wpainterw

I'd be interested in an opinion from you folks about whether in your experience or in your opinion marijuana tends to be a "gateway" drug, increasing the risk that the user will eventually switch to more dangerous addictive substances. Those who suggest this may point to the illegality of the source and the incentive of dealers to switch users to more expensive and more addictive "products" where the profit margin is higher and where there is a greater likelihood of long term dependency. But others may point to a supposed lack of "empirical evidence" or perceived failures in various studies.
I am concerned about this because a relative of mine, like many college students, has been said to be taking marijuana, is very careless in his studies, has low grades, seems lazy and listless, will not graduate on time. In this he's not unusual from many an adolescent but I'm concerned nonetheless. We've had a lot of trouble with alcohol in our family. I never got into illegal drugs myself, having found alcohol quite sufficient to nearly destroy my life.
What do you folks think about marijuana these days, particularly about the stuff which I've heard is much stronger than in former times?

W

sugarbear1

Alcohol was my gateway drug, and it's legal. No dealer of mine had time to mess around like 'making me' do anything. His goal was $.

Dee74

I seem to be arguing this debate a lot here lately....

It absolutely was a gateway drug for me - but then again anything that weakened my resistance, broke down my resolve, fostered my desire to escape, and hit those pleasure centres in my brain was invariably a conduit to something else for me.

More was never enough.

I know it's hard to watch, but I guess your cousin will have to find his own way like we all did W.
D

sugarbear1

I smoked pot daily, had a clean place to stay cause I cleaned it, studied hard, partied a lot, and graduated college with honors. I can't speak for your cousin. He doesn't sound too ambitious and he got accepted to college ?....

recoverywfaith

First substance I ever took was hash, then pot, and then alcohol. It is addictive and affected my life in a negative way.

wpainterw

Hi Sugarbear! The thing that worries me is that, unlike alcohol, which has a legal source, where the seller just stands at a counter and charges up the booze to all qualified comers (he doesn't even say "don't buy the wine; buy the hard stuff!" he just asks for a credit card or ID, puts the bottle in a bag and goes on to the next customer), other substances, like marijuana, must be obtained from a source which, in most states and many countries, is unlawful. That source, the dealer, has an incentive to boost his profit margin and increase sales by encouraging his customers to switch to more expensive and more addictive substances. Why sell your customers marijuana when you can get them really hooked on stuff which costs a lot more and where the addiction is a lot more difficult to deal with? Why do petty slavery when you can do grand slavery?

W.

sugarbear1

Have you met these people? Seriously, they have a clientele and no time for all that marketing. People make their own choices. I've known many dealers in 35+ years. My experience. Oh, they are often your neighbor, coworker, good friend, or grandparent. Dealers, like those of us with addictions, don't look like those stereotyped on tv. My experience.

If they have a product, they'll sell it as fast as possible. Most don't have nor carry quantity. As for higher profit, they play other games, not "getting you hooked on other substances." Your imagination is priceless. I'm not putting you down, just enjoying this info (or lack of). Like the person thinking you have to be in a crackhouse or alley to smoke crack. My dealers & fellow partiers wore suits and ties.

wpainterw

I must confess my lack of experience in such matters, since alcohol has been my specialty. Does it then follow from what you say that marijuana is not a "gateway" drug, that its use cannot, or is not likely to, lead to other addictions? Is it clear that the person selling the unlawful drug has no time or interest in increasing his or her profit by selling a product with a higher profit margin? Or cultivating customers with more robust dependencies? I speak here of economic theory. But then, as we all know, economists are often more imaginative than accurate and in this I may be in good company. My mind is no doubt tainted by excessive watching of TV films like The Man With the Golden Arm, which featured that iconic figure known as "Mother".
Anyway, I'm gratified that you are amused.

w.

sugarbear1

I used alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, crack, meth cause the coke dude gave me meth.

Friends of mine used those plus pills (any including ecstacy vicodin etc) acid mushrooms, anything they could find, plus some used heroin. I can only speak for me. I just didn't want to lose total control of me, although what I did, well, that wasn't good at the end. Others want to be totally out there.

