jvthc

Yep - you're getting the facts here, the posts above have made great points.

I generally assert that the primary gateway drug are the hormones of puberty, and the natural drive toward pleasure.


The following are classic examples of sophistry:

- Every alcoholic started by drinking water. Water is a gateway to alcoholism.

- Everyone who takes an aspirin suffers from a headache. Aspirin is the cause of their headache.

- These puppies are all brothers, therefore all brothers are puppies.


These statements represent obvious errors in logical, either failing the cummicative or associative rules of logic, or by falsely relating cause and effect.


Another example is info overload. Consider a commonly consumed substance that contains these dangerious chemicals:


peroxyacetyl nitrate
nitrogen dioxide
Sulfur dioxide
nitric oxide
nitrogen dioxide



Sounds nasty enough to consider a legal ban, doesn't it? Don't - along with oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, water vapor, ozone and a few other chemicals, it's air.


The "gateway theory" about marijuana was invented, and supported, by people pre-determined about marijuana. There are no facts that genuinely support the theory, though a few studies have "suggested" support, nothing has been independently cooberated.

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Imagination is more important than knowledge - Sounds like BS, until you realize Einstein said that.

Charon

weed is not a gateway drug.


charon

Beenimon

Yeah, I agree with sweetleaf64, Weed is not a gateway drug. If you wanna get really technical, I'd say sugar is a gateway drug, or even air. Once you take your first breath, your hooked and you keep breathing until you die. The whole gateway arguement about MJ is ridiculous. If anything, its shady dealers that expose MJ users to harder drugs.

sweetleaf64

on who has tried hard drugs becouse mj was not available,( due to a dry spell, cant find reg. dealeror for whatever reason) I dont know about any one else, but I would be interested in finding out the results.

I'll ask a mod. if this is allowed.

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Is death the final high?

OZONE

After my recent drugs "advice" meeting, the only reason the guy could give for me not doing marijuana was that 1) - it's illegal (which means nothing really) and 2) - it's a gateway drug (which also means nothing). He told me that nearly every person that he has dealt with for doing off-topic drugs started with marijuana. I then pointed out the fact that there is probably just as many people that started with marijuana and never touched anything else! He quickly changed the subject, and did little to convince me to stop smoking weed. I agree that it's all about the person and how strong willed they are.

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OZONE

JPJ_Glassware

Reason #1 - isn't just used as a reason not to use pot, but as a reason why it's illegal. That piece of circular logic was the beloved argument of ex-Drug Czar Bill Bennett, because he didn't believe that health reasons are not strong enough... but a logical fallacy is. What a dumbass, huh? Too bad you couldn't point that out. They say that using marijuana is a crime... I call it Civil Disobedience... a violence-free form of protest.

Reason #2 - Being that pot is the most popular illegal drug, more people are likely to have tried it. Most people who've tried it don't go on to harder drugs. The situation is the same as how most people who use hard drugs have started out with alcohol as their choice of mind-altering substance, but most people who drink don't do drugs... an example that most anti-legalizationists are absolutely incapable of understanding. You'll have an easier time explaining quantum physics to a 5 year old. And I recall somewhere that some doctors said that there is no such thing as a "gateway drug."

Will you have another chance to debate this guy? I'd like to help you bone up on your pot knowledge, so you can destroy his arguments and utterly humiliate him...

Keep this in mind, the most important rule that those against marijuana live by:

"When it comes to the legality of marijuana, there is no need to deal with the facts."

Just look at Barry McCaffrey and the Holland murder rate. Or that one recent article in a seatle newspaper by a DEA agent; he claimed that the IOM report on marijuana was being misquoted and that it supported the band... without providing the supposed misquotes and the actual quotes to prove he's right. Which is because they don't exist and he's doing this misquoting. He claims that because the report says that non-smoke delivery of marijuana would be the future of it's use, that it has no medicinal use, period. Ignoring such things as vaporizers.

Half-truths, Whole-Lies, and Misconceptions are the tools of the trade in keeping pot illegal. Rather than cite actual evidence, they often ramble on with myths. Outdated and questionable data is also in their weaponary. Or things like "Dr. Harold Voth says" Ah yes, Dr. Voth's evidence-free opinion that marijuana will do everything short of causing the sky to fall, another quality piece from the man who insists pornography is harmful, and that homosexuality is a form of mental illness... that he can cure, no less.

Our opponents are very unworthy people. They usually spew their nonsense and run, so they can't be proven wrong when the criticism slams home. And when they do stop and face you, you can be sure that they're going to use every underhanded trick in the book.

Here's my experience with a group:

http://cheaptalk.marijuana.com/420/s...threadid=13672

I was quite angered by the lows they stooped to in their attempts to prove me wrong (which failed, since they kept avoiding the issue.)

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"The Partnership for a Drug-Free America; please, make me laugh and gag at the same time with that title. Partnership? They're a lobbying arm for the liquor and prescription drug industry. They don't want an America free of drugs; they want an America free of the drugs that are their competition. Prozac doesn't want to go up against Marijuana; it will lose." - Bill Maher, Be More Cynical.

amoR

what does it exatly mean when u say a drug is a "gate way" drug??

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its all good!

JiNseKi

amor, it means the use of mj will cause one to use harder drugs. just a ploy by anti-mj supporters to further brainwash the public...itz complete bullsh*t

if weed wasnt illegal it would change the world a lot and examples can be seen from such places as Holland where the use of hard drugs in teens has gone down substantially since the coffee shops were established. americans gotta learn , damn itz not that hard of a concept!

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wutz my anti-drug??? WEED is my anti-drug

amoR

dude i live in holland...i kno what u mean....if only people could understand some how....en learn that people want to do what is not permited for them to do...so if u ligalize weed then the numbers of useage would go down!!!

and another thing....weed beeing a gate way drug...well yeah i dont agree wit that at all....but if i look at what drugs i have done, then may b weed could be called a gate way drug for me personaly....but i am very resposible person, i do weed...but the "other stuff" i dont do as much at all.....only at special evets (raves)...but i wouldent say that weed got me to do thoes other drugs.....but it was my self that got me into them.....so i think that it doesnt really come from weed but it comes from the person....if ur responsible then the weed doesnt act as a gate way drug....but if ur no resposible...then may b, at a point it may act as a gate way drug.

weed didnt act as a gate way drug for me.....cos the fat that i did other drugs....didnt come from the fact that i do weed...the events at that point of time i ended up trying other "stuff"

so yeah....tel me if u agree....en also tell me if i kinda went out of subject or not...lol...

highfivesfreaky

Cannabis isn't a gateway drug. In my mind, substance addictions start when you're very young, and your mother/father/gaurdian tells you to take a Tylenol for your headache. At that point in time, you recognize a headache, and treate it with a drug. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against substance, legal or illegal, it's all the same to me, but in my opinion, addictions start at young ages, with things other than cannabis.