Is Marijuana a gateway for harder drugs?

[Msmith]

With the legalization of two states, the trend is going to sweep the nation in next 20 years. Being a father, I like to teach my children about certain paths in life to take or not to take. Personally, I don't touch Marijuana and I don't want my kids to touch that at all. But kids just like to listen to their peers.

How does the board view about this?

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by WhiteWhale

The reality is that if someone likes to get ****ed up, they'll find ways to get ****ed up.

You should see the statistics on teens and tweens huffing. A lot of kids around here started with Dust Off, not beers or weed.

But that doesn't figure in because Dust Off isn't a "drug".

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by Carlota69

Alcohol is the gateway drug. Most teenagers start off their partying by going to "keg" parties, and getting drunk. Then while drunk decide to do harder drugs. Thats how it was when I was a kid anyways.

The easy score anymore is their parents medicine cabinet. Mom got that molar taken out a few months back and those darn Percocets just didn't agree with her.

Better leave that pill bottle out in the open and accessible to any and everyone that uses the bathroom.

[Carlota69]

Originally Posted by Pablo

The easy score anymore is their parents medicine cabinet. Mom got that molar taken out a few months back and those darn Percocets just didn't agree with her.

Better leave that pill bottle out in the open and accessible to any and everyone that uses the bathroom.

yeah, pharmaceuticals I can see as the new way to kick off a career in drugs.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Pablo

The easy score anymore is their parents medicine cabinet. Mom got that molar taken out a few months back and those darn Percocets just didn't agree with her.

Better leave that pill bottle out in the open and accessible to any and everyone that uses the bathroom.

But that's ok. It's legal. It was developed by a scientist and prescribed by a doctor. Fine upstanding citizens, not drug dealers.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

The thing is, I'm not looking for anything.

It's people that want to demonize cannabis, as if it's anything CLOSE to crack cocaine or oxycodone or heroin, that are looking for something.

It's not, though there is always the potential in the individual (read "individual" versus a total analytical look at a culture as a whole) for "light" drug usage to transition into "hard" drug usage due to the breakdown of self-imposed mores that exist in a persons subconscious.

My previous example of chick stipping to prostitute isn't far off - at least from showing a corollary/causation cross mapping potential within an individual. In fact, guys attempting to turn chicks into accepting prostitution as an acceptable method for whatever always start with getting them into the stripping trade first. (And there are in fact guys who do this exact thing - going to diners, whatever, and looking for prospective girls to breakdown over time to get them into the whoring trade.)

Once those initial internal psychological more walls are broken down, it's substantially easier break down the thicker, stronger ones.

Same thing with the cigarettes, booze, marijuana, coke, crack to meth transition. Sure, not everyone does it, but once the initial wall is breached, the others are easier to climb over or break down.

[WhiteWhale]

Originally Posted by htismaqe

You should see the statistics on teens and tweens huffing. A lot of kids around here started with Dust Off, not beers or weed.

But that doesn't figure in because Dust Off isn't a "drug".

Oh geezus.

I grew up in drug culture. I didn't do hard drugs, but a lot of my friends did and I was.. um... an entrepreneur in those days.

Those ****ers would start fiending for shit and start huffing dust off. I never did that shit. I kept telling them that shit is 'crack in a can'. One guy did is so much he's basically a ****ing reerun now. Sad.

[Mr. Laz]

Everything you experience is a gateway to something.


It's called life.

[KCUnited]

I didn't know about the whole Dust Off thing until I wandered around a CVS for 20 minutes looking for it.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by Mr. Laz

Everything you experience is a gateway to something.


It's called life.

And so true.

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by KCUnited

I didn't know about the whole Dust Off thing until I wandered around a CVS for 20 minutes looking for it.

You can't buy it anywhere here without flagging someone down. It's all kept under lock and key because people were walking into Wal Mart, spraying it in their mouth, and then putting it back on the shelf.

[Eleazar]

Originally Posted by Oxford

I do care what people do, not because I "nanny" but because I know it does/will affect me. If people doing their own thing had no effect on me than go ahead and cook your brain.

