Is pot really a gate way drug? Or do people move on to other drugs when they can't get pot?

[hedgehog]

[Kalidurga]

1. I would say neither....

I have known a lot of pot smokers. Only one had turned to other drugs. It wasn't because it was hard to get pot either, it was just that other drugs in addition to pot were being used at the parties he went to. The gateway drug thingy is a boogie man IMNSHO. The thought that pot is hard to get is ludicrous, I could get pot in about 30 minutes if I really wanted to. I don't and have never smoked a joint. But, I know I could if I wanted to.

[Scuba]

8. Pot is impossible for me to find in my area.

I know a bunch of pot heads who turn to alcohol or other strong drugs when they can't get pot. Otherwise, pot is their drug of choice.

[Kalidurga]

10. You mean they can't grow it...

There are hot boxes or something like that. Small units you can grow pot in. Yeah I found out accidentally. I thought that is a funny thing to grow veggies in your house. Oops.

[hobbit709]

12. Must not know the right people.

[Scuba]

42. Ain't that the truth!

[hobbit709]

47. As Freewheelin' Franklin (Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers) says

"Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope."

[TeamPooka]

62. Do you look like a narc? Do you use terms like "pot heads"?

Maybe that's why....

[Scuba]

66. LOL Yep, that's probably the problem.

[dembotoz]

2. would see it as a gateway because you can not buy it at Costco

you end up going to people who may have other drugs too
therefore perhaps a gateway because it gets you aquainted with less then legal folks and activities



would be cool at costco

large bag for less money

[MissMarple]

6. You make a good point....or two.

[Recursion]

3. It's a "gateway" in the sense that the same guy who can get you pot can get you coke

Or, if he can't, his guy can.

[SheilaT]

4. All I can tell you is that it sure wasn't a gateway drug for me.

I do believe research indicates that the real gateway drug is cigarettes.

[Go Vols]

19. agree

[FarCenter]

24. Nicotine is one of the most addictive drugs known

OTOH, it is almost completely harmless. The problem with smoking is all the other crap in the smoke.

[wildbilln864]

71. nicotine by itself is a poison.

you just don't get a lethal dose smoking a cig!

[FarCenter]

73. Most drugs, legal or illegal, are poisons, and nicotine at 30 to 60 mg will kill you.

In the doses that are provided by cigarettes (around 1 mg), it has a number of small beneficial and small detrimental effects.

Mostly it is a weak stimulant and helps people with ADHD concentrate.

[HubertHeaver]

5. Pot is forced to keep bad company.

That is, it does travel with other, more dangerous, drugs.

[TeamPooka]

7. It's a gateway to Doritos. it's only a "gateway" drug because it's prohibited.....

the gateway is created by the black market nature of cannabis.
If it's illegal you can only buy it from people who will also sell other outlawed contraband like pot, coke, meth, heroin etc.
If it were legal it would be isolated from that product pool like alcohol is.
Because they are sold together beer is a gateway drug to hard liqueur but no one complains about that.
Take pot away from hard drug dealers by legalizing and licensing & selling it like booze and POOF the gateway vanishes.

[Arkansas Granny]

9. Alcohol is the drug of first choice of American teen-agers.

http://articles.latimes.com/1988-12-27/news/vw-1031_1_gateway-drug

[MrSlayer]

11. No. Nothing is a "gateway" drug.

The notion of it is ludicrous, drug warrior drivel. Any drug I've ever done was because I wanted to do it, it never had anything to do with climbing some imaginary ladder where you have to take the next logical step. If there was any validity to this crap anyone that ever drank a soda would eventually be a heroin addict.

We need to stop talking in their frame.

[enough]

13. For me it was a gateway drug to cigarettes.

I was never interested in cigs until I started smoking quite a bit of pot in the early 70's, then started looking for something to smoke at work. Back in those days, MANY people smoked in the workplace.

Finally quit smoking when I got pregnant.

[EOTE]

14. I've briefly switched to other more dangerous drugs when weed wasn't available. NT

[cthulu2016]

15. Illegal pot means people are in contact with DRUG DEALERS

And drug dealers, since they are already risking prison, often don't stop with selling pot.

When popular things are illegal, everyone is a criminal.

So why not try meth or heroin? You know someone who sells it, and you are already a criminal!