I am 89 days sober. Others may be more helpful. I can't answer for them.

Peter G

I smoked my fair share of ganja and I also know a few cats who smoke it daily. IMO weed is not the type of buzz that leads most to more heavy drug use, unless the person is already predisposed to addiction. In which case, too much caffeine could be considered a gateway drug. Speaking of gateway drugs BTW, there is plenty of qualified research that suggests the entire concept of "gateway drugs" is nothing more than decades long propaganda initiated by the Drug Law Czars in order to demonize illegal drug use in general - and marijuana specifically.

Not just going on personal experience either, friends I have who smoke daily are rarely heavy drinkers and certainly not into heavier stones. In fact I'm hard pressed now to think of one friend who smokes regularly that is addicted or prone to heavy drug use - other than their weed of course.

The only thing I ever felt compelled to actively pursue as result of being stoned was a new high score on my PS3 games or a better drum sound for a track I was writing. Was more interested in writing music, talking philosophy, or catching a thought provoking movie than I was ever out for harder drugs - and not to advocate marijuana - that is moreover the nature and pathology of the intoxicated state that I've seen and experienced. People mellow, become less ambitious, and in some ways more apt to attempt creative leaps (which, of course, don't always work out as planned ).

In every case of weed smoking I personally never drank to excess because it always led to a horrid feeling of nausea and killer headaches. Never felt like scoring cocaine or trying heroine either - wouldn't have crossed my mind at all. Me thinks marijuana is no more a gateway drug than vitamins and protein shakes can lead to steroid abuse.

Alcohol on the other hand? MASSIVE gateway drug. Led me to trying many other substances, and only because the nature of the buzz was so different between that and ganja. My impulse control was always shot out the proverbial window when I drank, so if there were other drugs available while I was drinking, I had no problem opening the "gateways" I hear spoken of so much and taking in whatever drug was nearby during a good party.

Weed? Meh, not so much. Alcohol is far more a gateway drug than weed, just by the pathology of intoxication present.

ACT10Npack

I heard that milk was a gateway drug to harder stuff when people talk about marijuana. Anything that you use and abuse and want something stronger will always be a gateway to something else.

topspin

From what I see about the prices of high grade "medicinal" smoke sold legally in CA;
...there must be plenty of room for healthy margins.

My doc was initially, and remained weed and alcohol (and nicotine) for decades
back when folks were freebasing coke...when Richard pryor almost killed himself; I was scared to death to try it. For only one reason though

because I was already blowing all my money on what I was up to my neck in. Just couldn't risk getting involved with something even more costly.

It's almost farcical the way TV sometimes portrays the "evil dealer"

From my experience, ....distribution in the black market on a low level is usually carried out by broke, young, wannabe entrepenuers; and commonly just folks trying to maintain a stash they can't otherwise afford.

So grateful all that madness is behind me. What a load of work and worry for nothing.

Reset

I've used a lot of drugs in my time and never once came across a pusher.

What happens though is that because pot is illegal you have to get it from people who are willing to do illegal things. Not all dealers are evil or shady, and it's not even like a pot dealer is going to offer you heroin or meth, let alone push it on you. But being in the drug circles exposes you to people who do other drugs and know how to get them. From there you can take it as far as you want but you pretty much are driving the boat. Nobody shoves your head in a pile of coke and makes you snort it.

And people's brains react differently to different drugs. I liked pot and hated cocaine but I knew people who were the opposite.

Anyway, I obviously partied way too much in college and still managed to get reasonably good grades. Maybe your relative just needs a little fire lit under him. Wish someone had done that with me, even though I still managed on the surface.

Squizz

I feel that pot is in fact a gateway drug. Reason being, because it's usually the first drug that people are exposed to on the streets. Therefore, the user is exposed to the whole drug culture.

Had I first been exposed to crack, coke, heroin, meth, or any sort of chemical as a 13 year old boy, I'd have ran for the hills. Pot seemed tolerable though, because after all, it was "just a plant".

