[thegreatbeast]

One meaning of the word suggests: "Imply as a possibility".
That is certainly in effect here. Again, studies are worthless in this area unless detailed, psychological interviews are conducted and compiled. But to aver that the suggestion that marijuana is a gateway drug does not exist is to sugget that you have been smoking much too recently!
You write that you were "an abuser of the legal drugs Vicodin and Percocet" but then stipulate " I never used any hard drugs..." If you hold such a stance then you know too little about the subject because Vicodin & Percocet are robust members of the hardest class of drugs, opiates (I believe), and suggests an inability to 'fess up to your own experience. (Something I know about too).

[tacticalogic]

One meaning of the word suggests: "Imply as a possibility". That is certainly in effect here. Again, studies are worthless in this area unless detailed, psychological interviews are conducted and compiled. But to aver that the suggestion that marijuana is a gateway drug does not exist is to sugget that you have been smoking much too recently!

The relatively large number of marijuana users weight against the number of hard drug users suggests that if marijuana is a gateway drug, it isn't a very effective one.

[truenospinzone]

Actually, I am well aware of the actual position of Vicodin etc. in the pantheon of addictive drugs. My use of the term "hard drugs" was in the context that the term is most often used on FR, i.e. as a substitute for "the illegal drugs cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamines". Believe me, it is fully my position that legal prescription drugs are every bit as destructive as those drugs commonly considered "hard", and should be seen and treated as such.