll instantly turn to other drugs. I love weed. Safe, fun, and always a good time. With Cid though you gotta watch out for having a bad trip. Ill keep toking, and as long as everyone's happy with what their doing, I'm okay.

 

i think this guy said it best.

marijuana is illegal and because of such puts you in a position where you are exposed to other drugs. but marijuana by no means MAKES you want to do other drugs. YOU do.

some people start with cigarettes, some people start with alcohol.
these kind of statistics are just ridiculous....


i could say that everyone who does heroine smoked pot before they did heroine.
but everyone who smokes pot at some time in their life went to church (this is hypothetical not meant to be taken seriously but as an illustration).
using the same arguing points and mentality i could say church is the stepping stone. cuz everyone who smokes pot went to church before hand.

 

nicotene is the gateway drug!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! norbit

 

THIS GUY IS THE FUCKING BOSS HE PWNS ASS!

 

No marijuana being illegal causes the whole gateway drug thing. Someone might just want to smoke weed but in order to get weed they need to go threw drug dealers that may try to push harder and harder drugs on you. But all it takes is a little self control to say "na man just gime that dime bag"

 

there are a few drugs i would never take no matter what, heorin, crack and cocaine.

 

i will never agree with anyone that says weed is a gateway drug. i know plenty of people who have smoked, and never even tried another drug for their entire life. i would say that yes most individuals that want to experiment with drugs, usually start with herb, but that doesnt mean everybody that gets high will eventually be a crack addict. there's nothing about weed that would make you "crave" or want to try other drugs. if you have those feelings, that's something personal with you, and you want to experiment with drugs. (don't get me wrong, experimenting with drugs, IMO, isn't always a bad thing)

 

I started smoking marijuana three years before I started doing any other drug.

To this day, I still prefer Marijuana to every other drug I've tried, by far. I wouldn't say that it's a gateway drug, its the first "drug" I ever did.

 

I would say cannabis could lead you to shrooms, maybe then to lsd, maybe then to dmt. Not because theres some mysterious chemical in weed that makes you seek out other substances, but because it makes you realize that not all drugs are that dangerous. But as for it making you do heroin or cocaine or meth...

 

There is absolutely no proof weed is a gateway drug...study after study proves this. Both ciga and booze have prooven to be better predictors of future hard drug use then weed.

 

I've always thought that in a sense it wasn't the drug as much as the community that was the gateway. being around people that smoke are often (obviously not always) for lack of a better word, criminals. being around people that smoke will expose you to other drugs and you can get curious. Its natural to be curious as long as you are careful.

If it were legal and you could go to the liqueur store to get it, guess what? all of the sketchiness would simply go away. now instead of people considered criminals for smoking they are now average people who happen smoke. more people smoke then most people realize. i got a haircut about 30 minutes ago and i was talking to my hairdresser about herb.

 

No. The only reason people who smoke weed move onto harder drugs is because they want to. Plain and simple. If you don't want to use harder drugs, don't. It's as easy as that.

 

When I'm high, the LAST thing I wanna be thinking about is other drugs.

Psychedelics remind me of anxiety and nausea.
Opiates remind me of uncontrollable itching.
Stimulants remind me of how fucking tweaked out I've gotten.

Always seems like such a buzz kill, when ever I take something 'else', I usually end up regretting it one way or another.

So I'll stick with Cannabis.

 

no its not when i smoke weed i have no urge to take any other drugs.

 

Here's my take on the idea that it's a gateway drug.

Physically, there is nothing in marijuana that would lead to a person trying other drugs, however I do think this perception that it's a gateway drug DOES have some merit. I'm not saying any person that uses marijuana is going to move on to harder drugs, but for some, it is the first illicit substance they try and it opens new doors to them. It stands to reason that if someone has used the harder drugs (heroin, cocaine, etc.), they probably experimented with marijuana first. I've never personally heard of someone jumping straight to the hard stuff.

There are a few other factors that contribute to this being somewhat true (but not in the sense that the anti-marijuana propaganda states). First, the legal status of marijuana has a lot to do with it. Since any dealer is already breaking the law, and marijuana is a schedule 1 drug in USA, what does a dealer have to lose by holding other illegal drugs as well? So the legal status of marijuana makes it much easier for a user of marijuana to have access to these other substances. Let's face it, not all dealers are honest people, most aren't in fact, so they may try to offer you these other drugs as something a little stronger than marijuana and they may not outline the negative effects. Another reason that I feel the gateway theory has a little bit of merit, from my own personal experience, is that when I tried marijuana and learned a bit about it, I realized that almost everything I had been taught in school about drugs and almost all of the anti-drug group information was completely incorrect. If I was lied to about marijuana, maybe I was lied to about the other drugs as well. Since the source of information that I had previously trusted has been discredited, I have nowhere to find accurate, reliable information, so I may be interested in trying other drugs for myself to learn about them.

I have not used any drugs recreationally, other than alcohol and marijuana, but I personally have no objection to trying other substances at this time. If I were offered something else, whether it be mushrooms, LSD, heroin, cocaine, or any other drug, I would probably try it. I'm not saying marijuana directly leads people to try other drugs, but in my case, it did cause me to be more open to trying them.

Short Summary:
-Not physically a "gateway drug" as the propaganda portrays it
-Legal status of marijuana makes other drugs more accessible
-Realizing that the information about marijuana given to us in school and by the media is completely false creates doubt about the accuracy of information provided about other drugs, leading to people wanting to learn for themselves

 

Been smoking for 8 years, can't say I honestly ever wanted to try another drug, except cigs but that's because like everyone in my family smokes them.

 

I'll try to remember that