Don't Blame Pot -- There's No Such Thing as a "Gateway Drug"

I've said it myself right HERE on AlterNet

As the article says, there is nearly nothing that fits the description of a gateway drug: a drug that facilitates the use of a different drug (possible exception: drinking makes many people want to smoke). Drugs that lead to self-destructive behaviors in their acquisition and consumption may be addictive and lead to more use of the SAME drug. But that’s not passing through a gateway. People who pass through gateway after gateway on their way to potentially lethal drug abuse aren’t being guided by the drugs. They’re also escalating their criminal behavior – petty theft, then armed robbery, then bank robbery. Are these gateway crimes? Fucking idiots. It’s so embarrassing to have been born here.

Fucking liars. Fucking lying country.

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It can lead to the gates of the emergency room, the gates of the prison, the gates of the asylum, and the gates of the cemetery.
Upton Sinclair wrote in "The Cup of Fury" that he wouldn't keep a dog which bit one in ten visitors. This was his explanation for why he didn't keep liquor in the house.

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Yup, never had the slightest urge to use any other "drug", especially ones created by the pharmaceutical companies.

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I do believe that the concept of a gateway drug is valid, but I have a different view as to why.
There is a well-documented phenomonen called "cross-tolerance". Different drugs have similar effects on neurological functions. For example, alcohol is cross-tolerant with benzodiazepines or barbiturates, and cocaine is cross-tolerant with amphetamines.
Most drug users have a so-called drug of choice. If the supply of drug of choice is interrupted, very often the user will go to a drug of second choice which will produce a similar effect.
I don't think pot is a gateway drug in that way. I'm for decriminalization for adults. I don't think pot should be available to minors, though, mainly because it affects short-term memory and the immune system, and ANY kind of smoke is unhealthy to breathe. Also, pot CAN adversely affect motivation, but not always; in some cases it can actually increase motivation. The catch is that if pot were legal for adults, it would also become more available to kids.
That being said, I think that kids would be harmed far less by smoking a joint than by being forced to take speed in the guise of Adderall XR, or using Valium, Xanax, or Klonopin from their parents' medicine cabinet.
If pot is at all a gateway drug, I think that is primarily because it is illegal. People who sell the so-called hard drugs also often sell pot. Not always, but often enough. I think this is mainly because pot is illegal, and classed as a Schedule 1 narcotic on the same list as heroin. Oxycontin and Xanax, which are much more dangerous drugs than marijuana, are classed as Schedule II and Schedule IV, respectively. Go figure. ( http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/scheduling.html )
If pot were decriminalized or legal, use of the hard drugs- both the illegal hard drugs such as the opiates, coke, and meth, and the legal hard drugs such as alcohol, tobacco, bendodiazapine tranquilizers, and amphetamines used to treat that elusive "disease" called ADD or ADHD- would go down.
The tobacco, liquor, and Big Pharma interests would lose business if pot became legal or decriminalized. The federal and state governments, and the various local, state, and federal police departments, would lose revenue if pot were legalized or decriminalized. Always follow the money.
3.2 beer is as much a gateway drug as marijuana. For that matter, even sugar can be a gateway drug.

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I've smoked pot since 1967 and still smoke daily.
Never had any desire to try heroin or meth or coke or any of the other heavier drugs. It's just a bullshit diversion.

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And take the ILLEGAL PROFITS THAT FINANCE SO MUCH OF THE NEW WORLD ORDER'S LEADING FAMILIES right out of it...

THINK OF HOW FAST THAT TAX REVENUE WOULD PUT OUR ECONOMY IN THE BLACK!

SELL AND TAX AND LEGALIZE!

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Alcoholics started by drinking milk. Most pot smokers started by smoking cigarettes.

Buying Pot does bring one into contact with drug dealers, some of who also sell other drugs, so legalisation of weed is the best way to go, users could then just buy it from a gas station, drugstore, liquor store etc. like cigarettes.

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There is clearly such a thing as a Gatesway operating system, and both use and withdrawal have very nasty side effects.

