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The recreational use of marijuana has been glamorized over the years by such on-screen duos as Cheech & Chong and Harold & Kumar, but is the drug everything that Hollywood makes it out to be? Then again, are we being hypocritical by allowing alcohol consumption but not cannabis usage? With passionate believers on both sides of the argument, it will be interesting to see what happens when the smoke clears.
This Herb is not a gateway if anything is I would say liquor is. Forty years and I never moved up like most I would not touch any of the other problem drugs.
- Cherokee Fred hussein August 19, 2008 7:22AM
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are people still believing this propoganda? how can something be a GATEWAY drug? you want to talk about about gateways why don't i hear anything about alcohol and tobacco? asemili could not have proven the point any better, it's a gateway (in a sense) because of it's prohibition. think for a moment that marijuana was legal and tobacco was illegal... same case as asemili said. you are buying your crazy high nicotine level cigs from a guy that is hooking you up. he runs out and sends you to his main guy, the guy says i have no cigs but i do have some heroin.... so is tobacco a gateway to now???? this GATEWAY cop out is just an easy way the government can keep their thumb on us... THE GOVERNMENT CANNOT CONTROL WHAT COMES OUT OF MY MOUTH AND CANNOT CONTROL WHAT I DECIDE TO PUT IN IT...
- Turbojdmef9
January 27, 2009 11:21AM
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Honestly, I don't understand how such a silly over-simplified argument ever became such a permanent propaganda point on this issue. I mean the whole "gateway" concept is based on statistics that are a backwards correlation fallacy, and that is not a hard concept to understand.
Just because many users of hard drugs are more likely to have started with Marijuana, does NOT mean most Marijuana users eventually move onto harder drugs! Most of them certainly don't. And it doesn't take a genius to see that, there are millions and millions of Marijuana users, so where are all the millions and millions of hard drug users?
So honestly, how can Marijuana be blamed for such an effect?
Correlation by itself certainly doesn't always equal causation, and worst yet their logic is backwards, looking (from the wrong perspective point) at where hard drug users started, rather than the more valid statistics of where most Marijuana users go. I think most people agree that this makes sense.
There has never been a gateway, it never existed as a property/effect of Marijuana in reality, it was a made up statistical twisting/lie... Part of the endless list of propaganda points created over the many years of this illogical drug war.
I really hope people wake up and start seeing the truth, we need a change to policy here, for the good of the whole issue, because the same old simple solution of treating the problem with the force of the law, just doesn't work; and actually makes things a lot worse! And legalization may very well be a better, result producing solution, to the real problems with Marijuana, rather than the artificial problems created by Prohibition, which prohibition then fights, in it's wonderful circular logic... -_-
- Okinkun March 8, 2009 4:50AM
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Use of Marijuana Leads to Other Drugs
- From David Evans
By David Evans - Drug Free Schools Coalition
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Marijuana does not lead to harder drugs
there is no evidence marijuana leads to a harder drugs. People just say it. That does not make it so.
- One Cylinder
July 26, 2008 2:43PM
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marijuana not a gateway drug
Marijuana is not a "gateway" drug. Because marijuana is illegal, it is thought to lead to other illegal drugs. A majority of users go to drug dealers on the street, who typically sell other drugs, such as cocaine or heroine. If the US were to legalize marijuana, users could go to a government-regulated providers and avoid illegal street drugs.
- psmizzle88 August 3, 2008 2:13AM
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How Marijuana is a "Gateway Drug"
Almost all hard drug addicts start with Marijuana. That, in itself, makes Marijuana a "gateway drug" right?
Consider this scenario:
You decide to start smoking marijuana to relax, as an alternative to drinking alchohol. You have a friend who "hooks you up" from time to time. One day, your friend isn't around, but he sends you directly to his dealer. You show up at his dealers house, and there on the coffee table is a pile of cocaine. The dealer asks if you want to try a line, free of charge. Normally you would decline, but the dealer is savvy to that, and tosses a gram of coke in with your pot for you to "try when your ready". Welcome to the world of the gateway factor. This same scenario apples to ALL hard drugs - meth, heroin, ect. Pot buyers getting snagged by money hungry, hard drug dealers.
