Proof that Mary Jane does lead to other drugs?

I've always thought it was common sense. I mean if you use one illegal drug you are at least moderately more likely to try other illegal drugs.

Of course the people I know who have used pot haven't used other harmful drugs (as far as I know).

 

Drinking underage, even a sip of wine or beer, is illegal too. The better argument is that if you use any mind-altering substance you might be more likely to use another. And, for the record, alcohol's twice the gateway drug weed is.

 

Well, since alcohol is legal for the most of the population I don't think it really works. Plus culturally alcohol is more accepted, and it is pretty easy to drink safely. (I'm not saying alcohol is safe by any means).

Do you have any info. to back up that second claim?

 

you really think alcohol is twice the gateway drug weed is?? i am really kind of naive about this stuff...i drink sometimes, but i've never smoked pot. i guess i've always assumed that weed is more of a gateway drug, and i think that's what this study is saying.

 

First off, I don't think the legal/illegal nature of any drug has too much to do with anything. The percentage of people who refuse a hit off a joint at a party specifically because it's illegal is insignificant. How many of you out there who subscribe to this argument ever tasted beer before you were 21? How many of you refused it, at a party or whatever, specifically because it was illegal? My point is that people who have an inclination to change their heads one way are more likely to try changing their heads another way. And since alcohol is the first drug most people use, it is the primary gateway drug. That's not to say that drinking makes you use other drugs -- only that it's the more likely icebreaker for those who might be inclined to use mind altering substances. If someone's eventually going to do coke, they're likely to drink and smoke weed first, and so these drugs get the rap of being gateways. If someone had it in them to do coke though, they'd get there via drink whether weed existed or not.

 

Actually the illegal part of it is a big reason why I don't smoke pot, and I bet it's a big reason most people don't. If it was legal I might actually try it. And I don't know about alcohol being a gateway drug, I mean drinking is a normal part of our culture, it's not like you will be introduced to the "drug culture" by drinking a beer. You can do it at a bar and not ever come in contact with drug dealers. But if you smoke pot you'll probably start to get to know people who do other drugs.

 

Mr C

I think Batman's point is that if you are young and hang around people who regularly have access to alcohol, they or someone they know are probably going to have access to other substances as well.

Nobody questions what you are saying for older people -- at 23 I am not particularly concerned about getting introduced to the 'drug culture'. I think people who end up using drugs usually are introduced to them (and alcohol, too) at a fairly early age.

 

Really, this seems to be all the articel proves. It helps state the obvious: (a) that the majority of people who do hard core drugs (not includign mary jane here) started out smokign mar1juana, and; (b) if you take two people, the one who started smoking pot earlier is more likely to have already done even harder drugs.

Wow. What a scientific breakthrough

How this study came to the conclusion that mar1juana is a significant gateway drug confuses me.

From what I've read, the only useful way to study this is to see what % of mar1juana users go on to use, and more importantly, ABUSE, hard core drugs in general. I believe this % is not very high.

It's not that shocking to me to ask a bunch of people questions, to find out that some of these people have done "significant" amounts of cocaine, LSD, etc., and to find out, suprise, that they smoked pot first. What idiot goes out and jsut decides to do a line out of the blue one day?

 

Well, as for your first point, don't a lot of kids have access simply through their parents or older siblings? What I'm saying is, since alcohol is such a normal part of our culture, there is no need to go through sources to get it. Just go into the refrigerator, or ask an older sibling or friend to buy it for you.

 

Here goes...
_________/-More Drugs
Mary Jane-- Terrorism
_________\Leads to gangs

Now, if they would give reasons for these claims...

 

The article up there covers the Mary Jane---Drugs claim.

 

So, doing harder drugs has nothing to do with the rush of doing something illegal? If you try MJane, you automatically want Coke or Acid?

 

I never toked because I thought I would like it too much, turn into a stoner, and end up bagging groceries at age 50. I know I'm a weak man.

 

I went straight from baby formula to the hard stuff, bypassing both weed and booze. I have mellowed to booze in my old age.

 

I'm not sure I get your first question. As for the 2nd, no, but if you do MJ, then it's like that you are getting involved with a culture that encourages/uses coke or acid. If you make friends with pot smokers, it seems like common sense to me that they would know where to get the pot as well as where to get other illicit drugs.

 

Tell me something I don't know.

 

Its not common sense, its an assumption. I knew plenty of folk in college who drank and smoked the occasional joint or bong hit. Only of us "gateway"ed into harder stuff, but the kid was basically an alcoholic when he arrived at Vanderbilt. We knew people who would sell us pot but I was never offered acid, shrooms, or X until I visited the parking lot of a Dead show or twenty....by strangers that just walk up to you out of the blue.

I dont smoke because smoke (all smoke) gives me sinus infections, but I did "partake of the sacrament", as my buddy Heath would call it, a few times. Not bad. Better in brownies. These days I'd rather keep the job than catch a buzz.

I didn't care about the law back then because I felt the law was stupid, much like speeding and underage drinking and many other laws seemed pretty stupid when you are 18.

 

Whoa....cant edit....maybe those few times really messed me up.



I meant only ONE of my friends.