Ghostoker's completely right. Marijuana cannot be considered a gateway drug.. you can't blame something else (especially something as harmless as weed) for YOUR drug use. Whether you choose to use harder drugs or not comes from within you. There isn't a voice inside of weed saying "use coke! heroin man!" Same with amotivational syndrome... If you choose to sit around and let your life turn to shit, then that's your problem. Everything comes down to the individual. Reminds me of addiction - sure, harder drugs can be pretty addictive, but if you had enough sense to stay away from them, or enough willpower, then you wouldn't be selling your neighbors cat for some crack.