Now, in an alternative scenario, you go to your local marijuana store, and purchase your marijuana. The store rep suggests you purchase a vaporizor, or maybe a pipe.
- Asemili
August 4, 2008 3:46PM
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Will the real gateway drugs please stand up?!?
The real gateway drugs here are alcohol and tobacco. I'm not going to spout numbers but I am positively sure that almost everyone tries these first before anything else.
- tRANIS
September 29, 2008 10:24AM
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Really?
I know people who have used marijuana and would not think of ever touching "hard" drugs. I think this whole "gateway drug" thing comes from scare tactics and I also think that is a case by case issue. In my opion, alcohol is more dangerous than marijuana. Just because something is illegal, doesn't mean it's as evil as the government would have you to believe or that they wouldn't miss the tax dollars collected from illegal possession.
- lsaj252
February 5, 2009 1:14PM
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Wrong
Use of Drug dealers promotes hard drugs
- nIkbot
February 28, 2009 4:12PM
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more illegal drugs
The reason for the "Gateway drug" to more illegal drugs is because it is already illegal. Illegal marijuana is known to be criminaly related because it is illegally smuggled because it is illegal. If marijuana is sold legally, by legal vendors then it will not involve crime.
- hellarasta
March 10, 2009 12:48PM
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How does this idea persist?
There are 3 ways I can show that the gateway theory holds as much water as prohibition .
Biologically: When you smoke marijuana you intake cannabinoids (THC, CBC, CBD, etc) those attach themselves to cannabinoid receptors. when you shoot heroin it triggers a release of dopamine which attach themselves to dopamine receptors. Does it make sense that by stimulating one set of receptors it will trigger a craving to stimulate completely different and unrelated receptors? No.
Logically: The gateway theory says that cannabis use will lead to harder drugs, which suggest that it's not cannabis use that is dangerous but these other drugs. IF there was any truth to it (which there is not) it would be like saying "well physics and chemistry gave us the nuclear bomb so we should ban physics and chemistry" It doesn't logically follow.
Statistically: only 1 in every 104 marijuana users go on to use cocaine, <1 in every 104 mj users go on to use heroin. If it had a gateway effect I would think that it would require more than 1% of conversion to hard drugs.
- Serothis
March 31, 2009 9:16PM
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FACT
Marijuana is no more a gate way drug as milk is to going to stronger things like tabaco and alcohol . This is a false fact that marijuana leads to other drugs matter of fact it may even have alcoholics turning to it in stead of drinking which is a good thing being more deaths in this nation are from alcohol and tobaco combined than marijuana that has not caused a death yet....
- jeremy
May 31, 2009 12:18PM
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The Gateway Mystery Solved!
Here is why it "seems" marijuana leads to harder drugs ...Imagine you are a teenager . You've been fed anti-pot propaganda all your life. You have no intention of trying it. You've, frankly, been scared out of your wits about it. Then, one day at a party, you find yourself in a moment of weakness and try it. You notice the very mild effects, the lack of a hangover effect the next day, and the refreshing feeling you get the next morning after having a really good night of sleep . You try it again and realize very quickly that all the propaganda surrounding marijuana is a big bunch of lies. So, you start wondering what ELSE you've been lied to about. Is cocaine really that bad? Or have I been lied to about that as well? What about heroin or opium? Are all those horror stories false as well? Unfortunately, no. The horror stories surrounding cocaine and other harder drugs ARE real and all too often this is what happens to our youth. Keeping marijuana illegal is what actually causes the gateway phenomenon, not the drug itself. Anyone who has tried marijuana knows the truth and that demograpic is growing exponentially.
When you blantantly lie to your kids and they know it, how on Earth can you expect them to trust you? Subsequently, how can the government expect it's citizens to trust them if they continue to blantantly lie to us all?
- Samantha
February 19, 2010 12:15PM
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