Is Pot a Gateway Drug?

[Tick]

First off I checked the rules to see if this topic was ok to discuss and since I not promoting drug use in any way I think it is?

So anyway...

A friend of mine made a post on Facebook asking...
"Is there anyone that honestly beleaves that marijuana is a gateway drug to other drugs? Answer YES or NO"
 
This post was met with many surprising replies. No one thought it was. They thought the idea that pot being a gateway drug was ridiculous, and pointed to the fact alcohol was much more dangerous.
Not sure what that really has to do with anything?
In any event I was the only person to take the stance that I believe it absolutely is!
Most of the people commenting were in there 30's and 40's.
Seriously...if you are that age than obviously its not a gateway drug. If they smoke it to relieve stress from life I get that.

but...to think its not a gateway drug for teenagers is silly to me. If you are a teen experimenting with drugs, and you fall in love with weed, its very likely they will want to see what other fun adventures are out there. That's how it was for me and my friends growing up.
Now its surely not the case for all kids, but to think its not a gateway drug seems foolish to me.
It was for me and my friends so surely we  were not alone in moving on to other things in addition to pot.

I'm curious what this board thinks? I consider this place filled with intelligent high quality people who are going places in life. Its quite evident, but even if you never did drugs I'm sure you can weigh in on the topic.

[Dark Castle]

I'm just going to say nope.

[Ben_Jamin]

Well it being quite easy to get makes it more likely people will use it. Shit, you've got kids taking their parents prescription drugs, which they may have taken before doin pot.

[hefdaddy42]

No.

[Chino]

No. Your brain is the gateway, not the drug. Your personality type dictates which drugs you have the desire to try/do.

[jasc15]

The "gateway drug" idea sounds like a misapplication of cause and effect.  It is probably true that folks who do harder drugs smoked pot first, and prob drank alcohol before that.  Doesn't mean smoking pot caused them to use harder drugs.

[eric42434224]

Pot is a gateway to eating Funions awatching too much Adult Swim.....not a gateway to harder drugs.

[Prog Snob]

No. Your brain is the gateway, not the drug. Your personality type dictates which drugs you have the desire to try/do.

That's exactly what I was going to say Chino. 

It's different from person to person.  If someone has an addictive personality then it could easily lead to further experimentation with other drugs.

[senecadawg2]

Doesn't mean smoking pot caused them to use harder drugs.

Well said. I tend to think that people who smoke pot are naturally more likely to want to experiment with other drugs, regardless. So yes, there is a very high association. But I do not see any evidence of causation.

That being said, it really comes down to how you define 'gateway'. I think most would argue that it doesn't have to imply causation. And if that's the definition we are going by, then sure pot can be a gateway drug. It often does 'open the gate', so to speak, to a realm of new experiences.

[hefdaddy42]

All I know is that I've known a lot of pot smokers from my high school years onward.  Very few of them were users of anything harder than that.

[Nekov]

If you are a teen experimenting with drugs, and you fall in love with weed, its very likely they will want to see what other fun adventures are out there. That's how it was for me and my friends growing up.

I can't express how much I agree with this statement. I have several friends that have consumed several different drugs and everyone of them started with pot. The simple truth is that since it's the least harmful of them all it's probably the one teenagers are going to start with. Granted that the curiosity is there from the start but after having this experience the curiosity is heightened.

I also know of several people that have never tried anything else so I know pot doesn't necessarily lead to consuming other drugs, that's each person's choice.

[Tick]

No. Your brain is the gateway, not the drug. Your personality type dictates which drugs you have the desire to try/do.

That's exactly what I was going to say Chino. 

It's different from person to person.  If someone has an addictive personality then it could easily lead to further experimentation with other drugs.

I do have an addictive personality and thus pot led to me wanting to try other things to see how those made me feel.
I'm kind of surprised people don't think its a gateway, but since it was for me and a host of friends I grew up with I can't possibly answer any other way except to say yes.
I think it also boils down to what its like in the home you grow up in. I grew up in extreme dysfunction and I was always looking to find different avenues to go down to ease the pain and put my brain in an altered state.
So I guess it isn't a gateway for many but I also think that for many it is, imo.

[KevShmev]

Nope.

[eric42434224]

No. Your brain is the gateway, not the drug. Your personality type dictates which drugs you have the desire to try/do.

That's exactly what I was going to say Chino. 

It's different from person to person.  If someone has an addictive personality then it could easily lead to further experimentation with other drugs.

