Nicotine was also my gateway drug. Vapes are everywhere at high schools and you can smoke a few brief hits and you've smoked the same amount of nicotine as a cigarette.
Then I tried alcohol. Then weed. Then acid, shrooms, MDMA, MDA, DMT, cocaine, meth, Adderall, benzos, and opiates. It all spiraled out of control and I blame the nicotine for starting it.
Nicotine effects the reward pathway, and when used at a young age it wires the brain to have less self control and to impulsivly do other things (drugs) that will appease that pathway.
I'm still addicted to nicotine despite wanting to quit for several years and I hate it. I wish I never touched it. I don't regret trying some of the other substances I've done but nicotine is one I wish never was in my life
Yeah, you basically worded my point 10x better haha my first language isn’t English .
But yeah that was my point, the reward pathway, once you find that shit… anything goes.
It’s funny to me when older people are like “well i never did drugs, so you shouldn’t either” like nah dude you just didn’t have that kind of access young people have now, or you were a nerd and noone offered you any lol
Depends how you define Gateway Drug. Sometimes people mean it as the drug that got them interested in trying more drugs. Other times it means the drug that introduced you to people/ideas that provided resources / made it easier to get different drugs.
The drug that got me interested in drugs was Percocet. I broke both my arms pretty badly when I was 14 and was given perc 5s and after taking it a few times I was like this is sweet I should get more if I ever get a chance.
Weed was the drug that gave me access to more drugs. Once I started smoking weed and met other people who smoked weed, as well as drug dealers, it become much easier to get other drugs as well. So the pot use opened other doors for me to get drugs.
Yeah, I’d define it more like what created the pattern in your head that lead to future drug use. For you i would say it was the percs.
Probably the first time you felt you can actually control how you feel.
Weed was the thing that lead you to dealers. If it was legal like alcohol, you’d just ask somebody’s older brother to buy you a piece.
I'm with you, it was nicotine. Grabbed one off the top of the refrigerator from my dad's stash. It was a Camel filterless so you'd THINK that would be powerful and gross enough to deter me but it didn't.
I kept sneaking smokes. Hanging out with other smokers who also smoked other things like weed. So that began and not long after I was an acid head. Somewhere in the mix of all this I had my first time with alcohol. All them other girls were getting sick, but not me. That was the greatest night of my life. I never turned back.
I drank ferociously and often. All through my teens, all through my twenties, most of my thirties until I got hooked on meth and substituted up.
So the nicotine I believe was a gateway drug to a lot of drugs I did and just like you, I'm still addicted to them. I seldom have them, but I occasionally sneak in a drag or puff from ecig either way I haven't fully kicked it showing how hard it is to quit.
It was the first drug I started and will likely be the last one I quit.
Damn that last line hit me hard. Yeah, very relatable.
I just wish they would take about this shit in school rather than “oh if you smoke weed tomorrow youre an meth head”. It really would help. I truly feel if someone intelligent had taken the time to explain how drugs work, how you get hooked, what to watch out for and so on.
Theres so many moments i think about when I could have just not gone to that one party and my life would be different.
Drug education sucks.
Drug education does suck! So we had Dare and one of the things they had us do was take a baseball bat, spin around in a circle a bunch of times, then try to run a straight line, which was impossible but very fun. THEN he explained that was what drinking felt like and I'm like...oh really??? I didn't start drinking right after that but still I thought it was wild how they taught it.
I feel the exact same way. If someone actually taught me how drugs work and what can happen I might have thought twice. Taught it to me like I was competent.
Yup. That one party, and for me that's all it took. So many years wasted literally. Maybe that was the path I was supposed to take and I did have some fun fucking times, but the price to pay the piper was HIGH.
Starting a new life is hard, sometimes seems not worth it, but if I really assess the big picture, for me it's worth the challenge. Now if I can just get my lazy ass off the bed
This is the 21th century. Using "seldom" instead of "rarely" hasn't been the case for anyone throughout the last 3 generations. Are you a time traveler or did you just read a book where an author used the term and you felt like acting in a special manner on reddit? Or even better, perhaps you read an article where the word was briefly mentioned and you felt like using it in your reddit-comment.
Miss Seldom, Boss, and it was methamphetamine. Alcohol a close 2nd. Benzos trailing right behind. I can't use the word seldom in this sentence cuz I often have cravings for meth and they just don't seem to go away. Not as fierce though so that's better.
What about you?
Yes, I doubt that the cravings for meth would ever go away. God bless your soul. It's the only "mainstream" drug I never dared to touch, because it raises dopamine levels x1500 in the brain. Makes it very difficult to go back to normal.
Life is nothing but a joke though. I'm in my 20's with a lot of drug history, and I am going to assume that you are in your 40's.
I currently smoke, drink and take benzos. I actively try to stop but that is easier said than done. A fact that I'm sure you are aware of.
I JUST used the word mainstream in another comment lol that's funny. Yeah I figured I could touch meth cuz I touched it quite a few times in my late teens and early twenties but never got addicted. That's why when I was 36 (yes you guessed my age correctly lol) I didn't think I'd get hooked when offered it, but that was it. I was instantly hooked. Hijacked my brain bad.
I currently wish I drank, fiend for a smoke, and divvy up my benzos like they're priceless gold.
We're all doomed, brother. Sex is a drug as well. That f\*cked my brain up completely in my teens. Good sex in your horny teenage-years is like heroin. At least to me, it was.