Maybe pot can reduce the pain of Windows, as well as the pain of chemotherapy.

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This claim was just the "domino theory" in another guise. One gave us the war on Vietnam, and millions of mostly non-whites died. The other gave us the war on users, and millions of mostly non-whites were caged. Both were extremely profitable hoaxes perpetrated by both parties on an ignorant and largely indifferent public.

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Pay close attention to the end of this article. Ritalin and Cocaine: The Connection and the Controversy

Is anybody advocating that we criminalize Ritalin because it may be a "gateway drug"? (Leaving aside the point that we should be doping up our children.)

Agnitionis!
Pope Urban XXIII

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The Prohibitionists use the gateway theory in reference to illegal drug use, a habit forming substance that leads to use of other more dangerous addictive illegal drugs.

The Prohibitionists have had a harder time trying to speak about the use of legal drugs that may lead to use of other more dangerous legal drugs. Big Pharma is a BIG Sugar Daddy for US Law Enforcement and others. It's not that "they" really care about OUR CHILDREN. It is all about the $$$$$$$$$$$$ and CONTROLLING POWER over other humans.



One example only is chronic pain. Millions who suffer every second of the day and are denied relief. Big Pharma starts them off with a little relief usually non addictive but useless for the pain, then escalation to harder legal narcotics,which is usually useless for REAL pain. then the real human control kicks into action...the weak led to the slaughter, and our so-called leaders laugh all the way to the bank.

Let us talk about some LEGAL gateway drugs, for a change!!!! Cannabis the illegal God-given herbal plant should be made legal and free. Our "handlers" will not let that happen, unless we make them.

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But marijuana IS a gateway...

...to becoming president. Every occupant of the Oval Office since 1993 has inhaled. Would a good stiff prison sentence have been good for their lives and their careers? If not, then why is it so good for everyone else? What's the message they're sending to children? Don't get caught?

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RUN FROM THE CURE - http://www.youtube.com/chrychek

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Marijuana was MY gateway drug. Quite frankly, I smoked it in high school because I didn't like beer, hard liquor was difficult to acquire, and I enjoyed the hell out of it.

Enjoying the hell out of pot led to me trying LSD, Heroin, and Cocaine. I really, really liked LSD, but Heroin and Cocaine scared me because I liked them TOO MUCH, so I didn't repeat with em.

I gave up pot and LSD, when we decided to have kids, only because of the illegality of it. I felt it wasn't my right to risk my kids futures (with the risk of incarceration).

If pot becomes legal, I will go from a non-user to a frequent user. Same with LSD.

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While I was reading this article, the ad at the top of the page was ostensibly to help end marijuana 'addiction'

A condition which does not exist, and would seem to be at odds with the article itself.

Gotta love it.

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Nixon Lie Keeps on Killing

Gateway? Prohibition is the only Gateway Stepping Stone.
Ganja has been used 5 thousand years.
Cocaine and Heroin were invented in the mid 1800's.
Can't Gateway to what hasn't been invented...
Prohibition leads to stolen auto parts too.
No lame opinions, No racist lies can be reformed, just eliminated.
Ganja is or it is not, Physics not Politics!

Pot Potency? Boomers' blissfully unfazed by mere facts.

"Higher Potency? Bunk. Always been high potency.
Vietnam was better pot than Cali kynd bud.
Government pot and hash oil Panama Acapolko Gold?
More BS to scare the yuppies.
We must hold the liars accountable,
and overturn past hobgoblins made Law.
Our reputation and integrity are on the line."

THE DEMONIZATION OF MARIHUANA

"Fanaticism consists in redoubling your efforts
when you have forgotten your aim."
~ George Santayana, "The Life of Reason"

The Racist Ganjawar

"...the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races."
~ Harry J. Anslinger - America's 1st Drug Czar (FDR - JFK)

Kill the Messenger

"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others."
~ Harry J. Anslinger

Teens More Likely To Try Ganja After DEAthreats

"Insanity is doing the same old thing
over and over again
and expecting a different result."
~ Bill Clinton,
campaign debate, October 11, 1992

Cannabis Exposure Not Toxic To The Developing Brain

"Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men."
~ Harry J. Anslinger

Drugwar Lies Linked to Schizophrenia

"Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing"
~ Harry J. Anslinger

The Ganjawar Fraud...

"Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death."
~ Harry J. Anslinger

Virtues' of Ganja

"This vice brings in 100 million francs each year.
I will certainly forbid it at once - as soon as you can name
a virtue that brings in as much revenue."
-- Napoleon Bonaparte

Vices Are Not Crimes

"Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind."
~ Harry J. Anslinger

Drug War Distortions

"The passing of an unjust law is the suicide of authority."
~ Pastoral Letter of the American Roman Catholic Hierarchy, February 1920

Mérdénol is Synthetic Sabotage

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Maybe not. Maybe I'm a cynic. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I can spot a snowflake from a block away, and the heated rhetoric over whether pot or other drugs will corrupt our youth, and/or end in the ruination of our society is a BLIZZARD.
Resistance to the legalization of psychoactive drugs, unlike the days of the Wommen's Christian Temperance Union comes from another quarter altogether. All the voices raised against pot and other drugs have but one source, and in my opinion, it's the BANKS which launder the drug money. There's no longer any doubt that banks are crooked. Just look at what's been happening the last year or so, for instance. Another thing to ponder over is Afghanistan, where bumper crops of opium poppies have been produced. Is our army there to pursue the will o' the wisp Osama bin Laden, or protect the opium crop? Don't forget, there's real money in illegal drugs, and a major incentive for those profiting so handsomely from it to keep it going.

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It's difficult to say. On one hand, most marijuana users don't use hard drugs, but at the same time, almost all hard drug users first used marijuana. I don't know of anyone that just dove into shooting heroin one day out of the blue. There was a progression of 'soft' drugs to 'hard' drugs that led to shooting heroin. Whether that's considered 'gateway' I'm not sure, but it's a fact.

Having said that, I'm still for legalization. Starting with marijuana.

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Of course the gateway argument is propaganda BS. The real issue is addictive personalities. Probably 10% of the population is addicted to something - tobacco, alcohol, opiates, pot, etc. It most likely has to do with the way some people's brains are wired. I've heard explanations by alcoholics that they can't imagine stopping at one or two drinks. I, on the other hand, have just never been interested in drinking - or smoking or doing any other kind of drug. It's the way I'm wired. Of course I can't imagine passing up a nice piece of chocolate. The difference is chocolate is legal in all 50 states.

I think we just need to acknowledge that a certain percentage of the population is going to be addicted to whatever mind-altering substance they can get their hands on. We then need to deal with them in a non-punitive way that does the least overall harm to them and society at-large, and that means something other than a criminal justice process.

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Mental and emotional attachment to the physical body is a gateway drug into the narrow and fearful confines of time and space while simultaneously addicting us to endless protection of the physical entity. Living on this planet is shitty enough. Let people have their pleasure. no amount of fear mongering about addiction and gateway drugs will purify the " sinners" of the world, it will only serve to cram more distress into our already overtaxed nervous systems. And, so what if it is a gateway drug [it isn't] , MIND YOUR OWN FUCKING BUSINESS!!

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Some people are predisposed by their neurology to try and use drugs. They are called "low sensate" individuals. On a spectrum, low sensates (LS) would be, say, a one and high sensates (HS) would be a hundred. LS receive less neural stimulation from sensory input than HS: activities that would put HS on the verge of cardiac arrest might leave a LS yawning. LS might go in for sky diving, skiing (downhill racing) and motocross while HS like a good book or watching a DVD in the comfort of thir den. (Not that an imaginative LS wouldn't take time for a Bruckheimer-style film.)

People spread unevenly across the spectrum and tend to cluster in the middle. Drug use provides an adjustable range of neural stimulation or inhibition.

