Quote Originally Posted by Oneironaut
It cannot be the case that cannabis is illegal because it is the "gateway drug", for the simple fact that in the vast majority of cases, the first drug a person uses is alcohol or tobacco.

The only extent to which it is a gateway drug is precisely because it is illegal. When you start buying pot, you meet the people who sell other stuff too. It's simply inevitable. As you find the different dealers in your area, you find that some of them aren't just selling pot. And since the only people who have access to the harder drugs are people who also have access to pot, it only makes sense that the pot-smokers are going to be more likely to use those harder drugs.

And besides, how many people do you know who would do a line of coke or shoot up some heroin but refuse to ever smoke weed? It doesn't happen, because weed is an almost entirely harmless high in every respect, so practically anybody who's interested in getting high will have no problems indulging in it. The fact that harder drug users are almost all cannabis smokers does not mean cannabis directly causes people to use harder drugs; it means that users of harder drugs are also willing to use softer drugs to get high, just like somebody who enjoys drinking straight vodka is also very likely to enjoy beer.

My friends brother used to run cocaine and snort a shit ton of it, but never considered it a drug. And he is completely against pot.