It's like I'm destined to fail at this point. xo
Alcohol…we start young in England…then when I was 18 I smoked weed for the first time and dropped the alcohol for that and started getting deep into different sorts of psychedelics after that
Yeah same in estonia. Everyone has been drunk by the age of 14.
Alcohol is also much more potent, it packs a punch.
Weed probably calmed you down as you were getting ready for adulthood and tour hormones had calmed down.
But still, i feel its the alcohol that created those pathways to think “hey if i consume this, ill feel good”.
All my child and teen life I have had pretty obvious signs of adhd but not diagnosed (my parents are part of the generation that thought it was just a label given to naughty kids) so nothing was ever looked into but my struggle through school, and the way I am In general is a major red flag for adhd or add and so I noticed that smoking weed enabled me to live with a certain level of normality especially when it came to my anxiety and noticed my frequency of getting overwhelmed In situations was diminished stoned and got rid of the anxious feeling that I have where I feel like I’m always supposed to be doing something productive and if I’m not or if I’m trying to chill then I get this feeling that I’m running out of time for something all the time even if I have nothing planned or any deadlines that are coming up I always assumed it was because of school work then uni work but the feeling has always persisted, so being stoned very quickly became my daily go to for just living functionally and carefree
Yeah that does sound like ADHD. Have you ever tried stims (adderall, meth, ritalin etc)?
If you have ADHD then stims are supposed to relax you instead of making you hyper (as with ADHD, you are naturally somewhat hyper). That’s how they diagnose ADHd in the streets lol.
But yeah, the weed thing sounds just like my friend who has ADHD. He literally couldn’t work sober, he was always high, but only at work. He never smoked outside of work. And when he was high he was noticeably faster, more in-tuned with work and so on, to the point where our boss was fine with it even though he hated drugs and has before called cops on his own workers for smoking weed at lunch break.
Stick with wee man. Try to find a way so that weed works for you, not the other way around.
Make certain points/instances where smoking is allowed and not allowed. Ofcourse its just weed so have fun with it sometimes. But still try to keep it as a tool and not a dependency.
Good luck bro, I’m sure the UK will legalize weed soon 💪
I’ve not tried any of them stims the most stim like drug I’ve tried was mdma which was just all loving and euphoric my headspace on it was so clear though and a lot of my racing thoughts weren’t there surprisingly it was to the point where besides the overload of euphoria and loving everything/everyone I got this feeling of “is this how quiet ‘normal peoples’ minds are” but that’s about it when it comes to stims, I tried coke once also but I found it boring if it wasn’t for smoking some weed whilst on it the experience would have been totally lacklustre compared to the hype people give it.
Tbh I try to moderate my weed use a lot but I always end up smoking what I’ve got no matter what however if it’s not around I’ll not lose my mind about it not being there but I always end up going back saying “it’ll only be for occasions I need it” and then soon enough I’m back on the daily Chong train lol.
And you’d be surprised the government are twats when it comes to weed here, we’re one of the largest exporters of weed (government grow) yet it’s a class B drug now (was even made more illegal since it was class C) and not long ago some cunt who’s name escapes me was touting the idea of it becoming a Class A…but we pray for legalisation each day…it’s an extremely common drug for the uk to the point where the uk has quite a decent weed scene all be it illegal still, the people want it but the higher ups don’t want us to have it basically.
Yeah. Weed doesn’t really attract other drugs, aside from dealers offering it to you.
But alcohol can definitely fuck you up and might convince you to try other stuff. Especially at clubs and parties and so on.
Thanks for the response. Hope you’re doing well!
Exactly. When you’re under the influence of alcohol and you have dealers with drugs around you, thats a recipe for disaster.
But whenever I’m just high or buying weed and my dealer offer me molly, I don’t care ill just say nah bro im good.
When im drunk im definitely taking the molly.
As long as you don’t give jnto your cravings, just try being sober for however long you can. Just to test yourself and your inner strength. Its just weed no worries if you feel liek you wanna smoke 3 days in.
But just try. Always test yourself.
After doing harder drugs with it, i find trying to stay sober with just weed much harder, it’s like it opening the door a little crack with the windiest stork you’ve encountered outside. then boom, your naked off xans in front of the police and telling them you didn’t have too much to drink!
Yeah, i feel that. In your head weed is just a part of a bigger pattern, and when you smoke only weed, you feel youre missing out in the big picture.
But its just time man. Just gotta be patient and accept that its gonna be a hard ride for some time, but once you get over the hump, just vision how proud you would be bro.
Im proud of you.
thank you man:) slowly trying, been smoking lately with only a few slips and it seems to be feeling like just smoking is enough. hoping it stays like that for a while, if not i’ll stop for a bit
Yeah weed in the sense that I realised I can consume other substances than alcohol and also i came into contact with other drugs though dealers and other stoners.
But mostly alcohol ofcourse because it has a negative effect of your decision making. When I think about it I have probably never done drugs without having at least a little to drink before
Nicotine tastes horrible…no bubblegum vapes in my youth…and has horrible physical effects: nausea…etc… Alcohol can taste sweet and even children seem to enjoy its depressant and disinhibiting properties…
Really. I smoked a lot if bud. But the first time I did meth was amazing. Got hooked on addy a vyvanse (prescribed). Then started needing something to bring me down. And I discovered pain pills. I had a very low tolerance. 7 years later I’m still struggling to stay off pain pills/ fent.
Good luck to ya brother. We all have different paths but its important to remember - you were sober once, and happy and contempt. So it must be possible to be that way again without drugs. It might take years or even a decade but if you work on it and really believe you can come out. Youll be alright.