I do have an addictive personality and thus pot led to me wanting to try other things to see how those made me feel.
I'm kind of surprised people don't think its a gateway, but since it was my me and a host of friends I grew up with I can't possibly answer any other way except to say yes.
I think it also boils down to what its like in the home you grow up in. I grew up in extreme dysfunction and I was always looking to find different avenues to go down to ease the pain and put my brain in an altered state.
So I guess it isn't a gateway for many but I also think that for many it is, imo.

From your own words, it appears clear that your environment and personality caused your own desire to seek getting high, not pot.

[Prog Snob]

No. Your brain is the gateway, not the drug. Your personality type dictates which drugs you have the desire to try/do.

That's exactly what I was going to say Chino. 

It's different from person to person.  If someone has an addictive personality then it could easily lead to further experimentation with other drugs.

I do have an addictive personality and thus pot led to me wanting to try other things to see how those made me feel.
I'm kind of surprised people don't think its a gateway, but since it was my me and a host of friends I grew up with I can't possibly answer any other way except to say yes.
I think it also boils down to what its like in the home you grow up in. I grew up in extreme dysfunction and I was always looking to find different avenues to go down to ease the pain and put my brain in an altered state.
So I guess it isn't a gateway for many but I also think that for many it is, imo.

I have an addictive personality too.  I try really hard not to let go and try some other stuff. 

[bout to crash]

Not for me. I became a huge pothead in late high school/early college, and it never made me want to go near any other drugs (I was already drinking, but that started earlier). I later began experimenting with mushrooms, but I wasn't even smoking pot at the time so there is really no correlation between the two for me. In fact, even when some of my friends were into the idea of hallucinogens in my pothead days, I was too freaked out to want to try them until I was way more stable of a person.

I'm not saying it never happens, but one of my major issues with the "gateway drug" thing is that it's blaming a substance, which does not have any say in these matters, for the curiosity and/or stupidity of humans. And it doesn't give PEOPLE enough credit.

Compared to most other drugs (including alcohol) pot is a harmless substance (with a few exceptions) that mostly just chills people out. This detail is significant because the average pothead, from my experience, is not going to say "I really like pot... maybe I should try some cocaine, which is going to have a totally different effect on my body and possibly kill me if I do too much." Do you see what I'm saying? It's not a logical progression at all. It's not like "Hey, you like pot? Then you'll REALLY like this meth right here." They have nothing in common- one is incredibly horrible and dangerous and can make you a complete monster, and one is going to make you pass out on the couch with a bag of Cheetos next to you.

I can't speak for the education system/parents of kids all over the place, but I was educated enough on drugs to know that some of them are just bad fucking news, and smoking pot (as much as I think it was a bad thing for me at that time in my life) did not change this knowledge or my common sense. I was offered cocaine on a few occasions in my teen years (mostly by people who were older, for the record) and I never touched it because I knew better.

Yeah, of course it's possible that smoking pot can give you easier access to other stuff, depending on what kind of company you're keeping, but nobody can open that "gate" except you.



edit: sounds like some of the replies that showed up while I was writing this novel, made a lot of the same points, wooo!
I definitely agree with the addictive personality thing, too. I do not have one of those.

[hefdaddy42]

[gmillerdrake]

No. Your brain is the gateway, not the drug. Your personality type dictates which drugs you have the desire to try/do.

Pretty much this. I was a professional pot head from age 20-25.....high from ten minutes after I woke up until I fell asleep that night.....all day every day. Never felt the inclination to 'graduate' to something more. However, I didn't even try pot until I was 19 and didn't start habitually smoking it until a good year after that. Not sure how I would have responded to it had I chose to do it in High School. It wasn't until some horrible childhood memories resurfaced when I was 19 that I chose to self medicate for a few years.

Like a lot of people on DTF....I have that 'addictive' personality as well. So when I'm in to something I go for it...be it smoking pot, drinking or my work....schooling....whatever. I was a great stoner.

But I don't think pot will 'lead' you to something. If you're going to try speed, meth, heroin....whatever IMO you'd have done it whether or not you ever smoked pot or not. I'm thankful I never tried anything 'harder', I'm sure I'd have OD'd or done enough to mess myself up.

[Tick]

No. Your brain is the gateway, not the drug. Your personality type dictates which drugs you have the desire to try/do.

That's exactly what I was going to say Chino. 

It's different from person to person.  If someone has an addictive personality then it could easily lead to further experimentation with other drugs.

I do have an addictive personality and thus pot led to me wanting to try other things to see how those made me feel.
I'm kind of surprised people don't think its a gateway, but since it was my me and a host of friends I grew up with I can't possibly answer any other way except to say yes.
I think it also boils down to what its like in the home you grow up in. I grew up in extreme dysfunction and I was always looking to find different avenues to go down to ease the pain and put my brain in an altered state.
So I guess it isn't a gateway for many but I also think that for many it is, imo.

