Gateway drug

[mojoke]

Weed was a gateway drug for me to the inevitable shrooms, LSD, speed ect. but i wouldn't say that i would never have experienced or experimented with other drugs without weed. I am kind of split over whether or not it is a gateway drug because while i have seen some people smoke weed and try nothing else, i have seen several friends get in deep only a year after they first smoked.

Gateway drug or not a gateway drug? why?

[usedchemicals]

it wasn't gateway for me, i've tried 7 illegal drugs, and i wanted to try them before i started smoking pot

it has also been proven that alcohol is more of a gateway drug than marijuana

[lagstronaut]

in my personal experience i think it is

[graph]

It is, but I think alcohol and tobacoo are bigger gateway drugs.

The only reason I say cannabis is a gateway drug is because when you outlaw a substance, you make outlaws out of the people who use that substace. Thus, normally upstanding citizens who indulge in a perfectly acceptable habit are put in contact with people who commit other crimes, or use harder substances.

[Nocturnal Stoner]

definately, ive smoked weed for almost 1 year now, and its made me want to experience drugs of higher strength and more vivid effects

[Baz2137]

Weed is not a gateway drug, your friends are the gateway, just think, who introduced you to any drug you've done?

[mojoke]

Weed is not a gateway drug, your friends are the gateway, just think, who introduced you to any drug you've done?

If we are going to blame our friends for this we might as well just blame the government or something like all the crackheads do. Hell, blame the drug dealers, the growers; everyone.

[stoneberg]

so no friends equals no drugs huh. Thats an interesting perspective.
Well I personally don't see pot as a gateway drug for myself since im not interested in anything else, but for most the majority of people it seems to lay down the pavement over that scary leap to the next level which can be coke, crack, smack, extacy, opium etc.

[zero2104]

i know this might sound weird but, weed was my first drug, and by now i have done like 6 different drugs

but i still don't consider it a gateway drug becausei think i wouldve tried those without smoking weed, and i know other ppl that have done harder drugs and dont smoke weed

[LifetimeSmokersWifey]

Well me personally won't even inhale nasal medicine so anything that has to go up the nose is out of the question, can't stand getting blood taken so anything that deals with needles is out. X once and not again(well maybe, and my friend got me to try it). I think MJ is the safest and best way to go. It is all natural. No I do not think it is a gateway drug....Well wait MJ is not a drug to begin with, only classified as one bc the government can no tprofit from it. I know plenty of people who just smoke and don't do anything else. The reason everyone thinks it is a gateway drug is bc the dealers they are like hey man try this it's the shit and the hype from your friends, and that right there is how it all starts. So in actually friends/peer pressure is the gateway drug.

[RedX53]

i was very reluctant to smoke for the first time but no that i smoke weed i really wanna try shroom just once. idk if i considere it a gateway drug tho

[BloodAngel]

I had always been curious about drugs, but also believed that "drugs are bad" just like a good little brainwashed kid.

Trying weed just made me realize that drugs really aren't bad (the natural ones)

I'll never try man-made shit like acid and meth... it fucks you up
(although I'd like to experience E at least once, then if I like it... *shrug*)

[WeekenD TokeR]

Yes, it's a gateway drug, but only for those with the insentive (sp?) to go forth and try those other drugs. Personally, for me, fuck that shit. I like my weed, and I'd like to try shrooms, but no further. And in any case, I considered trying shrooms about the same time I first considered tokin' up. So it wasn't a gateway for me, but for others, definitely.

Peace

[LiveHigh]

I think it is, but only because you can try it and find out how the goverments been bullshitting you about it, so what if they lied about the other drugs?

[Oneironaut]

It is, but I think alcohol and tobacoo are bigger gateway drugs.

The only reason I say cannabis is a gateway drug is because when you outlaw a substance, you make outlaws out of the people who use that substace. Thus, normally upstanding citizens who indulge in a perfectly acceptable habit are put in contact with people who commit other crimes, or use harder substances.
Precisely. Once you start smoking weed, you need to get it from somewhere. And then you get connections in the drug trade since the people who sell harder drugs also tend to sell weed. And after enough time dealing with the black market and all the various buyers and sellers of drugs, you eventually come across the other drugs. It's simply an inevitability. I myself only want to stick to weed for the moment and maybe try shrooms sometime, but I know people who do acid and coke and ecstasy and all kinds of pills and shit who I would have never met if I hadn't started toking.

That is to say, smoking weed in and of itself won't lead you to do other drugs if you don't want to do them, but it will definitely give you the opportunity where you would have otherwise not had it, which is where all the "gateway drug" statistics come from that the anti-drug people use.

[yoda]

i dont think that smoking causes you to want to try other drugs. i think its all the persons choice on their own. like i became curious about e in 10th grade, but didnt try it until 4 yrs later. not to mention hearing my friends talk about being on drugs was more of an influence. but if i had never smoked weed, i never woulda been curious on these other drugs. so in that sense its partially gateway, but not the way drug propoganda makes it out to be.

