Myth: Marijuana is a Gateway Drug. Even if marijuana itself causes minimal harm, it is a dangerous substance because it leads to the use of "harder drugs" like heroin, LSD, and cocaine.
Fact: Marijuana does not cause people to use hard drugs. What the gateway theory presents as a causal explanation is a statistic association between common and uncommon drugs, an association that changes over time as different drugs increase and decrease in prevalence. Marijuana is the most popular illegal drug in the United States today. Therefore, people who have used less popular drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and LSD, are likely to have also used marijuana. Most marijuana users never use any other illegal drug. Indeed, for the large majority of people, marijuana is a terminus rather than a gateway drug.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/marijuana/factsmyths/#gateway
Statistics show that 75% of all Americans who use marijuana never go on to use harder drugs. the idea of marijuana as a gateway drug comes from blatantly flawed logic. Marijuana is the most popular drug used in America so of course people who use less popular drugs most likely use or have used marijuana at some point. A gateway drug is defined as "A habit-forming substance that may lead to the abuse of drugs that are more addictive and more dangerous". Based on the logic that is used to put marijuana in this category, alcohol and tobacco are also gateway drugs. In fact they should be considered the official gateway drugs seeing as most people partake in drinking alcohol and smoking tobacco even before they decide to smoke marijuana. Any substance used prior to moving on to more dangerous substances is a gateway drug simply because they came first. Really the only way that marijuana can be considered a gateway drug is if it is laced with something such as cocaine and then leads the user to become addicted to cocaine. Of course this threat is avoidable if you buy from legit people and could be elimintaed if marijuana was legal and regulated. If it is being handled and distributed by legitimate sources then there is little to no chance of it being laced.
So is marijuana dangerous as a gateway drug? The answer is no. Marijuana does not directly lead to the use of harder drugs.
Myth debunked.
http://legalizationofmarijuana.com/marijuana-myths.html
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