From your own words, it appears clear that your environment and personality caused your own desire to seek getting high, not pot.

True.
but my feeling is that I loved being high from weed and that was fine for awhile. But after it got pedestrian I wanted to know whats next. So I guess you can say its not the pot that's the gateway, its the individual.... but the way I see it...if you are using and enjoying a drug then you are more open to trying other drugs? at least to some degree. It boils down to how you define it. For me it opened the door to other things drug wise. So for me I have to say is what a gateway.

[Chino]

I consider peoples' drug habits to be almost like driving habits.

Just for discussion sake, let's put driving a car and doing drugs on the same playing field. In high school, everyone talks about wanting to get their drivers license. Before doing that, you have to sit through driver's ed. You get lectured and learn all about what driving is before even getting behind the wheel (much like the DARE programs in grammar schools). At this stage, everyone has to begin at the same point. Getting in a car and actually learning to drive. These baby steps are necessary, regardless of what you want to do with the car overall. You start off slow and learn what it's all about. Some people learn to drive, get their license, and are completely content with driving responsibly and correctly their whole life. Others, learn to drive, and in the pursuit of adrenaline rushes, push their cars harder and harder until they die while wrapping it around a telephone pole. I believe the same to be true about drugs. There are many people that are completely content with taking it slow/easy, and there are others that need to constantly push their limits. That wasn't driver's ed's fault, that was the person's personality type.

You could make the argument that those baby steps were the gateway to people driving recklessly and putting their lives in danger, but that is clearly not the case. The people who drive like that were committed to doing so before they even got behind the wheel for the first time. But, like anyone else who has ever driven (alter their state of mind), they had to initially start at the baby steps.

[Chino]

*duplicate post*

[Tick]

From what I am seeing hear I think people opinions pretty much boil down to there own personal experiences.
I can't blame pot for my own bad choices but FOR ME personally, I wanted to see what else was out there and I was intrigued by the fact that different drugs would give me a completely different experience. It was a springboard or "gateway" if you will.
 

[eric42434224]

From what I am seeing hear I think people opinions pretty much boil down to there own personal experiences.
I can't blame pot for my own bad choices but FOR ME personally, I wanted to see what else was out there and I was intrigued by the fact that different drugs would give me a completely different experience. It was a springboard or "gateway" if you will.

Did you drink alcohol or use tobbacco before trying pot? 

[Chino]

From what I am seeing hear I think people opinions pretty much boil down to there own personal experiences.
I can't blame pot for my own bad choices but FOR ME personally, I wanted to see what else was out there and I was intrigued by the fact that different drugs would give me a completely different experience. It was a springboard or "gateway" if you will.

If this was your mindset prior to trying pot for the first time, then pot wasn't the gateway. It was just the easiest to obtain, and was an easy substance to help expose yourself to mind altering substances.

[Tick]

From what I am seeing hear I think people opinions pretty much boil down to there own personal experiences.
I can't blame pot for my own bad choices but FOR ME personally, I wanted to see what else was out there and I was intrigued by the fact that different drugs would give me a completely different experience. It was a springboard or "gateway" if you will.

If this was your mindset prior to trying pot for the first time, then pot wasn't the gateway. It was just the easiest to obtain, and was an easy substance to help expose yourself to mind altering substances.

At age 13 Chino, I can't say that was my mind set right off the bat. It wasn't When I was talked in to trying pot the first time I was nervous about doing so. After all, I had never used drugs prior to smoking pot. I smoked it and quite liked it. I smoked it for probably 3 or 4 years before feeling like I wanted to know what else could make me feel good. It was then that I went on to other drugs like coke and LSD. So at some point I decided I wanted I wanted to explore something else. So I consider it a gateway.
I understand why people would think its not a gateway. It isn't for everyone, but surely is is for some.

[Ben_Jamin]

Seems like you got tired of weed or overused to the point of building a tolerance.  If you overuse, you are bound to want to get that high again, most choose to stop indulging and then later they'll use but not a lot like they used to, others will just seek something else that gives them that same feeling. Its not the pot that made you search for harder stuff, but the desire to escape reality.

[lonestar]

Hmmm..... first off, Chino kinda nailed a good deal of it, it depends so much on the person and not the drug.


That being said, the thing with pot is that the repurcussions of addictive use are so very minimal compared to other drugs. Yes, it is addictive, don't let anyone tell you different. Though it's physical addictive properties might be minimal, any psychoactive substance is habit forming. And long term use is worse on the brain than a lot of the harder drugs, it's effect on the brains ability to process oxygen is traumatic at best.