I posted that realizing completely that it will end up affecting me if someone I care about decides to become a burnout or a crackhead, or in a more general sense in society because of the societal costs. But in a vacuum, I don't care. I don't care if people want to take the responsibility for consequences that come along with it. That is all I meant.

[WhiteWhale]

Originally Posted by Saccopoo

It's not, though there is always the potential in the individual (read "individual" versus a total analytical look at a culture as a whole) for "light" drug usage to transition into "hard" drug usage due to the breakdown of self-imposed mores that exist in a persons subconscious.

My previous example of chick stipping to prostitute isn't far off - at least from showing a corollary/causation cross mapping potential within an individual. In fact, guys attempting to turn chicks into accepting prostitution as an acceptable method for whatever always start with getting them into the stripping trade first. (And there are in fact guys who do this exact thing - going to diners, whatever, and looking for prospective girls to breakdown over time to get them into the whoring trade.)

Once those initial internal psychological more walls are broken down, it's substantially easier break down the thicker, stronger ones.

Same thing with the cigarettes, booze, marijuana, coke, crack to meth transition. Sure, not everyone does it, but once the initial wall is breached, the others are easier to climb over or break down.

This is a fair point. Things escalate. My contention has more to do with weed as 'the' gateway drug when the reality is there are many from that viewpoint. It's silly to single it out, but if you're going to speak on a broader perspective I'd agree. Alcohol and cigarettes are generally the 'first' drugs people do, because they're legal.

Well, except caffeine. We market that shit to children.

Of course, I know a lot of people who smoke weed and don't do other drugs.. including alcohol. One of them is a lawyer I worked for. You would not believe the people who tried to solicit weed from me as a teenager, including a fellow I won't mention because he's been a staple of a certain local network's evening news.

[CapsLockKey]

Like some others have said, it's not the drug itself but how you obtain it that is the gateway to a different world of accessibility. If you know a way of getting pot illegally, then you most likely already have an easy contact to experiment with harder drugs if that's your thing. If they sold pot at the gas station next to the Miller Lite, they wouldn't offer to throw in some meth for only a couple bucks more. There is nothing chemically about smoking weed that makes people crave shooting up some heroine along side it.

[Saccopoo]

Originally Posted by WhiteWhale

No, it's not. You're making a positive assertion while ignoring the varying factors in those statistics. I'm saying your MAIN sticking point is correlation, which is a kind of evidence but far from proving anything. With the other factors involved it doesn't really mean much at all to me. As a skeptic, it takes more than correlation to convince me. In my eyes the 'gate' doesn't even exist if there is no prohibition. Then people would just do what they want without being pressured by the drug culture of their peers or a drug pusher who can't take 'no' for an answer.

Nah, not buying it. I can be convinced though, but you'll have to do better than showing an obvious correlation.

I'm not going to argue against your individual hypothesis.

There is no way that you are going to have zero prohibition at any level within any society as it relates to alcohol, drug use, etc. The effects are so varied and uncontrollable under individual usage that no society will ever allow zero prohibition on such things. As such, your argument is invalid.

And because of the individual psychological and physiological variants are so wide, there is no way that it can be a situation where it's a "either/or" as it relates to correlation or causation. That's really the whole point of my blathering - that because there is no way to specifically determine the gateway conceptualization as it relates to one specific drug, either from an individual or societal perspective, it has to be addressed in a more encompassing authoritarian manner based on what society perceives as correct from a majority perspective. (And, even then, I'm not necessarily sure that in these instances that the majority of a society can be trusted with the decision making process. Perhaps Hamilton was right after all...)

[htismaqe]

Originally Posted by WhiteWhale

Of course, I know a lot of people who smoke weed and don't do other drugs.. including alcohol. One of them is a lawyer I worked for. You would not believe the people who tried to solicit weed from me as a teenager, including a fellow I won't mention because he's been a staple of a certain local network's evening news.

I smoked weed a couple times with a guy that developed a technology that pretty much everybody on this message board has used at least once. He was a regular smoker like me and has a Masters Degree in EE.