Deliberate ingestion of mind-altering substances is observed throughout the animal kingdom: it is arguably a natural and evolutionarily beneficial activity.

As to the gateway aspect of encountering more powerful or more dangerous drugs as a result of pot shopping, most of the sellers of reefer I have known didn't offer a smorgasbord of substances. Most -- not all, but most -- sold only weed and they were in an informal "network" of people who smoked it, sought it, found it and procured it for themselves and their friends.

The more powerful substances were easily found, but seperately from pot.

At least as strong in the gateway rationale (I believe) is the "known liar" aspect: When somone has obviously, glaringly lied to you, you tend to mistrust and dimiss anything else they tell you. When "authorities" claim that marijuana is dangerous, addictive and destructive, that it drives yoy crazy, robs you of your will and makes you waste your life, shrinks your weiner and gives you boobs and causes ball cancer -- a crapwagon full of lies -- you tend to ignore their warnings about cocaine, heroin, LSD, et al. And sadly, as risky as those substances can be, the "authorities" still lie and inject racism and myth into discussions of their use.

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I have tried every drug under the sun. If you put something in front of me, I'll do it. Except pot. I can't stand it. It's wierd, I know.

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This country never ceases to amaze me in how it loves to bullshit. The anti-pot crowd is just one group of bullshitters.

The news media is a smörgåsbord of bullshit. Pick a subject, and the news media will distort it, guaranteed.

Show business, in all its' forms, is a cornucopia of distorted reality where "a star is born" and dies "overnight" (depending on the box office receipts for the week).

Vanity rules America. The more vain and preposterous, the more it sells.

Is it any wonder that the "answer" to all our problems is in a pill... from a pharmacy? If you were to really listen to a TV advertisement for most any prescription drug being "pushed" by the pharmaceutical industry, you would hear a litany of side effects that could possibly give you a stroke, heart attack, cancer, and, or, cause your death, but your cholesterol would go down, by 10%. Whoopee!!

But, Pot seems to be our favorite whipping boy with all of the wild claims that have been associated with its' use. It's been blamed for everything from dandruff to falling arches and everything in between (pun intended).

So, is it any wonder, (because of our strange fascination with vanity), that we are the sickest nation on the planet? We spend more, per capita, on "health care" than any other country in the world.

Oh, I almost forgot about food, or something like it. We eat more artery clogging, dyspepsia causing, obesity related, super-refined, hyper-concentrated food, than again, an other country in the world. It's hard to tell where illusion and hysteria collide. Pot is just one starting point, but it's an ever-loving, recurring one, that never seems to die.

Please, someone, send this nightmare about Pot into that eternal, delicious, good night.

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The most popular "gateway" drug by a wide margin is computer technology.

Email leads to MySpace then Facebook, Twitter, & the ever-cooler social networking highs.

Cellphones lead to texting to naughty photo transmission to buying newer hardware to eating your cell and starting all over.

Video war games lead to real time war & torture, or the other way around. Real or virtual, the idea is to get stoned out of your gourd on triple-X-game violence.

Whatever technology you're addicted to, pay with your credit card while averting your eyes from "real time" innocent highs like ingesting cannabis.

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The most popular "gateway" drug by a wide margin is computer technology.

Email leads to MySpace then Facebook, Twitter & the ever-cooler social networking highs.

Cellphones lead to texting to naughty photo transmission to buying newer hardware to eating your cell and starting all over.

Video war games lead to real time war & torture, or the other way around. Real or virtual, the idea is to get stoned out of your gourd on triple-X-game violence.

Whatever technology you're addicted to, pay with your credit card while averting your eyes from "real time" innocent highs like ingesting cannabis.

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Can you even imagine and comprehend the consequences of legal drugs?

Cannabis would cut into the demand for antidepressants, anti-anxiety medications, pain medication.

And if opiods were legal as well? Who would go to the MD with their complaints of pain and recieve suspicious, grudging pain relief when you could go to the liquor store and get heroin.

It would unravel our entire for profit sick care industry.

