Why is marijuana considered a gateway drug?

Question

I smoke marijuana occasionally, but I don't feel anymore inclined to try harder drugs than I did before starting marijuana. In my opinion it's no more of a gateway drug than alcohol or cigarettes.

So why does society call it a gateway drug?

Answer 1

Hey, I am a recovered alcoholic. Nearly 99% of all alcoholics started on milk--where's the outcry?

In the country where I live, alcohol causes the deaths of scores of thousands and ruins or at least damages the lives of millions of others.

Cigarettes take another half-a-million lives.

Why does this go on? Simply because white corporations make and traffic in the two most heavily-abused yet readily-available killer fixes on Earth, while anyone (read 'non-corporate') can grow a little herb. There are no Benjamins to be made, after all--it's is just a flippin' weeed!! And that is what kills the greedy capitalists--there is NO corner to market! So they paint a bad picture of weed. Nobody dies on weed-well, come on, sure, some people might die as the result of doing something weedishly stupid, but never at the level of the drunk.  Capitalism is an evil that needs to die in the gutter, next to Facism, Militarism, Racism, and fake, psuedo-Communism.

Take control of YOUR workplace! Cast the greedy landowners into the streets! And plant some weed.

Answer 2

Society thinks people will get bored with it and decide to go out and buy some meth.

Answer 3

Alcohol is the true gateway drug!

it is legal and easy to get, and drunk people will try a lot more stuff than a person high on pot.

But booze is legal and many people work in the booze biz.  

Pot is illegal and the gov. wants it to stay that way so they say bad things about it

go to

http://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video...

"Grass"  with Woody Harrelson

and watch this movie it will tell you all you need to know about US marijuana laws, plus it is very funny.

Answer 4

Because Ronald Reagan was a dumbass

And everybody (in America) and therefore society as you are referring- believes the government, its members, and what they say for some fucked up reason.

Marijuana is not addicting and thus does it make you want to shoot up for lack of that same feeeelllinnggg......

Answer 5

in my case and maybe the whole weed-using population it is not a gateway drug. i havent used : meth cocaine, etc. i was tempted but i never used them. i know alcohol kills people (oh please dont used the gun analogy people kill people, people!!) by drunkos on the street and people beating up people for no reason. tho i wouldn't drive high, i get to paranoid!! haha.  

Answer 6

Well, its called a gateway drug because 90% of hard drug users started with marijuana.  But this is a miscued statistic because 78% of marijuana users will never try any harder drugs.

These statistics come from Norml.com

Answer 7

They call it a gateway drug so that the government can continue to ban it...saying that it leads to Heroin addiction eventually. Some people It does, but anybody with a bit of common sense should know better. I think that it should be legalized. It is not nearly as harmful as alcohol, plus the government could tax the h**l out of it and make some decent profits.

Answer 8

i tried ecstasy before i tried marijuana so i guess thats a gateway drug right?  there is no such thing as a gateway drug.  that logic is ridiculous.  i did alcohol before i did E too, does that mean that alcohol is a gateway drug to E and E is a gateway drug to marijuana?  no its all just random.  people who like one drug are more likely to do other drugs than people who do not do drugs.  its that simple.

i hate people who say that we should tax the h**l out of marijuana?  why so the government can have more money to f*ck with us?  so it can use that money to ban other substances? so it regulate marijuana and make it legal for only lower percentage thc? just legalize it and give the government no control over it whatsoever.  legalize all drugs. libertarianism or bust!

Answer 9

for a lot of people, smoking weed is a big deal. you're doing "drugs". from then on its easier to do coke or x or shrooms, cuz u've already done drugs, and now its time for an upgrade. but it's only a gateway drug cuz its illegal. otherwise it wouldn't be anymore of a gateway drug than alcohol.

Answer 10

People start smoking it so much and it starts to not give as big of a high and they turn to larger drugs in order to get the same high.

Answer 11

I think that people who use the term gateway drug fear that once a person is emboldened enough to experiment with marijuana, they will have no hesitation to try out other drugs as well and, in the process, they could get hooked onto to something much more dangerous.

Long before studies ascertained their deleterious effects, alcohol and cigarettes became a widely accepted part of Western culture, an entrenched part of any social gathering, especially in the upper classes. Although today we are cautioned about them, they still don't have the stigma of other dugs.

Answer 12

This was originally done back in the 1930's when the government wanted to make cannabis illegal. Part of the propaganda was to term it as "marijuana", the Spanish word for cannabis. If you have ever seen the governmentaly sponsored movies made at that time, you would begin to understand why. Cannabis is not specifically a "gateway" drug, it is actually not a drug at all. But, the reason why it is considered as such by the government is that, now that it is illegal, you are coming in contact with people and places where other drugs are when you are in contact with cannabis. If it were not criminalized, there would not be that contact, therefore it could not be considered a gateway drug. Just a small amount of common sense.

Answer 13

its a combo of scenarios really. if you are pressurable and your around some pot heads or whaever, alot of us do other drugs too (with most of my friends its always pills [totes and roxys] and shrooms) and they might convince you to do more. and its also like someone else said, you may want to get "higher" and do some thing hardcore.

its all about self control.

and they say that as an excuse because even though weed can make you a little "dumber", they have no other evidence that it hurts you. and with all the emphasis people have on education these days, i suppose they hate weed because it interferes with education (skipping to smoke, getting high and forgetting homework or whatever)

btw, if u thionk weed doesnt effect your brain, take it from a smoker who has seen so many, it does, not everyone, and not the same, but the difference is for sure there. if u smoke and your one of those "oh its great blah blah" its not, its no killer, but it f***s u up a bit...and any seasoned head would agree with me.

the key is to take the bad with the EXCELLENT ;]

UPDATE i snorted pills and tried acid and coke before i smoked, and weed is the one i stuck with, so gateway drug?

i think it helped me NOT to do harder drugs, if anything.

its a ******* plant, if it influences anything too hard, you just suck..