The gateway claim is nonsense - research shows that the correlation between earlier marijuana use and later use of other drugs can be explained by a "common-factor" model, that is, a third factor that causes both results, such as individuals' opportunities and unique propensities to use drugs, or more broadly a social or psychological predisposition towards anti-social behavior. (http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB6010/index1.html, http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/hors253.pdf)
Also note that the same sort of correlation between earlier marijuana and later harder drugs also exists between earlier alcohol and tobacco and later illegal drugs - so if marijuana is a "gateway" so are alcohol and tobacco.
has been clearly associated with schizophrenia and a host of personality disorders that have ruined or diminished lives.
Association is not causation - it's equally plausible that the mentally ill turn to marijuana in a misguided attempt to self-medicate.
No reputable rehabilitation specialist or addiction professional condones its use.
Nor the use of tobacco - shall we ban that too?
It is especially dangerous when used by adolesents.
Nobody advocates making marijuana legal for minors.
The US has declined markedly since marijuana use has become widespread.
The US has declined markedly since flat-screen TVs have become widespread.
What I never got about the gateway argument is why it excludes smoking and drinking, which if I recall childhood accurately came before marijuana “experimentation.” Obviously, the answer is we tried banning booze and failed, and smokers are too big a lobby, even though they toy the runnaround with those idiotic lawsuits and stupid restrictions based on the nonexistent threat of “secondhand smoke.” Weed smokers, contrariwise, are still a small enough minority to beat upon.
How does the gateway argument stretch past childhood, while we’re at it? Why can’t it be like booze, whereby the law pretends we’re minors for three years after the age of majority? Or it could be like cigarettes, with which we deal ever so more rationally. Why can’t 70 year olds, for instance, light up? Are we afraid marijuana would doom their 80s to a haze of meth abuse?
Bit of a dopey or perhaps dope inspired rebuttal. You simply don’t have the proper cultural perspective.
The US has declined markedly since we put a man on the moon. We need to stop that.
Oh, wait....