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In our demented global village the meaningless stimuli never cease. Cannabis is one small way to separate from the ongoing mania, briefly enter into the essential space of dream or almost-dream.

Rather than go on about cannabis being a gateway, chemists should address agents such as opium, heroin, MDMA--lessen their side effects while preserving the euphoria.

It will never happen, obviously.

Louis Armstrong was said to have smoked cannabis every day of his adult life--then he'd pick up his horn and make people happy.

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and now i know what to say to people who give that excuse...thanks for the ammo

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How many of the "addicts" started with coffee and colas?

Remember when cannabis was widely used in all sots of tinctures and medicines? And cocaine was in the original CocaCola, and lithium was in the original SevenUp. (The Emperor Wears No Clothes" by Jack Herer)

But, since we DEPEND on caffeine to drive our economy, we are in denial of calling caffeine a drug. And, surely we cannot be addicted to something that is not classified as a drug, like caffeine.
Remember when our parents told us children that we could not drink coffee or smoke cigarettes until we were 18?
Now, we pump our kids full of caffeine and sugar and wonder why they display signs of ADD.

How many pot smokers drank colas before they lit a joint?

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Cigarette companies know that cannabis legalization will bring with it de facto legalization of vaporizers, e-cigarettes and miniature smoking utensils (long-stemmed one-hitter etc.) which would permit tobacco users to avoid $$ overdose the same way many sensible experienced cannabis users do. That is the end of the industry profit margin which is based on using billions of advertising dollars to get all smokers to buy and consume the 700-mg. overdose hot-burning cigarette, and more billions in bribes to the government (alias "taxes") to have laws written authorizing cops to persecute cannabis users and, on the side, anyone who tries to possess and use non-overdose smoking equipment which is conveniently banned as "cannabis paraphernalia."

For fear their car will be confiscated, etc., many cannabis users surrender to the tyranny of compulsory overdose and roll an easy-to-hide, easy-to-discard hot-burning "joint" full of carbon monoxide to produce extreme drug-like effects which, once an individual is used to accepting them, can indeed lead to a lack of defensiveness against the persuasion to try real DRUGS, which is then conveniently blamed on the cannabis.

To find the real no. 1 enemy of cannabis legalization just "call for Philip Morris"...

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a prescription and have access to the highest quality pot. It was on one of Nat- Geo "Explorer" episodes and it's true and I'm one happy camper. Legalizing it to this extent is putting the illegal dealers out of business. Now California has to send our governator back to his 'D' movies and pass Single Payer for California. Alcohol is a gateway drug (liquid courage), and if you like that try some cocaine and you'll feel like superman.

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I think that marajuana is in fact a gateway drug (herbal medicine) but not in the way described by the government. It can be used as a gateway back out of the Hard Drug Addiction problem. Used to transmute one more dangerous and harmful habit for a less harmful habit, with some useful benefit as well. Less stress, less aggression, more calm and some insight giving properties as well.
peace
hjr2

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Once and for all there is no causal relationship between smoking cannabis and going on to other drugs. Other studies have been done and they all point to the same thing. Booze and cigarettes are more likely "gateway drugs" than is pot. Mueller is giving his opinion but he has NO basis in fact for that opinion. Of course, the politicians will take that and one day say "well we couldn't legalize it cause the FBI director said it was a gateway drug and we had to save the children". To this I say BULLSHIT!!!!! Get off your asses and do a little research on the subject. That's why they created the internet you overpaid buffoon. Politicians and bureaucrats you just can't win.

The war on drugs is the biggest fraud to ever be perpetrated on the American citizens by its government.

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As a professional working in the criminal justice field, I do not use cannabis. I have serious concerns about the use of more potent forms such as 'skunk' but that is a different point.

In many tears of working with users of 'hard' drugs such as heroin, I have met a number whose use of illegal drugs began with the the harder drugs rather than cannabis.

However, I have only ever met one heroin user who did not smoke cigarettes. I have doubts about whether a 'gateway' exists but if it does, then tobacco is likely to be the one.

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