I think using the "gateway" thing is a lazy excuse for demonizing something harmless (guilt by association). Everything can be a "gateway". There is nothing special about mar1juana that imbues it with influential powers to persuade people to try harder/dangerous drugs. Donuts are damned delicious, but I don't consider it a "gateway" food to bakery confection induced obesity. You're a gun rights person, right? Do you consider small handguns "gateway" guns to larger, more dangerous weapons?
First I think you might have missed my later point since the page flipped so go check out my last post. Your handgun analogy is a bad example because handguns are much more restricted than larger more powerful rifles. My point is, once you make in roads to obtaining illegal drugs, your have walked through a door where you have access to other drugs and are in the company of people who are very likely to be users of them. A better argument you should use is that making mar1juana almost legal to possess or grow would nullify this effect.
That's absolutely part of the argument I am making. Not only is the "gateway" effect psuedo-science hogwash, but the entire premise it is based on is supported *only* by the fact that mar1juana is illegal. So yes, we agree here. I just wish you wouldn't act as if the "gateway" effect was a legitimate concern inherent to mar1juana (and reinforcing that by blaming mar1juana for the appearance/prevalence of other drugs). It's a legitimate concern inherent to making something illegal, rather. That's an important distinction to make when discussing this.
It is a legit effect of the world we currently live in and the world we likely will live in for the rest of our lives. Saying it doesn't exist is sticking you head in the sand. It exists.
It exists in the exact way he described it. He didn't stick his head in the sand. Rather, he described how and why it exists, and how they're related to the legality of the drug and not the drug itself. Not that complicated.
I repeat, there is nothing special about mar1juana that imbues it with influential powers to persuade people to try harder/dangerous drugs. Do not assign blame for the "gateway" effect to mar1juana. Assign it to the law.
I'd prefer if it stayed illegal simply because I'd rather individuals control the product and its quality rather than big pharma whom, IMO, would destroy the quality and variety available on the black market today. Government criminalizing the stuff isn't stopping anybody from enjoying it. To paraphrase a good quote on how I feel about the subject, good people don't need the law, and the bad people don't obey it. I forget who said this. At any rate, I'm still free regardless of what bull**** edicts the government passes down, and I know I am and have been a righteous person over the course of my lifetime.
lol, weed is not a gateway drug. every person i know who smokes weed, smokes only weed. and i've been around dealers before who never mess with the other ****. why would they? weed is a freaking $CASH COW$! i smoked every day for 2 years. here's what i noticed: 1. weed is awesome. your senses are heightened, movies, music, sex, food, sleep... EVERYTHING is better high. one awesome thing about it is, i hated drinking while high. so i've gone months without a drink when i have it. 2. it starts to become a problem when your body becomes accustomed to being high. now it needs more and more. 3. starts to become a drain on the pocketbook, as you need more and more and stronger stuff to get high. 4. some people can handle the cravings. i can't. i weigh 70 pounds less than i did 2 years ago, and i eat fewer calories to maintain. weed did nothing but set me back with my goals. 5. it got to a point where i could not SLEEP if i was sober. i'd feel a little nauseous here, a little headache there, stuff that weed usually just took care of immediately. it worried me that i had gotten to the point where i was crazy mentally addicted. in a nutshell, too much weed is a bad thing. i haven't been high since before the new year, and it's been a rough adjustment. but the bottom line is, the days have gotten better. i forgot what clarity felt like, what a good short term memory is like. as much as i miss it, i DON'T miss it. it just takes incredible self-discipline to stick with it. and although i drink more than i did before, i don't binge drink, because i know i won't have anything to help alleviate my hangover the next day... edit: one more thing on why i don't believe it's a "gateway drug": stoners and potheads are used to feeling high, that's their "normal." they get stoned so they can watch tv or play video games or surf the web. you don't smoke weed and then go party hard. alcohol is so much more dangerous and a gateway drug, it's not even funny.
I talk in realities, not fantasy worlds where people use drugs in a vacuum. unless it is harmless. Smoking something is definitely not harmless. I would love to see the MSDS for mar1juana smoke. Also the psychological effects of sitting on your couch and doing nothing is not exactly harmless to students. Just because it is less harmful than legal drugs doesn't mean it is harmless. Let's just speak in realities here. It won't kill you like our education system would like you to believe but we don't have to go so far the other way, we are smarter than that.
Drinker, non-mj smoker here....... The "gateway" thing is dumb........ More weed smokers will try heroin and coke.....because you are "weeding out" (pun intended)....people who would never do anything illegal, and people who aren't street savvy enough to find a drug dealer. Alcohol is a gateway drug too...cause people who don't believe in being "intoxicated" and people who don't like the feeling of "losing control" wash out. I drink cause I got used to it, and for years I didn't have access to anything else (and don't really like to cough). MJ should be legal (and I would spare my poor benighted liver by taking THC capsules instead). Might not happen in the next 20 years though cause the War on Drugs and the military/prison/industrial complex make too many people too much money.
No, many people here have said it does not exist and it is a fallacy. Look at the replies to bigtexxx.
No, you don't. Quite frankly, you're making s**t up. Show me evidence that intrinsically links mar1juana to hard drug usage. Until then, shut up about "gateway" effects. You're doing a disservice to everyone by spouting this made-up nonsense that assigns unfair blame to mar1juana (a drug that I personally don't even care for, at all), when that blame should be instead going onto the law itself. Your anecdotal "well I saw a news report that said a guy got busted with coke and pot once!" evidence means jacksquat to us. You're fixating on something trivial here and blowing it way out of proportion. Almost everything is either harmful in some way, or has the capability/capacity to bring harm if overused or used improperly. The amount of harm brought on by even moderate mar1juana usage isn't enough to trip my "uh oh, better watch out for that stuff" meter. I'm sure GladiatorRowdy can write us all an essay on the health benefits and drawbacks of mar1juana. But calling it "harmful" is just as irresponsible, if not more irresponsible, than someone calling it "harmless".
It doesn't exist in the way that bigtexxx imagines it to. (i.e. some magical quality naturally imbued to mar1juana that causes people want to try harder and more dangerous drugs)
By admitting the gateway drug effect exists? LOL, yeah in his world it doesn't, in the real world it does. this is the same real world where smoke is not harmless. No one has to go cold turkey on cocoa pebbles. Go read finalsbound post and tell me it is harmless.
