Marijuana Not A Gateway Drug
Marijuana Not A Gateway Drug – In recent years there have been many reports about how those who smoke marijuana on a regular basis usually end up going on to take harder, more serious drugs. Of course, this is true in many cases, as there have been many reports where people have started off smoking cannabis and then gone on to things like heroin and cocaine. However, a new report has suggested that pot isn’t necessarily a gateway drug that would lead on to other substances. It suggests that cannabis does not play a major role in leading people on to other things.
Researchers claimed that there are other factors which would play bigger roles in leading people on to harder drugs. There were many things that they pointed out as contributing factors such as stress levels, ethnic background, and many other things were more likely to lead young people on to harder drugs and other substances. The report also suggested that unemployment rates could play a part in the use of drugs. It also claimed that ethnicity played the biggest role, saying that white people were the most likely to use drugs, followed by Hispanics, and black people.
These new findings have made it unclear as to whether or not cannabis is a gateway drug. However, it is definitely true that a huge majority of cannabis users will go on to try harder drugs. Whether or not they carry on using them regularly is a different story.
Filed Under: Drugs
The title of the article is misleading. The title should be “Marijuana – a gateway to harder drugs and other substances for Whites, Hispanics and Blacks who did not finish HS, are unemployed and have high stress levels.”
90% of people who smoke cocaine started out using Tylenol.
Tylenol is a gateway drug.
You awful people.
The reason marijuana is considered to be a gateway drug is due to its prohibition and the dishonesty that surrounds it.
In most cases, if you smoke marijuana you have to purchase it illegally from a dealer. Eventually a dealer may offer you something more extreme such as cocaine, heroin, meth, or any number of harder drugs. Based on your experience with marijuana, you figure that the horror stories you heard about these drugs might be exaggerations – the stories certainly were in the case of marijuana. So, you decide to give one of these harder drugs a try.
If marijuana were legal and its effects discussed honestly, people would rarely find themselves in the situation described above.
Trying to scare people with lies will only work as long as they believe them. Once they find out the truth, often times by first hand experience, they will be more likely to disregard what they were told when faced with similar circumstances.
Imagine for instance that you tell a child that Pepsi is poison and drinking it will kill them, and you also tell them the same thing about Budweiser, and Jack Daniels. At some point in the future this child sees a friend drinking a Pepsi, and decides to risk a sip. When this child doesn’t die and eventually learns to enjoy Pepsi, what happens when that child encounters a Bud Light or bottle of JD? If the child ends up trying either one, what is the reason? Would Pepsi be considered a gateway ‘beverage’?
Its not rocket science, but the inevitable result of perpetrating a lie.
Usually the person speaking out most passionately about marijuana being a gateway drug, is the same person spewing the lies that cause it to appear so.
Maby if people who smoke didnt have to deal with criminal dealers who sell other substances aswel as cannabis to people . Smokers would not have to ever come in contact or asoceate with a class A drug dealer. . You are letting people who just want to smoke be exposed to the blackmarket and all its unsavory characters. . .
GW has copied and pasted his comments on other web sites like this and CBS. GW are you another anti marijuana activist?
true; and the last line said it all…
In reply to 419andcounting, your soft drink / alcohol drink analogy is erroneous and misleading. Marijuana is harmful to your health, albeit not as bad as harder drugs, but harmful nonetheless. Heavy use has been shown to cause irreversible brain damage, causing slurred speech and dexterity. If you are going to use drinks as an analogy, might I suggest comparing marijuana to shandy or alcopops, as gateways to drinks with a higher alcohol content.
Thats “loss of dexterity” in the second sentence above.