What Is The Gateway Drug

Everyone says it's marijuana.

I disagree. Lets be honest here, pills = gateway.
I found out heroin is the high like pills but better, so that's where I went. Now that I'm off it I keep thinking how true that is.

I can go to the dr. and say "oh I fell on the ice", and get 20 hydrocodone 10/650s. I told my friend he went to the same dr. the same day right after me and gets the same thing.

 

I would say that marijuana is currently a gateway drug, but not because of anything inherent to it. It is just that people who sell weed will usually sell something else. Since a lot of experimenting with drugs starts with weed, the easy access to other drugs from the dealer is what makes it a gateway drug.

Then again, it all matters on your method of exposure.

If you have never tried weed, but were one day prescribed a shit load of morphine for pain, then pills could be a gateway to other opiate, sure.

 

http://www.drugwardistortions.org/distortion7.htm

The gateway theory isn't real.

 

your source's numbers dont really prove anything. They just say there are more weed smokers than coke snorters and more coke snorters than heroin junkies.

It would be much better if we could compare the amount of people who smoke weed and do coke with the proportion of people who just do coke. Then we could see if people who smoke weed are more likely to do coke than baseline.

This was part of the article that the article you cited was based on:
Conclusions: Associations between early cannabis use and later drug use and abuse/dependence cannot solely be explained by common predisposing genetic or shared environmental factors. The association may arise from the effects of the peer and social context within which cannabis is used and obtained. In particular, early access to and use of cannabis may reduce perceived barriers against the use of other illegal drugs and provide access to these drugs.

As you can see, it does not really support your argument. This is the problem with going to cites like that that do not really fact check, they are often erroneous

 

Peer pressure can affect your judgement and decisions slightly. Mob mentality should not be an excuse for someone's actions. It's a weak argument to be honest. Since if you take a religious official into group of burglars, they're ideals will not vary from the group. Even with children, those who actually have a strong stance against a substance will not try the drug if pressured. Only those with an open/faltering mind will give into peer pressure for the most part.

Gateway drug is a false theory.

 

So, that's like 75% of kids in high school, then?


Btw, peer pressure isn't an excuse, it is an explanation. To try to understand something does not mean to also condone it.

 

I'm not too sure about that, curiosity is a rather big thing. And I'd be willing to bet that curiosity is more of the main drive to try something than "peer pressure".

 

yes, there are always multiple motivations. When I talked about peer pressure being one motivation, I wasnt trying to give a comprehensive explanation. I was just trying to communicate that trying to explain something does not mean you are excusing it.

 

I don't believe the gateway theory is real. So i didn't vote for any. Out of every 100 marijuana users less then 1 use cocaine. The stepping stone/gateway drug argument is false and idiotic. As a child i drink milk. But deep down i want to drink juice. Then i start drinking juice. Deep down i want to drink pop. Then i start drinking pop. Deep down i want to drink alcohol. So i start drinking alcohol. I see people smoking cigarettes, i get curious and start smoking cigarettes. Wait...Something smells funny. My friend told me its marijuana and will make me feel "good". So i start smoking marijuana. My dealer then introduces me to all kinds of other drugs like crack/heroin.

Gateway drug in this case is milk.

Also i think if you decide to go onto other drugs it has something to do with your emotional state at the time. Were you molested as a child? abused? neglected? Maybe you decide to cope using alcohol/marijuana but you are willing to try something stronger because you don't give a shit and just want to forget your past. You are then introduced to heroin. You find that it helps you cope with your past a lot better then alcohol/marijuana/other drugs much better.


If your life is fine and you have nothing to run from in the past and your smoking weed here and there for fun the odds of being a heroin junkie living on the streets is pretty damn small.

 

Caffeine is the gateway drug, first drug that most people ever use usually start use as a small child and use their entire lives.

 

Wanna provide a source for your claims?

Also, in your example and under your standards, all the things that lead up to crack/heroin would be gateway drugs, with marijuana being hte most direct one.


Also, one big part in your argument for why people start heroin was being introduced to it. smoking weed makes this more likely to happen, as a lot of dealers sell a variety of drugs.

 

You take away the dealer and put the marijuana in a legit store, you wont be offered other drugs.

 

Hmmm, none are gateway drugs if you have a strong mentality.

 

i don't understand why people would think it's marijuana.

You can be under the influence of ANYTHING and be stupid enough to try anything...so in theory ANYTHING can be a "Gateway" to harder drugs, but i'd deffo say doing pills, and or harder drugs...it's definatly a gateway to try other harder things.

I smoked marijuana for 6-10 months give or take, almost EVERY day, and i only tried some kind of pill once because my friend woudn't shut the fuck up and he "Took" one then i took one and he showed me that he actually didn't take his and i got bad anxiety and haven't touched anything like that since.

But marijuana is something to relax people and to make them feel better.
Other drugs seriously fuck you up.

 

I personally smoke and have no intentions of using any other drugs and don't see marijuanna as a gateway drug but I have noticed that friends who smoke seems to be more likely to be interested in other drugs. For example a friend of mine started smoking 3-4 months ago, now he's taking adderall occasionally. I know for a fact if he never smoked he wouldn't even think about taking any kind of pills. I guess it really depends on the person and their mind set.

 

ya i agree with there is no such thing as a gateway drug

 

It would have to be Pills that they give you when you have a disorder (i know because i taken them) and i would always be taking them even when it wasent time to take them

 

I smoke weed all the time and I've tried other drugs, but I believe pills start kids on other stuff.

 

Alcohol. At least in America, high schoolers all want to drink, for some reason. Then they start doing other stuff.

 

Pills? That's not a drug. There are drugs of all different kinds in pill form, psychedelics, opiates, barbiturates, benzos, stimulants, dissociates, and a bunch of ones that won't even get you high. You can not just say pills are a gateway drug because that is beyond retarded.

Also heroin is not better than all pills either. The reason it's so popular and so many people are addicted to it is because it's so cheap, easy to get, and there are many different routes of administration. Oxycodone is comparable to or better than heroin taken orally or nasally, and it will be better than heroin IV'd as well. Morphine has shit oral bio-avalability but IV'd it will be better than heroin as well.
Another reason people will do heroin over pills is it's more work to extract any extra things that may be in the pills like acetaminophen that could be toxic in higher doses. But no, it's not better than pills.


I thought this was intelligent discussion? I see this forum has gone to shit since shredder isn't here anymore

But yes I'd agree with this. In other countries legal drinking age is anywhere from 14-18 and in others there is none set. And yes alcohol is a drug.