[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Heard Stephen A Smith calling cannabis a gateway drug. I just never saw it that way sure, almost every hard drug user "tried it" or "used it" before doing hard drugs however can we honestly say that cannabis facilitates this?

Also, from my own experience, cannabis has ironically helped A LOT of people get CLEAN from hard drug abuse and STAY clean.

What is y'all opinions and experiences? Serious question, not just trying to pontificate my own ideas

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

To be sure, a lot of athletes use cannabis as alternative to opiate pills for pain

[Rob Instigator]

alcohol is the gateway drug (if there is such a thing)

Most people I know first get intoxicated with alcohol, specifically beer.

Having said that, most people drink milk before they try heroin, so milk must be the true gateway drug.

[Rob Instigator]

It takes a certain type of human, usually one with an addictive personality, to try herb and then think, "Oh! This is great! I am now gonna try cocaine, heroin, PCP, ketamine, hydrocodone...."

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

It takes a certain type of human, usually one with an addictive personality, to try herb and then think, "Oh! This is great! I am now gonna try cocaine, heroin, PCP, ketamine, hydrocodone...."

Agreed, my opinion always was that people move on to drugs because cannabis just didn't do that job. They aren't chasing a new high, its that cannabis never gave them the high they actually wanted. Addicts gonna be addicts. The premise of the gateway theory is that somehow cannabis induces people to do other drugs as an inevitability. That somehow cannabis was an introduction to their addiction. However im not sure that we can say there is a direct causality so much as correlation.

[Rob Instigator]

yep. Most people that do heroin/opiatesd do so to numb mental and physical trauma/pain.

Most people who do cocaine do so to feel euphoric and energetic

Most people who do speed are the same.

Herb is a hallucinogenic with analgesic properties. Those who seek only to get "Wasted" eventually tire of eating large amounts of pot brownies or progress through schwag to kind bud to hash/butter to hash oil really quickly, if at all, because they are not seeking what the herb can provide....

[!@#$%!]

i don't know what's a "gateway drug" but there sure are gateway friends/people.

i suppose is that if you break the law to get your weed and start hanging out with dealers etc you may get more involved in other illegal shit. sure. it can happen when weed is criminalized.

but it's not the weed itself that does it-- it's the getting involved with crime.

during prohibition, beer was a gateway drug. during famines, black-market rice is the gateway drug too i suppose.

jean valjean stole a loaf of bread and was sentenced to five years in prison. every time he tried to escape they increased his sentence. gateway bread!

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

i don't know what's a "gateway drug" but there sure are gateway friends/people.

i suppose is that if you break the law to get your weed and start hanging out with dealers etc you may get more involved in other illegal shit. sure. it can happen when weed is criminalized.

but it's not the weed itself that does it-- it's the getting involved with crime.

during prohibition, beer was a gateway drug. during famines, black-market rice is the gateway drug too i suppose.

jean valjean stole a loaf of bread and was sentenced to five years in prison. every time he tried to escape they increased his sentence. gateway bread!

I agree completely which is why i mentioned a correlation. Also the fact that getting cannabis from black market which exposes people to shady situations is a tenet of legalization advocacy.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

I agree completely which is why i mentioned a correlation. Also the fact that getting cannabis from black market which exposes people to shady situations is a tenet of legalization advocacy.

right.

but thinking about it more from the other side ("substance a induces use of substances b, c, d = truth"), then i'd have to say: if there is one legally available and socially sanctioned drug that causes disinhibition, impulsiveness and bad judgment, and is a major factor in all manner of unnecessary risk-taking from vehicular to genital to pharmacological to pugilistic-- that's definitely alcohol.

not that i'd ever advocate prohibition, or that i subscribe to the gateway theory. but if there ever was a gateway drug in this planet, then that's definitely the one.

[stu666]

Legalise it!

[ilduclo]

we have the legal in Oregon now, I grew 4 plants, 4' tall and full of flowers!

[whorefrost]

Bullshit. Total. Fucking. Bullshit.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Have any of yall seen similar experience of hard drugs users actually getting and staying clean in part because of having cannabis to help?

[evollove]

I was told pot would ruin my life.

I smoked anyway. Didn't die.

Wondered what else they were lying about and proceeded to try just about every other drug in the next few years.

So, either pot was a gateway drug or we can blame anti-drug propaganda.

But really, addiction is so misunderstood: for some people it is gateway drug. For others, no.

Kind of like how: For some, it is psychologically addictive. For others, not.

There are very few across-the-board answers for this stuff, a situation most humans find very uncomfortable.

[tesla69]

the real gateway drug is refined sugar. Here kiddies, eat this and feel WOW!! and it tastes good! Take a substance and feel good. Then you get caffeine in soda. OoH! I feel great and I didn't die! Woohoo! Whats next! mix the caffeine and sugar together in soda or coffee.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Sugar was the first global drug trade. It is a major component of the Atlantic Slave Trade.. its largely why Europe colonized the Americas.. so yeah.

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by evollove

I was told pot would ruin my life.

I smoked anyway. Didn't die.

Wondered what else they were lying about and proceeded to try just about every other drug in the next few years.

So, either pot was a gateway drug or we can blame anti-drug propaganda.

But really, addiction is so misunderstood: for some people it is gateway drug. For others, no.

Kind of like how: For some, it is psychologically addictive. For others, not.

There are very few across-the-board answers for this stuff, a situation most humans find very uncomfortable.

I can agree with this, that its not cannabis which is the gateway but rather the propaganda and manipulation surrounding prohibition. When folks find out they were lied to about cannabis they must naturally wonder if the other drug warnings were similar distortions

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Dude i work with teenagers, they are totally that stupid. Remember, everybody always assumes "it won't be me".. people who smoke say, "i won't get cancer." People who drink and drive say "i won't get in an accident" and yes, many people who start experimenting with drugs say, "i won't become an addict."

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Originally Posted by pepper_green

well, the word 'high' should only imply being stoned off good weed. why would you want to get higher than that? you can't. everything else is just escaping pain/getting a temporary 'rush'.

I would almost say cannabis doesn't even get you "high" the way drugs can. Cannabis gets you euphoric, hungry, and sleepy. Drugs get you high. Its why i just can't take doses anymore.. too strong.. too overwhelming

[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

I don't even think they "feel good" but they are so thoroughly overpowering. You are not yourself on drugs.. Indeed its why Hunter Thompson said, "You can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug."