Canisdirus

Alcohol is the gateway drug...don't kid yourself.

It also comes down to personality and personal discipline...some have it...others do not.

I've tried everything from booze, weed...pills...pcp...cocaine...heroin.
You can have the fun...if you have the discipline...if you don't have the discipline...don't do drugs...including booze.

Laramie Loc: Tempe

Glad I didn't know about this in the 70s. :)
Marijuana is much stronger than it was in the $10/bag days.

majeskiphoto Loc: Hamilton, Ontario

'gateway' drug is B.S.! Alcohol and Cigarettes are. Many people have abusive mentality
Sugar is number ONE!

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

Which do you think results in the most vomiting - alcohol or cannabis?

bikinkawboy Loc: north central Missouri

I agree that cigarettes and alcohol can be gateway drugs, but not everyone that uses those two graduate to abusing legal and illegal drugs. My son also drank liquor for a short while early in his “career” but didn’t stick with it. Smoked cigarettes for too long and got clean before he stopped smoking tobacco. He said that as for addiction, tobacco was harder to break than the drugs. But for him, he said that marijuana was the drug that put his life on the road to ruin. Marijuana first, then joints with embalming fluid and worse from there. With alcohol and tobacco he wasn’t lying, stealing from family, stealing his grandfather’s pain pills, in trouble with the law, jail and on and on. And I know that not everyone using marijuana goes on to be a drug addict, but I bet just about every addict started with marijuana. I also agree about the addictive personality and my son admits to that and also says that using drugs was his choice and is to blame for it.

As for marijuana, just about everyone using it thinks that it’s ok and doesn’t impact their life. If so, stop using for a month and see how you act. My coworker’s cousin wrecked a motorcycle in Denver. Laid up for many months and he used marijuana for the pain. That was 3 years ago and he has fully recovered, in fact enough to go family bird hunting in South Dakota recently, where they all meet up once a year, the only time the whole family is together. There they walked many miles each day. However, every so often he would walk back to the truck alone to smoke a joint. If marijuana wasn’t a problem, don’t you think he would have stayed with his family hunting rather than walk a mile back to smoke all by himself and then a mile back to the group? Or if it wasn’t addictive, why didn’t he stop after he physically recovered? When you put your need for a joint ahead of your family, then you have a problem. And when that drug makes you choose between it and your family, then that drug is a problem.

gouldopfl

This is true. The amount of THC in marijuana has gone from 3-5% back in the early 70's to 23-24%. I suspect that is part of the problem.

toxdoc42

One of the "wonders" in addiction medicine is why someone using whatever drug for the very first time will become addicted while others will never become addicted. As a clinical toxicologist, this is a field that I have studied for many years, and I have no answers.

gouldopfl

That is a wonder. I have been taking an opioid for my back for years due to a service connected injury. The VA had me come in to try acupuncture and it actually works. I had no withdrawal symptoms.

majeskiphoto Loc: Hamilton, Ontario

Sorry to burst your bubble But,
Sugar is the number one 'drug' on the planet and parents turned to treating every emotional
problem with their children with highly Sugar based foods, they primed their children for needing a bigger fix.
Sugar and especially corn syrup are added to everything, all bread, pastry, pasta, rice, is Sugar!
Codeine in cough syrup, Gripe Water for babies in the past was primarily alcohol.
Alcohol which has Always been the 'Bane' to society, is just supercharged Sugar!
Why aren't we boycotting McDonalds and the like, for poisoning the feeble minded?
Cannabis as a 'gateway drug' has no relevance, it's like saying most babies crawl before they walk.
for the Addictive personality it's often codeine, cigarettes, alcohol and perhaps cannabis because of it's
relative availability.
But! the 'addict' is quick to step up to something 'better'!
By the way, nicotine is as powerful a drug as cocaine or heroin
It's just a very low dose in cigarettes, although manufactures like to boost it's strength.
Cigar smokers, pipe smokers, chewing tobacco users are all 'addicts'
Let's talk about how many people are hooked on prescription drugs!
Oxycodone is just synthesized opium, Percocet etc.
Generations of our grandparents have 'medicated' themselves and all types of disguised
alcohol products 'elixers' etc.
We've all heard the story about the history of Coca Cola!

gouldopfl

Marijuana is NOT a gateway drug. I am one of thousands of vets that use it rather than opioids. I use it through gummies because as a former smoker, I won't go there. I don't know anyone that has gone on to other more dangerous drugs. IMO, the most dangerous thing in our food supply are GMO's. These are growth hormones and they are used in crops and animals that are slaughter for our use. We only buy organic foods and get our meat and most veggies from a local organic certified farm. We can see how the livestock live. The hogs for example roam free into the woods and other areas of the farm. The same for the cattle and chickens.