What if calling marijuana the gateway drug doesn't actually mean that it'll get you involved with hard drugs? What if it actually meant all of the new ideas that you get when you smoke weed? New perspectives on life, human nature, the universe, spirtuality, that sort of stuff? What if thats what they meant when the term "The Gateway Drug" was invented?
That pretty much is the idea behind the gateway drug theory, but people don't understand it. When you smoke weed, your doing 2 things. 1. crossing over into the world of illegal activity (alot of people wont smoke cuz its against the law, so now all drugs are on the same level as far as breaking the law goes, although different drugs carry different penalties) and 2. your entering the world of psychoactives (alcohol is psychoactive, but you know what i mean) So once you smoke weed it opens up your mind alot, and your more likely to be open to wanting to experience other drugs to experience what kind of perceptions on life that may be possible via the effects of other drugs. Each drug has a distinct feeling and mental change characteristics, so each drug potentially will "expand your mind" in different ways than others. It's not if you do A your gonna do B, not nearly that simple, but since weed is the drug the most people have tried first, its the drug that makes it likely to try other drugs.
marijuana, to me, is a mind expander, which in essence can be a gateway to a number of things. Marijuana is a gateway drug, but its up to the user to decide what gates they open and explore
I totally concur. You do break the law to smoke it, and thus you have already made a critical judgment of life. Gateway to freedom of experience.
Very possible. The government doesn't really care about drug users though. They just see them as a number in prison. They use that number for propaganda, while those drug users are getting raped and stabbed in prison. The government could easily eliminate the possibility of marijuana users advancing to harder drugs by legalizing all drugs, end the drug war. Therefore, marijuana users would not be persuaded by their dealer to try other drugs. The possibility of dealers lacing their weed would also be done.
in the 70s when marijuana almost became legalize. the march to dc, the gov saw us using peace signs and all other freedom talks. gov was afried of this. they decided that all drugs will be illegal so people wont find the truth and other paths to freedom... gov wants us to keep our mouth shut and just follow the path to NWO. conspiracy theory
alcohol isn't psychoactive, it's a depressant. Caffine is a stimulant. Depressant's and stimulants aren't on the hit list. All they do is cause people to have depression, and make people spend all their money. Pychoactive drugs have the possibility of expanding peoples minds... for the better or for the worse. Marijauna is related to Shiva, the destroyer. Smoking cannabis can help you open your third eye... and help you achieve higher levels of wisdom and insight... it can also lead you down a pretty dark road... it's all about how you control your fear, as well as what you do with your wisdom.
Marijuana is a gateway drug for many people. Most people start on marijuana, some don't but most do, and you really like it. You become a pothead, smoke everyday, and a few years later weed doesn't do much to you, and you've heard plently of stories about people on drugs, and it seems so fun. You decide to try it, because what the hell, you're already breaking the law every day, no one will find out, and you just plain want to. You do it, and realize it is nothing like what it is stigmatized to be, so now your mind is open to more drugs. Slowly, over time, you become open to more and more drugs, realizing once again that they aren't all they're cracked up to be. You do something other than weed every once in a blue moon, then you start to want to do it more, more and more people pop out of the woodwork with more and more stuff, shit just pops out of nowhere, and you don't pass up the opportunity...what the hell, you know? It happens with increacing frequency until you come to the point where you have the ability to do something different everyday, and its up to you to make that choice if you want to do that or not. On one hand, there's not really much else to do, everyone you know is doing it, if you don't you just get left out of everything.
Speak for yourself buddy Your either talking about you and yourself in an indirect way or your putting yourself in the perspective of a person who thinks in "absolutes" and in favor of the "propoganda."
Do I think it leads to other drugs, yes. Do I think it leads to other drugs for the same reasons as the government.................. no. I think it leads to other drugs because people see pot as a drug, and when they smoke it, feel good, and have no medical repercussions, they become less fearful of other drugs. They think the medical effects of other drugs must be exaggerated and that feeling high feels so great with marijuana and now they want to try different highs. In conclusion, while your view of the term "gateway drug" is a nice theory, it's obviously I diversion that leads us to have false conspiracies. We don't want to believe that such a wonderful drug can lead to something not so wonderful. I love weed as much as you guys, but we can't ignore the truth or we're just as bad as the fucking authoritarian government.
I've seen it happen to my close friends, and myself to a lesser degree...Along with lots of other aquaintences I've met over the years, then see them when they got older. I said some people, not everyone. Different "communities" have a different atmosphere, thus different opportunities. Talk to some people who've been there and it goes the same a lot of the time. Of course its not just what I said, 90% of it is just what's going through your head moment-to-moment, how happy you are, etc. Different circumstances breed different outcomes.
I think it's alcohol. Please don't get me wrong, there's nothing like a cold beer on a hot day...but alcohol is sometimes a gateway drug to stupidity. Leads to harder things.
that bullshit. alcohol makes u dumb, yes but it will never lead to hard drugs all my friends drink and say fuck hard drugs, soft drugs... alcohol is not a gateway drug... its a depress drug
Alcohol is quite a hard drug in terms of the effects of chronic use, addictive potential and the physical effects of withdrawal (which run the spectrum right up to death). I would posit that a person with a predisposition to abuse alcohol would similarly abuse other hard drugs (cocaine, heroin, meth) if they had the chance. Due to Alcohol being a legal drug out of the hands of criminals thankfully this doesn't happen on a large scale. Cannabis smokers on the other hand are frequently exposed to criminals who do deal in these harder drugs. My first post made the point that we shouldn't fall into the fallacy of post hoc ergo propter hoc (causality != causation), here I'm saying that if cannabis is a gateway drug (in the conventional sense) it's entirely due to prohibition.
As for the OP I doubt thats where the term originated from, when that Aslinger guy took over the DEA in the early years of its creation, he was thinking up all sorts of ways to scare the public from marijuana, I think It really did originate with the "leading on to harder drugs" meaning thus scaring the public away from it and sending them back to their bars to drink themself stupid. Done and Done. As for the Gate Way theory in general, I think its a load of shit, I hung out with coke heads & crack smokers, while they got deep into their habit, I tried coke once didn't like it. And Kept puffing on ganja, to call MJ a Gateway drug to me, you would have to prove to me an ingredient or chemical that reacts with ones brain in some way and makes them try other drugs. Don't label it a Gateway Drug because of your curiosity.