[kestrel91316]

33. I've never known a pot dealer who offered anything other than pot.

Most of them aren't THAT stupid.

[hedgehog]

16. I guess what I'm really asking is this: if pot were readily accessible,

would the market for other drugs drop off?

[Bandit]

21. I think you could look at Holland and Portugal for answers to that question

All of their "Hard Drug" usage has declined and in fact even pot usage has either remained stable or declined. It is pretty difficult to refute what has occured over the past few years in those two countries....

[hedgehog]

23. That's interesting! A real life natural experiment.

Do you think that free access to pot would cut into the meth and oxycontin usage?

[TheKentuckian]

59. Maybe some but drugs aren't like a continuum of the same thing getting more extreme

They do different things so they aren't interchangeable.

There is something to common or similar access points.

[intaglio]

17. Personal opinion only

Pot is illegal but many people find it harmless and enjoyable. Then, consciously or unconsciously, people wonder if other illegal drugs are equally pleasurable and harmless ...

[kestrel91316]

30. I have no interest in whether or not any other illegal drugs are pleasurable OR harmless.

Seriously. Most of us are responsible users and don't act or think like two-year-olds.

[intaglio]

41. I did not say you would

But you may be educated and careful about recreational substances but many others are neither.

[kestrel91316]

67. I can't stop other people from being stupid. I just don't want the existence of stupid people

to cause ME to be restricted in MY private activities.

[nachosgrande]

51. My opinion's the same

And I think legalization would go a long way in curbing "harder" more dangerous drug experimentation/use.

[1-Old-Man]

18. The notion that there is any such thing as a Gateway drug is preposterous

The ultimate gateway drug is mother's milk. Then, who ever did drugs that did not take an aspirin years earlier? One does not lead to another, pot does not take you to anything but pleasant bit of time.

[RebelOne]

20. Definitely not.

I smoked pot in my 30s, did cocaine in my 40s. I got my fill of both. I am now almost 74 and have not touched any drugs for over 35 years. My worst sin now is tobacco.

[hedgehog]

22. If it's not too personal, what made you move on to cocaine from pot?

[Whovian]

25. Smoked some killer Maui Wowee bacj in the 70's

and have been looking for the gate ever since.

[jody]

26. I read one paper that found smoking tobacco was the real gate-way drug to more powerful drugs. nt

[kestrel91316]

27. NO it is not. When I couldn't get it I just went back to the occasional beer or wine.

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

28. Coffee is a gateway drug.

Coffee is a gateway drug, in the way proposed. If I can't get coffee, I move on to tea, or even one of those saccharine sodas, the hard stuff. Might even move to truck stop pep pills, put them in a beverage, if I had to. Need that kick. Otherwise I'm a sleepy person and I tend to shy away from responding to forum threads. Grumpy and dopey, too. All those dwarves. Well, except the smart one. He sort of had it together. The rest of them could have used some coffee, probably.

[HubertHeaver]

49. You're high right now, aren't you?

Sounds like some really good shit your smokin'.

[MyshkinCommaPrince]

55. No, no...

Unless you mean high on the coffee. Coffee is good. I like it lots. Love it, in fact. Can't get enough of such a good thing, you know.

My only drugs would be coffee, pipe tobacco, and sleep/anti-sleep. While I have nothing against other people using other various substances, I've never been particularly interested. Yet I am not altogether displeased if I really do come across as stoned. I guess what I really am is wired.

[HubertHeaver]

56. Coffee is good.

You have to have a really good supplier though. Most of what is available over-the-counter is over-processed and stale. And I don't even want to start on Starbucks. (personal opinion, of course)

[JVS]

29. The ban on pot teaches people to operate within a contraband market.

Plenty of people use pot and never move on. On the other hand, if you want to get your hands on some heavy duty stuff, scoring pot is a relatively easy first step to getting connected to the people who will be able to provide it to you.

[In_The_Wind]

35. ^^^^^

[mitchtv]

31. I started on Aspirin and Pepsi

I am 68 and was just getting tired of weed,when I started to show symtoms of Parkinson's, now I use it daily

[In_The_Wind]

32. No, if pot is really their drug of choice.

[hobbit709]

34. I did LSD before I smoked pot. At the time acid was still legal.

[Comrade Grumpy]

38. Ah-ha, so acid is the gateway drug, as well as the gateway to other dimensions!

[hobbit709]

40. Whole other universes

[Jackpine Radical]

36. Milk is the REAL gateway drug.

Show me one pothead, boozer. cokehead or junkie that didn't start out on milk.