[dejayou30]

i would say yes but to a point. i would never have eaten mushrooms if had i not smoked weed. that said, weed and mushrooms are the only drugs i would do, and maybe salvia. i guess my personal rule would fall under the category of " only doing natural things." i was straightedge and did not even taste alcohol until i was 19. smoking weed has opened my eyes to other drugs and their postives and negatives. it makes me think really hard and weigh the pros and cons of the drug and usually the cons, to me, outweight the pros for most drugs. hell, i don't even drink anymore except on special occasions. i had read information for about 6 months before i tried smoking weed. i think if people would sit down and read real information about marijuana, it would change people's minds about it like it has done to me.

[Big Calhoun]

Technically, marijuana was not my first drug. Tobacco was...been chewing tobacco since I was about 15...'dippin' actually....horrible habbit.

I've always felt that marijuana as a gateway drug is dependent on the user and what the user desires. Before I smoked herb, I had done research as to what it was, how it made you feel, negative/positive effects, etc. So I made an educated decision to try it. The 'high' was comfortable and enjoyable and I made a conscious decision that I didn't need anything more. Now, I have tried acid and mescaline, but those were for completely different motivations. Thus is the extent of my drug use. I smoke herb to relax and herb handles that function more than sufficiently, so I need nothing else.

On the other hand, I've had friends that smoked marijuana to get a 'window' on what a high felt like. THey liked it and decided they wanted something stronger so they went on to speed, cocoa, heroin, and crack. So with most of these people I knew, the motivation was to achieve the 'ultimate' high and get to the next level.

Then I've also encountered people where drugs, in general, are used as an escape rather than a form of relaxiation. And with these folks, the motivations were to basically cope with their own internal pain and forget. Some of them that I still talk to are straight weed/alcohol heads. Unfortunately, a few went off the deep end and OD'd on various drugs or did something while hopped up on drugs.

So in the end, I guess it comes down to your motivation and curiosity. With that, I would also say that it would be unfair to label marijuana as a gateway drug. It always comes down to what you want out of it.

[birdgirl73]

I think it is a gateway drug for some people. But I honestly think they'd have already had a gateway through alcohol and tobacco anyway. Some folks are destined to want to try numerous substances--and perhaps become addicted to something heavy-duty--once they've opened the door with grass or alcohol. It just depends on the personality type.

[Delta9 UK]

Tobacco was a gateway to MJ for me - so it was the other way round ;)

I feel that in the UK seeds are legal (sold legally) almost as a nod towards saying - grow your own and break the chain/link with dealers.

Of course MJ is a gateway drug - but only because it is illegal and you have to deal with the black market to acquire it.

I'm just hoping that one day in the UK we will accept the Dutch method of tolerance and humanity for people's personal choices in life.

I have pretty much constant pain and use MJ every day - my government effectively forces me to be a criminal over something they could pretty easily capitalise on - if only they could just admit they have already lost the so called "drugs war"... and move on.

I won't hold my breath.

[chris40]

Absolutely. I've been interested in acid and shrooms for a long time but I never would want to try those if it wasn't for mary jane.

[partyguy420]

in one ways yes, i mean i would have never tried lots of drugs if it hadent been for pot, but i never said anything like"dude, this pot sucks, i think im gonna go try meth" it was more like "bubbling noise" "coughing" some one saying "here try this" me saying "ok, light that up for me" i mean i would have never done any drugs in my life if a friend hadnt handed me a ciggert to hold on to while she tied her shoe.

[mowie wowie]

been smoking weed every day for years, and never even thougth about doing things like coke... or anything else. Drinking i was doing before i was smoking.

[True Religion]

"Gateway," huh?
What a label! If you smoke pot, you will want to try other things? Naw...

The thing that get's you into other drugs is the same thing that made you try alcohol. The same thing that made you pick up a cigarette, and also it's the same thing that made you start smoking pot.

No constituent or effect of marijuana has the ability to make someone buy a bag of cocaine...

[dukey]

i think it depends on the person. for me, it was because i realized how small the effects were. since i've tried e, shrooms, lsd once, and some other random shit my roomate gave me (maybe some cat tranquilizer, i just felt drunk).

they're just fun and its great if you have a night with nothing to do and nothing too strenuous the next day. i used to have such a bad impression of drugs, but in moderation, who cares.

* i've only done harder stuff a small amount of times, i'm sure they really mess with you after a while. i draw the line before doing coke.

[dukey]

definately, ive smoked weed for almost 1 year now, and its made me want to experience drugs of higher strength and more vivid effects
ah this is it, the whole curiousity thing. once you try weed, normally your first drug, then you see life from a new perspective. once that gets a bit old (not that it ever does) then you want more, and hey, lsd will trip you out, so its cool to experience it. when my friend first told me that shrooms make everything coloured and breathe, i couldn't beleive it.

[MetFan3125]

I'll admit, if I didn't start smoking weed, I wouldn't have tried shrooms. But, that's not to say I think it's a gateway drug. I personally think people make their own decisions. Not everyone that smokes weed is suckin dick in a back alley for some crack, so to put a label on such a generalization is just stupid.

[birdgirl73]

You're interpreting the word "gateway" too literally, True Religion. It's not a component of grass that would ever make someone buy or experiment with cocaine. It'd simply be the same curiosity that caused them to drink or smoke weed in the first place. That's what people mean by "gateway," and those of us who believe in the gateway effect are simply saying we believe it has to do with the spirit of adventure and curiosity that prompted experimentation with previous substances.