[biff]

Talk to any drug counselor in the country and they all will tell you they have never treated an addict to advanced drugs that did not start with pot. It is THE gateway drug, regardless what the pot promoters claim.

[CodeToad]

“Talk to any drug counselor in the country and they all will tell you they have never treated an addict to advanced drugs that did not start with pot.”

Nonsense. Tobacco is usually the first drug followed by a beer or liquor, or vice versa. So, it would seem you are also advocating for those to be prohibited too.

[mmichaels1970]

It is THE gateway drug, regardless what the pot promoters claim.

I agree with you that it is a gateway drug. But here is where I struggle with this when it comes to legalize or not legalize.

Hypothetical: Marijuana and Heroin

If both drugs are ILLEGAL, you start out by scoring some weed from a dealer and having some fun getting stoned whenever possible. You've got to deal with some shady people, and sometimes travel to some pretty nasty places to score up your bag, but it is what it is. Eventually, you come across a dealer with other stuff available to try. So you pick up some Heroin and decide that it is WAY better than weed. Goodbye weed, hello Heroin. Complete GATEWAY drug. You obtain your weed from dirty and risky places, and the heroin you get is really no different. The risks to getting it and using it are generally equal.

If weed is LEGAL and Heroin is illegal, you realize that weed is much easier to get. You can smoke it in your living room without worrying about cops arriving at the door. You don't find your neighborhood "weed clerk" generally dealing Heroin out of the back of the store. Would stoners, who I feel would naturally gravitate to the "path of least resistance", really travel through that gateway if the path is really easy on one side of it, and really dirty and risky on the other side?

[TheStickman]

“Talk to any drug counselor in the country and they all will tell you they have never treated an addict to advanced drugs that did not start with pot.”

Urban myth.

[Fledermaus]

I’ll bet 100% of that started with booze.