Couldn't be more harmful than tobacco right?

I guess, at the end of the day, it's ultimately up to the individual.

Mattcake

I'm so tired of hearing "pot is safer than tobacco and non-addictive blahblah". It is not. Though I've never tried it myself, I've seen many loved ones fall into this trap.

A very close relative was introduced to pot, and quickly escalated to all day, every day use. She stopped going to college, lost interest in her hobbies, and alienated her friends. She was eventually pressured into going on a trip where she couldn't smoke, and suffered really bad withdrawal symptoms. When she got home, she promptly decided that pot wasn't strong enough, and switched to cocaine.

A good friend took to smoking pot all day long. There was no way to talk him out of it. Over time he became agitated and delusional. His parents had to call a psychiatrist in to see him. Marijuana-induced schizophrenia.

I know that these horror stories sound hysterical, but I'm simply trying to make my point: I feel very strongly about this issue. Marijuana is definitely a gateway drug, and it's a very dangerous drug in itself.

Wheew!

hmltnls

Yes we had to help our friends nurse their son through marijuana induced schizophrenia we loved this boy like our son and he had the sweetest nature in the world but he got involved with a few other kids and the batch was tainted they all ended up in hosp. and recovered except him,He's on med. for the rest of his life and holds a part time job.It was mind reeling to watch this boy suffer through the manifestations and mental terrors of this awful condition.,which could have been avoided

wpainterw

This has been a very interesting discussion. I confess that I have had no experience with unlawful addictive substances, having confined my energies to alcohol and, fifty years ago, to tobacco. These pursuits absorbed all my energies. One response has suggested that milk may be a gateway. I shall certainly think that over carefully. Could the same be said about dogs? If so, then I may be in mortal peril. I have always been fond of the smell of horses. Could there be danger for me within the horse barn? To be on the safe side I have resolved to fumigate my bedroom, line it with cork, and spend my remaining days there, like Marcel Proust. Alas, I fear that there will always be a dog on the bed...

W.

eaglette

I never got into the harder stuff, but I never hung out with people who did until I started smoking weed. After it got to be a daily habit, the door opened quickly to the rest of it in the form of friends and my ex. For me it was definitely a gateway drug, and it was for a lot of the others I was around as well.

Cerberus

My opinion on this is about the same as Binder, above. Smoking pot, in my experience and opinion, is extremely less destructive than alcohol, which is legal for any adult to buy. I believe the main harm in using pot, for the average person, is the fact that where I live it's illegal to buy.

Smoking pot generally makes you feel quiet and mellow, not violent like alcohol can. For most. Having said that, I think, like any other substance, some people just can not tolerate it. Addictive personalities, someone trying to block out negative emotions or situations may use too much. Some literally have a negative reaction to it, like they may to penicillin or strawberries and if they continue to try it despite this, of course it's going to cause problems.

I don't believe that marijuana is a gateway drug, meaning if you try it you will eventually crave cocaine. I do think that people prone to looking for the next, bigger high will just go ahead and do that, regardless, for reasons specific to that person.

defyinggravity

I don't think weed is a gateway drug per se but I think what tends to happen is that people who are addicted to weed eventually start to want a bigger, better high - the weed stops working, the high stops being fun and they start looking for something else...and that something else is usually one of the "harder" drugs - opiates, heroin to continue that depressant theme or sometimes they feel listless or something similar and switch to stimulants - coke, meth...speaking to the whole dealer thing, though. I'm with the others who haven't experienced a pusher. My dealer gets me what I ask him to get me. I would think that in many cases the move to a harder drug comes from the addict him/herself and not from their dealer.

I know plenty of people who smoke socially, get high every once in awhile and have never even considered doing cocaine or other drugs. I also know plenty of people who started with "just a little weed" and moved on to full-blown opiate, heroin and cocaine addictions. I, for example, moved on to cocaine after I smoked weed daily for awhile (the full progression was pills to alcohol to weed to coke back to weed).

I'd also like to go on record as saying that I am absolutely one of those people for whom weed is just as, if not more, destructive than alcohol ever was.