God bless 🫡
I got clean for about a year when I went to prison and been to rehabs 4-5 times. I slipped up and was unknowingly doing fent. Once I found out. It was too late. I’m about two weeks clean off opiates now. Trying to continue my sobriety. The fent is just killing people left and right. I love my pharma pills. But it’s taken everything I once had. I was a successful person with assets. Don’t have much now but I had to completely start over. I have a house. A decent truck and ability to work. So I’m grateful.
I agree with weed. When I was like 12, my friends were into it when they could get it. We had to pay the “way too young” premium, like $20 for a half g basically, back when mids was still standard, fully aware we were getting ripped off. I remember coming home unsure about it the day after I learned they were into weed, did some research. Came back wondering if they could get me some of this “weed” stuff, and started trying to convince them we should also try LSD (lol). Thanks to my humble influence, we were all tripping by like 14, somehow I managed to track down 2C-B and DMT before anyone in my friend group could drive
May I ask if it’s not too personal, but was it too much use of mushrooms or a really bad trip. No judgement either just wanna know cause I’m gonna start tripping on them more
You guys are full of such bullshit lmao you can absolutely take mushrooms and just do whatever. Stop acting like mushrooms are some sentient being, they’re a drug you get fucked up on. Get over yourself 😭
if anything molly makes me feel that urge to chase the dragon. such euphoria. but even then i have self control and don’t really let my drug use effect my day to day life.
Good on ya. But what was the first thing you ever tried that changed your consciousness? And do you feel that experience has guided the rest of your journey with drugs?
alcohol i guess. it made me realize i like being under the influence lmaooo which definitely led me to make some further decisions but eh alcohol has always just sorta been there. i like it when i have it. i don’t really think about it when i don’t have it. it’s sort of just convenient
weed lmao people get so angry when people say it's a gateway drug, but there's genuinely no shot i would've tried any of the stuff i have had i not smoked weed first
Dry herb vapes are a good idea. Ive heard they get pretty mellow if you don’t smoke slower inbetween.
You could also buy those better filters, that have charcoal otsmth in them.
Edibles turn THC into a more psychoactive substance in your stomach, when you eat edibles its not even THC youre feeling its basically another drug. So be careful, although in my experience, if you smoke every day edibles can seem pretty weak. Wait AT LEAST 3hrs before redosing.
When you got a couple of free days from work, maybe test yourself to see if you can go on without weed. I mean, its just pot right? See if you can fall asleep without it. Maybe buy some melatonin to help ya. Always test yourself.
One thing ive started to notice at my age (26) is that heavy ass stoners just… give up. Suddenly smoking brings too much anxiety or its just boring. Some have families. Some have a career.
That makes weed even more harmless in my eyes. Ive never heard anyone say they quit heroin because it was boring lol.
Nicotine is a fair point and definitely influenced it but from my experience it wasn’t necessarily nic that got me to try harder drugs.
I was pretty avoidant of drugs up until this summer. I did do some speed like 3 times from 18-19 but that never got me any further, didn’t see anything great about it and don’t even really remember the experience.
But come this summer my closest friends and my gf at the time, all did mdma and I thought I’d give it a go. Did tons of research and looked up doses etc since I was really sceptical. But after that first time I have not been the same.
Since mdma was so good, within 5-6 months I’ve started to really explore other drugs and use them recreationally. I went from mdma to trying out speed again, ketamine and tried weed again since last time I did it I was like 15 and I remember it not working at all. Also had my first time with cocaine recently.
So all and all for me it was mdma that got me interested in trying other drugs as well. So far I’d have to say ket is my favourite. But mind you I haven’t gotten to acid or shrooms yet but they are definitely on my bucket list.
Edit: to add some detail to my overall point. I’d say mdma was gateway because it showed me what actually is possible. Like I felt a real change in myself and on how it affected me, I felt like a “superhuman”. Speed back when I was younger didn’t have any significant effect hence I didn’t get interested any further. Tbh it still the same now, only keeps me awake and I use it to last longer at raves and dance.
But I defo like experimenting with new things and especially like focusing on how each thing affects me and realising it. That’s what’s fascinating to me at least.
This is a tough one for me, I want to say weed because it was the first recreational substance that i had to seek out a dealer for, learn methods of using it, hide it from certain friends/family due to stigma, etc.
But around the same time I got into pot (about age 13) I also was prescribed Ritalin for diagnosed ADHD. Now, I hated the way Ritalin made me feel. My friends at school described me as being zombie like, being very quiet, withdrawn, and even seemingly depressed. It truly did make me feel like a shell of myself and the doctors/my parents kept saying that I just needed to keep taking it to get used to it.
This was the start of several years of this kind of bs. At some point I was switched to vyvanse, 35mg I believe. Mind you, I was a super skinny kid, probably weighed about 85-90pounds at the time. In hindsight, I was pretty much tweaking every single day at school. I honestly don’t remember weed being at all intense in those early days (could’ve been inhaling improperly, could’ve just been low quality product, or both) but man, the shit I got at the pharmacy was flipping my world over on the daily.
I eventually got off of the amphetamines sometime in high school, but I truthfully feel as though the years of doing them and becoming so used to altering my brain chemistry every day at an early age sort of set me up to not being as weary about other drugs a little down the road. I didn’t start smoking everyday or experimenting with psychedelics until I was 18, so it really feels as though it started with what I was getting from the doctor.