[libodem]

37. No

People either like it or they don't. Coffee and cigarettes are gateway drugs.

[anarch]

39. pot is a gateway drug to eating a whole goddamn bag of cheetos

[Motown_Johnny]

43. People who want to experiment will find a way to do so.

[markpkessinger]

44. Lots of hidden assumptions in your questions...

...such as the assumption that people will do any old drug they can get their hands on. That's probably true for some folks, but for most people, different drugs have different effects, and just because a drug of choice is not available does not necessarily mean they'll reach for another, especially if the available alternatives have effects that are not to that person's liking.

[hedgehog]

45. Thank you for that comment - I really have no contact with anyone who uses

anything except alcohol. It really wasn't an assumption, but a question - would people not do other drugs if pot were readily available? Based on the general response, I'm thinking that the answer is it depends.

[markpkessinger]

48. Exactly...

No doubt some would, and no doubt some wouldn't.

[cecilfirefox]

50. I would say people predisposed to substance abuse will find a substance to abuse-

I have smoked a lot of pot in my life and never felt like it was throwing me into anything terrible. I put it in the same category as alcohol, at most, and cigarettes, at the least. Although I have done other drugs, some a little harder, typically I won't touch it if it isn't a plant.

[Walk away]

52. Except that cigs and drink are so addictive. Pot? Not so much!

I have never met anyone who needed a "program" to quit pot.

[cecilfirefox]

54. To be fair, I do think it can be a little addicting- trust me, if you were a dealer

and met stoners who didn't have any herb you might have a bit of a different opinion. LOL. Everything in moderation though.

[benld74]

53. Ive never gone past the gate,,, tripped over a few,,,,

[hughee99]

57. Honestly, I don't consider it a "gateway drug" though I will admit I don't know anyone whose tried

cocaine, acid, heroine, meth, ecstasy, or PCP that hadn't tried pot first.

[Recursion]

63. I only ever met a coke dealer because I had a pot dealer, at least personally (nt)

[samsingh]

58. it is not a gateway drug

[Blue_In_AK]

60. In my experience,

neither.

[Heimer]

61. This theory will be tested..

My state was one that legalized usage in the elections. Curious to see what effects it has on other drug usage in the coming years.

[Blue_In_AK]

65. My guess is that drug usage in your state

won't change much. Most people who want to smoke pot -- or do other drugs, for that matter -- already have been. Making it legal just means fewer people will be busted, which is a good thing.

[mrmpa]

64. I recommend the book listed below

It was written in 1972, and is a very well written book about drug usage in the US, and reasons why they were criminalized. It addresses the issue that you ask about, and the answer is a profound "NO". I know the book is available on amazon.


Licit And Illicit Drugs; the Consumers Union Report on Narcotics, Stimulants, Depressants, Inhalants, Hallucinogens, And Marijuana - Including Caffeine, Nicotine And Alcohol

[RainDog]

68. Or does its illegal status create the gate?

When someone can purchase something legally for a reasonable amt. of money, they will.

When someone has to go to someone who deals in cannabis, those people are also sometimes diversified into other illegal substances (that have far less bulk, are easier to conceal, and have higher profit margins.)

There is an incentive to sell those drugs because of the illegal status of all of them.

When cannabis is not sold where illegal drugs are sold, this remove the gate to try something else.

Also, the war on drugs propaganda has done real harm in this regard.

The lies about cannabis naturally lead people to wonder if they are lying about other substances that may pose real risks for addiction and other health problems.

So, really, the War on Drugs is the gateway to hard drugs.

[MadrasT]

69. No, I don't think so.

It's not like a hierarchy.

When I was running in circles that used drugs, there was just always a whole array of drugs and people used whatever they liked best, or whatever somebody else was sharing that night. Pot, coke, hash, mushrooms, pills, acid, whatever. Only thing we didn't have around was heroin. Heroin scared us.

[marlakay]

70. If you have a addictive personality

You will use booze, pot, drugs, etc

Pot doesn't make anyone move on no more than booze does, it's a persons addictions that do.

[loyalsister]

72. Cigarettes, alcohol, and according to one addict I know- coffee

It's mostly about the nature of the high.