A lot of this has to do with the stigma of it as well, peoples own fears will keep them away from coke, meth, and such, whereas pot, booze(which is far more nasty than most of the hard drugs tbh when it comes to long term use),  are socially acceptable. This is where Chino's point comes in, is the person the type that can overcome their inhibitions to delve into the harder, more socially unacceptable drugs?

That's it for me now...

[Arry]

Nope, Ive been smoking 20 years, and it never lead me to do anything but the occasional cupcake or bag of chips. And these days, Id rather smoke a bowl than drink. No hanger over...

[eric42434224]

From what I am seeing hear I think people opinions pretty much boil down to there own personal experiences.
I can't blame pot for my own bad choices but FOR ME personally, I wanted to see what else was out there and I was intrigued by the fact that different drugs would give me a completely different experience. It was a springboard or "gateway" if you will.

If this was your mindset prior to trying pot for the first time, then pot wasn't the gateway. It was just the easiest to obtain, and was an easy substance to help expose yourself to mind altering substances.

At age 13 Chino, I can't say that was my mind set right off the bat. It wasn't When I was talked in to trying pot the first time I was nervous about doing so. After all, I had never used drugs prior to smoking pot. I smoked it and quite liked it. I smoked it for probably 3 or 4 years before feeling like I wanted to know what else could make me feel good. It was then that I went on to other drugs like coke and LSD. So at some point I decided I wanted I wanted to explore something else. So I consider it a gateway.
I understand why people would think its not a gateway. It isn't for everyone, but surely is is for some.

So you didnt use tobacco or alcohol before pot?

[Tick]

From what I am seeing hear I think people opinions pretty much boil down to there own personal experiences.
I can't blame pot for my own bad choices but FOR ME personally, I wanted to see what else was out there and I was intrigued by the fact that different drugs would give me a completely different experience. It was a springboard or "gateway" if you will.

If this was your mindset prior to trying pot for the first time, then pot wasn't the gateway. It was just the easiest to obtain, and was an easy substance to help expose yourself to mind altering substances.

At age 13 Chino, I can't say that was my mind set right off the bat. It wasn't When I was talked in to trying pot the first time I was nervous about doing so. After all, I had never used drugs prior to smoking pot. I smoked it and quite liked it. I smoked it for probably 3 or 4 years before feeling like I wanted to know what else could make me feel good. It was then that I went on to other drugs like coke and LSD. So at some point I decided I wanted I wanted to explore something else. So I consider it a gateway.
I understand why people would think its not a gateway. It isn't for everyone, but surely is is for some.

So you didnt use tobacco or alcohol before pot?

Cigarettes first. Then alcohol and pot came probably next simultaneously.
but I also consider both to be gateways as well.
Maybe its the person and not the substances. I don't know for sure, but I consider pot a gateway to other things.

[Laich21DT]

Pot is a gateway to eating Skittles and playing too many video games.....not a gateway to harder drugs.

FTFM

[Perpetual Change]

I don't use it, but I know people for whom it was, and people for whom it wasn't. For the people for whom it was, they always were curious about doing harder drugs.

[cramx3]

The whole term "gateway drug" is kind of bogus and most of the responses show that. One drug does not make someone want to use another drug. Its not the drug that makes you want to experiment with something else, its your personality and your lifestyle and the other parts of an individuals life that make someone choose to do a drug.

I'll say someone who smokes weed is more likely to try another drug than someone who doesn't smoke weed but that's not because of the weed itself. Weed is easier to get and less harmful so its the natural first choice of illicit drug. I don't think there is a real physical correlation to marijuana and hard drugs.

[Phoenix87x]

No.

[snapple]

Hmmm..... first off, Chino kinda nailed a good deal of it, it depends so much on the person and not the drug.


That being said, the thing with pot is that the repurcussions of addictive use are so very minimal compared to other drugs. Yes, it is addictive, don't let anyone tell you different. Though it's physical addictive properties might be minimal, any psychoactive substance is habit forming. And long term use is worse on the brain than a lot of the harder drugs, it's effect on the brains ability to process oxygen is traumatic at best.

A lot of this has to do with the stigma of it as well, peoples own fears will keep them away from coke, meth, and such, whereas pot, booze(which is far more nasty than most of the hard drugs tbh when it comes to long term use),  are socially acceptable. This is where Chino's point comes in, is the person the type that can overcome their inhibitions to delve into the harder, more socially unacceptable drugs?

That's it for me now...

Great post.