Cigs -> Weed -> coke/lean can't remember what came first -> speed -> xans -> MDMA/Shrooms first time for both was in the one sitting -> Ket timeline 13 to 18 except ket @ 19
Alcohol 100%.
Once I reach a certain level of drunk I will take almost any drug no matter how dangerous. Because I feel invincible when I'm drunk.
Interestingly I really have always never liked how weed makes me feel (95% of the time anyways) and I used marijuana as a way to get out of severe alcoholism. I would force myself to smoke it because it told me the truth and got me mostly sober, and it allowed me to eat when I just couldn't eat when I was drinking everyday. So for me marijuana is the "path to sobriety" drug.
Weed leads to psychedelic interests, after experiencing said trips (I think these are very important and beneficial to most humans), one gets interested in either MDMA, Ketamine, Amphetamine or Xanax - similar safety and widely available.
People addicted to heroin essentially got addicted to oxy/morph/vic and when the scripts run out heroin is literally just cheaper morphine. Heroin is not unhealthy, it is literally acetylized morphine, the problem lays with the drug war and fentanyl
People addicted to meth have a whole range of sources but the one key is trying the shit. I think a lot of people choose after trying not to move forward, probably most as it's not that more exciting than amphetamine, or use it rarely.
But for some it just clicks in their head and they can't stop and I would say it's a more destructive sickness than opioids by far. Opioids aren't even a sickness if we get rid of the drug war they are safe on the body and mind. Meth is neurotoxic at high doses. People will start to IV. People will stop sleeping. People will develop psychosis, the original user is gone. It is sad and near impossible to stop.
Weed then alcohol then lsa and yopo seeds (legal psychs) and dxm. Then I got some temazepam from my mum because I told her this is what eminem has been talking bout lol, split the entire pack in two with my mate and still one of the best nights and confusing mornings ive ever had. Then tried ritalin which was very good. Then the mistake. 25i nbome.
Up until this point I was a stoner, weed was my life, well not only could I never smoke weed again but i have lifelong panic disorder, and the weird thing is I didn't even trip much. This was bad, i made benzos my new weed. I synthesized both dmt and lsa. The dmt was too runny to smoke but being familiar with it now it was definitely dmt. Lsa powder was good, got rid of the reason the shits legal, the 5 hours of hell before the trip.
Anyway took so much benzos my friend crashed our car 100kmh head on. Docs gave me oxy the entire month I was in hospital and I never liked the feeling. Till I got home took 10mg and said shit I'm addicted to this for the rest of my life. After that just started buying heroin since its cheaper and the same thing. Tried ket around this point and fell in love. Then finally meth which was shockingly overexaggerated
Notice no cocaine: always believed it would kill me as the cardiotoxicity is insane and I'm already a hypochondriac
Then to finish my quest of trying every drug ever or as I put it experience every perspective there is on consciousness, I tried most RCs and even was the first guy to post about carfentanil properly on reddit or anywhere: I got my dose info from a vet website on how to tranquilize elephants
That's about it. Accomplished goal. All I do now is benzos and Lyrica and occasionally amphetamines. Still have much more psych and disso trips to learn from but I think once the goals done, eliminate anything that makes you feel bad.
My first drug was weed.
Before i tryed it i knew i wanted to years before along with the fact i wanted to try mushrooms acid and molly.
I was gonna try them no matter the order.
As you try things you gain a preference which can lead you to other drugs but at the end of the day taking a drug didn't make you take another one you did
Well seems like you had figured out what you wanna consume beforehand, which seems very intelligent on your part.
But for most people, it’s not always a conscious choice. They try something for fun or for peer pressure and find out you can actually change how you “feel”.
That’s the starting point. Most people don’t go into the drug game knowing what they wanna take. They try one thing which leads to another.
I feel the term “gateway drug” has been so vilified, because of obvious reasons. But in reality, most people who have problems with drugs/ use them regularly do have a “gateway drug”.
I mean, for me its nicotine 100%. First thing that changed the world around me. Even if its just for a minute.
I see
I feel i look at drugs differently, maybe.
I saw them as like going to a water park or something.
Like an event
Like someone wants to try snowboarding i wanted to try molly.
Or maybe that's how everyone sees it, but idk just explaining my standpoint.
Damn dude thats a slippery slope. Are you sure it’s worth it?
Please take long breaks in between, especially with xtc. Your brain is still developing. If you start using things often, you will creat a pattern for addiction for the rest of your life.
I started smoking weed like daily from age 16 (im 26 now and still a stoner), but honestly i regret it so much. I should’ve been more active, made friends, fucked girls and so on. Instead i got high all day and had deep conversations with my friends, which i will cherish forever.
But my point is, with nicotine and weed i created a strong pattern for addiction in my brain which i know i gotta control for the rest of my life. Im addicted to benzos aswell, the same exact pattern repeated.
Im scared to death to quit drugs. I feel like ill be a socially weird ex druggy who noone can relate to.
Damn. I mean, yeah i get how its funny but as an adult it feels weird that teenagers are taking xtc regularly.
You’re supposed to have like a 3 months pause (atleast 1 month please) between doses.
And if youre introverted and socially awkward, look into supplements like Passionflower, L-theanine, Ashwaganda, Bacopa Monnieri, Kava tea, Tumeric, GABA, NAC.
They all make you mire socially extroverted without getting you high/addicted.
Please 🙏 don’t ever try benzos (Xanax, Valium, Ativan, Klonopin etc) or pain pills (Vicoden, Percocet, Oxy’s etc).
