h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

i dont know the statistics but wouldn't alcohal and prescription pills be an even greater gateway into the harder stuff? i could be wrong but i would think that pot isn't the only first step to the drug riddled mind.

Pot does not act as a gateway.

Look at the Netherlands. Cannabis, while not legal (exactly) has a blind eye turned to it with the famous 'coffee shops'. However, while cannabis use has skyrocketed, use of heroin and cocaine have fluctuated independent of cannabis use. What this shows, I would think, is that those that use cannabis are not necessarily likely to go on to harder drugs.

Furthermore, statistics gathered from US high schoolers show that while the majority had tried marijuana in the 80s, use of drugs such as ecstasy and cocaine was very small. Cocaine use rates fluctuate around completely different peaks to cannabis ones.

There will be those that progress from cannabis to harder drugs, but perhaps they just have that sort of mentality.

pot isn't a gateway unless you want it to be. you can smoke pot and leave it at that without everwanting to try any other drugs. the only reason you would try other harder drugs is if you wanted to in the first place, it wouldn't be because of the pot.

Yes, I would agree. The link is more psychological, and not dependent on the pot.

Totally agree. Its not the pot that is the gate way. The gateway is allready in the place in your mind that makes decisions. And it is you who decides to enter.

*Dangerously close to Matrix reference*

"...Can only show you the door. It is you who must walk through it..."

Life is a gateway drug. Introduces you to all sorts of unhealthy things.



Lizard

If someone doesn't stop me I'll start flinging around all sorts of cliches and probably lose my badge.

I think that it depends on the personality of the person.

If you are very desperate and reckless and hiperactive you may like pot because it makes you slower and you can think things trough.

if you are a very slow person who doesnt like to do anything cocaine can give you a pretty good lift for that

If you are a very depresive person and you need to feel something like love or happiness you can take extacy

If you like to see things and experience very weird visuals you can take an acid

If you like to get really crazy you can take crack

and so on......

But of course we are the owners of our own actions and we need to be responsable for them