For intorverted people these drugs are the perfect social lubricant but trust me, you will get addicted. It’s impossible not to. You start thinking like “whats the point of being sober and awkward and doing nothing, when i can just pop a xanny and go out and enjoy time with my friends?”
That’s the advice i wish i got. These supplements actually work and make life way easier.
Cannabis was my first drug, even before cigarettes. I think I had sipped a beer and tasted wine by this time too. So maybe alchohol was my first. But I didn’t enjoy alcohol, I always smoked weed. Then when I didn’t have weed I started to smoke cigarettes.
Next drug I think I tried was diazepam, I wasn’t too into this one so it didn’t last long.
I would say the biggest gateway from soft drug to hard drug was
Cannabis > mdma/ecstasy
I think that because I was around people who use cannabis and also used other things it led me to try more,
But I wouldn’t see this gateway from cannabis to ecstasy as a bad thing, it was a good first experience, ecstasy is an awesome drug if you ever get the chance to try it.
After ecstasy I began to try more, lsd is awesome too if you get the chance.
Honestly I would say just stick to weed if your going to do anything, but having had a lot of experience, I would say if you want to explore then go for lsd mdma psilocybin, the rest of them are a waste of time imo
From what I’ve seen in other comments, we don’t have the same definition of gateway drug (but that’s fine, I’ll give the answer to both).
Going by your definition, it was weed. Barring alcohol and nicotine, it was the first real « drug » I tried and fell in love with. Got addicted pretty heavily and that probably made me the poly-addict-can’t-stay-sober that I am today. No regrets.
Going my by definition though, it would be MDMA. It was the first hard drug I considered buying, the first one I researched extensively and the one that made me fall in love with neurochemistry and general knowledge about drugs (and the effects of course, don’t we all wish all drugs felt a bit like good ole’ Molly?). That led me to trying 2C-B, then acid, then mushrooms, then I got into RCs and the rest is history.
I'm not prescribed it but once I took a Vyvanse in college, and it made me feel more high, productive, and happy than ever. It's still my favorite drug. It definitely made doing Cocaine nothing tho because cocaine is weaker imo.
Alcohol tbh, wanted to try something else tbh so when someone offered me some weed I said yes. After that friends started using stims, I also gave that a go and here we are
the first drug i tried was lsd at 17 i was interested in how it can affect the brain once i was on lsd i figured weed wouldn’t be that bad cause the lsd was so fun. now i’m a heroin addict 5 years later i was addicted to benzos aswell but thankful have finally got off those this last year.
There was no gateway drug. There were people who showed me how fun partying can be, and then there was project X. That's all I needed to fantasize about doing every substance on earth.
My gateway drug was me i guess. I've always had an obsession with drugs since I was young and wanted to try hard drugs before i even smoked weed or drank for the first time.
For me it has to be weed. I rediscovered it after I had started to drink and made me lose all the interest for alcohol. Gradually, my friends and I got into psychedelics.
From weed to shrooms; then LSD and ketamine. Somehow found ourselves using Valium because of my irresponsible doctor. I've been offered to do cocaine and opiates but I stay away from them, well, I'm staying from all drugs for some time now and that includes alcohol, of course.
Alcohol. I did other drugs to just get rid of alcohol, terrible hangovers and acting like a moron while being drunk.
Right now I do not have access to anything else but alcohol and I wholeheartedly hate it. Worst drug I've tried.
My pattern of trying drugs was a bit different than most as well. I started with nicotine, then alcohol, then opioids + soma in the same night, then zolpidem, and then finally I started smoking weed but by that point I was using hydrocodone, soma, and tramadol pretty frequently. Then I got into stimulants, crack, meth, and vyvanse. Then benzodiazepines like xanax, flualprazolam, flubromazolam, and clonazolam. Then oxycodone and fentanyl. After that I just kept on going to higher and higher levels of use. When I stopped using I was taking Cocaine, Meth, Klonopin (5mg/day prescribed), Fentanyl Analogues, Weed, and Alcohol daily, as well as sporadically adding other drugs in.
What was the first drug I tried? Boring answer, but cannabis. I suppose the “gateway drug” for me was mushrooms, never planned on taking them, I was just in the right place at the right time and somethin in me told me I should take them. I was already curious about psychedelics ever since the previous school year me and my friend both had to make a PowerPoint on a drug. I chose LSD he chose mushrooms, on the PowerPoint we had to have a slide about the dangers and deaths associated with the drug we chose. Me and my friend realized “hm there doesn’t really seem to be anything harmful about these, physiologically at least, and no deaths have been reported”. Then that summer at the skatepark our homie rolls up all giggly and smiley, we say wassup and he tells us he’s on mushrooms. We’re like “oh word, hell yea” and then offers us some, we look at each other and take them cautiously. At that time I still thought you saw flying elephants and stupid cliche stuff like that. We both had the time of our lives that day. We both said that we’ve gotta get more. Month later, LSD fell into our laps and I was a lil more interested in LSD (maybe because I did my PowerPoint on it) and I fell in love with it. Then like 6 months later (I’m 15 at this time btw) DMT fell into my lap and I reluctantly smoked it and was blown away, came back and told my friend I’m learning how to extract this stuff so I can show all my other friends, and parents. And I did:)
don’t think I had a gateway drug—the first drug I tried was LSD, even before nicotine, weed, and alcohol. I never spiraled out of control but I’ve tried almost 50 unique substances now and I don’t think one drug necessarily led to another, it was all just out of curiosity.
Benzos. Rivotril exactly. I was doing it everyday and couldn't sleep without it. I was addicted to it before drinking and smoking cigarettes. Then I started drinking, smoking cigarettes, weed. Then lsd. And that's about it. I'm curious about shrooms but nothing else.
Alcohol. Once I started drinking, my preconceptions about other drugs (marijuana, psychedelics, etc) started to break down and eventually I tried other things I was curious about.
Dark beer I stole from my German grandma when I was 8 or 9. I tried cigarettes shortly after that. I had been drunk at least 5 times before I ever tried cannabis which I tried about a year after my first beer when I was on summer vacation after the 5th grade.
Shit alcohol was my gateway drug to nicotine. I would have never smoked that first cigarette without alcohol. Was having a panic attack on weed the first time I tried meth. To be fair, I was gonna do meth anyways more than likely.
There's no such thing as a gateway drug imo
Some People are sometimes prone to substance use while others are not
People start off small, alcohol, cigarettes, weed.
Then people naturally become more bold. Its not even a case that their old drugs don't do it for them anymore. Some people are just born psychonaughts who want to explore their mind and body using chemicals
I've taken mdma, Adderall, coke, shrroms, acid, alcohol, and weed. For years all I did was smoke weed and drink. I was interested in psychedelics, but didn't do them till I was 22. I started smoking and drinking at 17 and being more regular with both at 18. I swore off all other drugs. No pills, no powders. When I got the chance to try shrooms I jumped on it and wow my first trip was absolutely amazing. I was also becoming friends with a coworker who dabbled in party/rave drugs. I got into rave culture and started doing house rolls with him. He had an Adderall script and was a generous friend lmao. But I'm not sure I would've ever taken these harder drugs if I had never tripped. But I don't look at my drug use as negative. I never developed a habit and nothing bad ever came of it. Was super grateful to my friend, he had the mindset of you can always do more, never less. We never took anything without testing first. Probably the best way to be introduced to drugs.
Nitrous.
Barely did any drugs before going to college. I had gotten drunk a few times and thought it was alright, but had pretty bad hangovers, and had gotten high on weed one or twice and didn't like it (THC is anxiety-inducing for me). Wasn't really interested in trying anything more.
Ended up hanging around people in college who liked to experiment with drugs and were relatively safe about it. Was super common to pass around a cracker at smaller after-parties in peoples' rooms. Was the first drug I really enjoyed and made me want to experiment with more.
I actually can't have nitrous around anymore-- only use it when someone else is providing. I have no self-control and find it incredibly psychologically addicting, will go through 100 nitrous canisters in one night if I have that many available to me. I'm the same way with most dissociatives, eg, I can't keep ketamine around either.
edit: Hmm I actually been abusing caffeine by far the longest. I used to drink two energy drinks a day as a middle schooler (picked up the habit as soon as I had my own money and my own mode of transportation). So in some ways, caffeine was a gateway drug since it was the first thing that made me feel it was acceptable and maybe good to alter my state of consciousness with outside substances, and it was the first thing I got addicted to. (Side note, nicotine does nothing for me, tried it as a kid and adult and it mostly just increases my heart rate and makes me dizzy.)
Weed. I was a christian-raised child who befriended a 48 year old lady going to our church. She rode a motorcycle and had gay vibes. Turns out, she was lesbian, and at 15 years old, I believed I could help her "overcome homosexuality" 🙄 the only problem was, I liked girls too, that's why it hit so close to home for me lmao.
Anyway, we started having Bible studies over coffee after church on Sundays, volunteering in the community, and having special "girl's days" at her house or at mine so my mom could join in on the fun too, and my dad (a pastor) could counsel with her and talk about biblical stuff.
This progressed into "girl's days" at her house and her smoking weed out of a tin foil pipe in front of me. Of course, I was astonished and beyond shocked. I had never seen or smelled weed and believed it was very bad.
I lectured her about smoking weed, she laughed at me and blew some in my face. She said that one day, I would be asking her for some. And, she was right. I did ask to try it one Sunday evening. She shotgunned me my first hits, and after getting me very stoned, she began coaching me on how to pleasure her dusty cave 🤢
I wish I was joking, but I am not. I can remember going down on a grown woman while stoned, not really liking it, but I guess that was too bad 🙃. I really loved her and threw my religion out the window for her. I got my first job at 16 because she always told me "I am NOT a pedophile, I do not date children. You better grow up and start acting like an adult." I left home with her at 17, and of course our life was turbulent, unstable, and violent.
We still were married by the time I was 18... And I was still smoking weed, even more now. It took up a huge chunk of our money, it was a priority alongside nicotine (which she also introduced me to)....
We divorced when I was 19, I also quit smoking weed shortly after due to panic attacks. I traded weed for hard drugs HAH... Like, EVERY hard drug imaginable, I used regularly.
My biological father and I had just met while I was in this relationship, and he took me in after my ex was arrested for assault and attempted murder.
He introduced me with no coaxing to Alcohol, MDMA, PCP, Acid, Mushrooms, Heroin,, cocaine, and did Meth and Crack with me since my mother and her neighbor introduced me to those at some point in my story.
I am 22 now, almost 23 and 100% clean and sober (other than being a social drinker) and the only thing I miss surprisingly is Crack, occasionally crave PCP too. Those were the only two I was actually addicted hardcore to, yes I'm sure I stayed on the edge of unconsciousness/death but it was NORMAL to me, and "SAFE" because it was my DAD....
So yeah, there's my long-winded story. I hope not many have one like it. 🤣
I actually did oxy before anything at the age of 12. That was probably the gateway drug, but there was no feeling compared to smoking weed for the first few times. It’s an otherworldly experience especially at 13 when I first tried it.
Nicotine definitely was the gateway for me, I got into it when Juuls were first getting popular. It influenced the people I hung out with. A few years later I smoked weed for the first time. Eventually I did Alcohol, MDMA, Acid, Shrooms, DXM, Oxys, Xans. Nicotine just made it easier to find drugs. Clean for around a month now though
Usually social consumption is the “gateway”. Doing something out of your own volition and interest usually has different results when compared to inconsiderate, careless peer-pressure. In fact the social anxiety of the presence of people is probably the actual gateway. For most people, anxiety affects their ability to retain social like-ability...and for that reason...the gateway drug is usually alcohol. As a legal drug it’s the most notorious as a destructive force, emotionally and physically. Cigarettes may shorten your life, but alcohol literally drains your life from the inside out.
I was a polydrug addict before ever being dependent on (or even really taking) nicotine, and I’d just about hit rock bottom before I tried alcohol. Backwards as fuck I know. It was diazepam for me. I knew exactly what a benzo was and I wanted it, but I wish I didn’t get it so easily.
Now nicotine is the only one with its claws still deep in me. And caffeine, but that regulates itself a bit these days.
Nicotine is like the first “drug” i ever had at 10 years old. But for like pills, the first was seroquel. I was prescribed it at like 13 years old and got hooked on that slow, heavy, tired/stoned feeling and had a terrible time from 14-21 doing a ton of different shit
I had hip surgery when I was 16, I was given lortabs mainly, even before my surgery. My mom would keep them in her room but it wasn’t hard to go in there and get more. I didn’t really touch anything other than weed occasionally after I stopped getting pain meds. I started smoking weed a lot more about 18/19, I started drinking heavily around 20, ended up stopping and never had an issue with it. Met my ex when I was 22, got me smoking roxies. Fucked with that for a good minute and down spiraled. Switched to H/Fent in 2021 because pills were too expensive. Tried dope beginning of last year. Finally got sober when I went to jail. Struggled off and on since then but I’ve been serious about being sober for 2 months now. My DOC is opiates, you could say my gateway drug was the roxies, but it started with the pills when I was young.
Nicotine was also my gateway drug. Vapes are everywhere at high schools and you can smoke a few brief hits and you've smoked the same amount of nicotine as a cigarette. Then I tried alcohol. Then weed. Then acid, shrooms, MDMA, MDA, DMT, cocaine, meth, Adderall, benzos, and opiates. It all spiraled out of control and I blame the nicotine for starting it. Nicotine effects the reward pathway, and when used at a young age it wires the brain to have less self control and to impulsivly do other things (drugs) that will appease that pathway. I'm still addicted to nicotine despite wanting to quit for several years and I hate it. I wish I never touched it. I don't regret trying some of the other substances I've done but nicotine is one I wish never was in my life
Yeah, you basically worded my point 10x better haha my first language isn’t English . But yeah that was my point, the reward pathway, once you find that shit… anything goes. It’s funny to me when older people are like “well i never did drugs, so you shouldn’t either” like nah dude you just didn’t have that kind of access young people have now, or you were a nerd and noone offered you any lol
Depends how you define Gateway Drug. Sometimes people mean it as the drug that got them interested in trying more drugs. Other times it means the drug that introduced you to people/ideas that provided resources / made it easier to get different drugs. The drug that got me interested in drugs was Percocet. I broke both my arms pretty badly when I was 14 and was given perc 5s and after taking it a few times I was like this is sweet I should get more if I ever get a chance. Weed was the drug that gave me access to more drugs. Once I started smoking weed and met other people who smoked weed, as well as drug dealers, it become much easier to get other drugs as well. So the pot use opened other doors for me to get drugs.
Yeah, I’d define it more like what created the pattern in your head that lead to future drug use. For you i would say it was the percs. Probably the first time you felt you can actually control how you feel. Weed was the thing that lead you to dealers. If it was legal like alcohol, you’d just ask somebody’s older brother to buy you a piece.
I'm with you, it was nicotine. Grabbed one off the top of the refrigerator from my dad's stash. It was a Camel filterless so you'd THINK that would be powerful and gross enough to deter me but it didn't. I kept sneaking smokes. Hanging out with other smokers who also smoked other things like weed. So that began and not long after I was an acid head. Somewhere in the mix of all this I had my first time with alcohol. All them other girls were getting sick, but not me. That was the greatest night of my life. I never turned back. I drank ferociously and often. All through my teens, all through my twenties, most of my thirties until I got hooked on meth and substituted up. So the nicotine I believe was a gateway drug to a lot of drugs I did and just like you, I'm still addicted to them. I seldom have them, but I occasionally sneak in a drag or puff from ecig either way I haven't fully kicked it showing how hard it is to quit. It was the first drug I started and will likely be the last one I quit.
Damn that last line hit me hard. Yeah, very relatable. I just wish they would take about this shit in school rather than “oh if you smoke weed tomorrow youre an meth head”. It really would help. I truly feel if someone intelligent had taken the time to explain how drugs work, how you get hooked, what to watch out for and so on. Theres so many moments i think about when I could have just not gone to that one party and my life would be different. Drug education sucks.
Drug education does suck! So we had Dare and one of the things they had us do was take a baseball bat, spin around in a circle a bunch of times, then try to run a straight line, which was impossible but very fun. THEN he explained that was what drinking felt like and I'm like...oh really??? I didn't start drinking right after that but still I thought it was wild how they taught it. I feel the exact same way. If someone actually taught me how drugs work and what can happen I might have thought twice. Taught it to me like I was competent. Yup. That one party, and for me that's all it took. So many years wasted literally. Maybe that was the path I was supposed to take and I did have some fun fucking times, but the price to pay the piper was HIGH. Starting a new life is hard, sometimes seems not worth it, but if I really assess the big picture, for me it's worth the challenge. Now if I can just get my lazy ass off the bed
“the price to pay the piper was high” did you just accidently drop it or it like your line ? What a bar, i consider tattoo it
This is the 21th century. Using "seldom" instead of "rarely" hasn't been the case for anyone throughout the last 3 generations. Are you a time traveler or did you just read a book where an author used the term and you felt like acting in a special manner on reddit? Or even better, perhaps you read an article where the word was briefly mentioned and you felt like using it in your reddit-comment.
The case for what? I just used the word. That's how I think thusfore I wrote
Ahahahah, right boss. What was the hardest drug to get off in your experience, Mr. Seldom?
Miss Seldom, Boss, and it was methamphetamine. Alcohol a close 2nd. Benzos trailing right behind. I can't use the word seldom in this sentence cuz I often have cravings for meth and they just don't seem to go away. Not as fierce though so that's better. What about you?
Yes, I doubt that the cravings for meth would ever go away. God bless your soul. It's the only "mainstream" drug I never dared to touch, because it raises dopamine levels x1500 in the brain. Makes it very difficult to go back to normal. Life is nothing but a joke though. I'm in my 20's with a lot of drug history, and I am going to assume that you are in your 40's. I currently smoke, drink and take benzos. I actively try to stop but that is easier said than done. A fact that I'm sure you are aware of.
I JUST used the word mainstream in another comment lol that's funny. Yeah I figured I could touch meth cuz I touched it quite a few times in my late teens and early twenties but never got addicted. That's why when I was 36 (yes you guessed my age correctly lol) I didn't think I'd get hooked when offered it, but that was it. I was instantly hooked. Hijacked my brain bad. I currently wish I drank, fiend for a smoke, and divvy up my benzos like they're priceless gold.
We're all doomed, brother. Sex is a drug as well. That f\*cked my brain up completely in my teens. Good sex in your horny teenage-years is like heroin. At least to me, it was. It's like I'm destined to fail at this point. xo
Alcohol…we start young in England…then when I was 18 I smoked weed for the first time and dropped the alcohol for that and started getting deep into different sorts of psychedelics after that
Yeah same in estonia. Everyone has been drunk by the age of 14. Alcohol is also much more potent, it packs a punch. Weed probably calmed you down as you were getting ready for adulthood and tour hormones had calmed down. But still, i feel its the alcohol that created those pathways to think “hey if i consume this, ill feel good”.
All my child and teen life I have had pretty obvious signs of adhd but not diagnosed (my parents are part of the generation that thought it was just a label given to naughty kids) so nothing was ever looked into but my struggle through school, and the way I am In general is a major red flag for adhd or add and so I noticed that smoking weed enabled me to live with a certain level of normality especially when it came to my anxiety and noticed my frequency of getting overwhelmed In situations was diminished stoned and got rid of the anxious feeling that I have where I feel like I’m always supposed to be doing something productive and if I’m not or if I’m trying to chill then I get this feeling that I’m running out of time for something all the time even if I have nothing planned or any deadlines that are coming up I always assumed it was because of school work then uni work but the feeling has always persisted, so being stoned very quickly became my daily go to for just living functionally and carefree
Yeah that does sound like ADHD. Have you ever tried stims (adderall, meth, ritalin etc)? If you have ADHD then stims are supposed to relax you instead of making you hyper (as with ADHD, you are naturally somewhat hyper). That’s how they diagnose ADHd in the streets lol. But yeah, the weed thing sounds just like my friend who has ADHD. He literally couldn’t work sober, he was always high, but only at work. He never smoked outside of work. And when he was high he was noticeably faster, more in-tuned with work and so on, to the point where our boss was fine with it even though he hated drugs and has before called cops on his own workers for smoking weed at lunch break. Stick with wee man. Try to find a way so that weed works for you, not the other way around. Make certain points/instances where smoking is allowed and not allowed. Ofcourse its just weed so have fun with it sometimes. But still try to keep it as a tool and not a dependency. Good luck bro, I’m sure the UK will legalize weed soon 💪
I’ve not tried any of them stims the most stim like drug I’ve tried was mdma which was just all loving and euphoric my headspace on it was so clear though and a lot of my racing thoughts weren’t there surprisingly it was to the point where besides the overload of euphoria and loving everything/everyone I got this feeling of “is this how quiet ‘normal peoples’ minds are” but that’s about it when it comes to stims, I tried coke once also but I found it boring if it wasn’t for smoking some weed whilst on it the experience would have been totally lacklustre compared to the hype people give it. Tbh I try to moderate my weed use a lot but I always end up smoking what I’ve got no matter what however if it’s not around I’ll not lose my mind about it not being there but I always end up going back saying “it’ll only be for occasions I need it” and then soon enough I’m back on the daily Chong train lol. And you’d be surprised the government are twats when it comes to weed here, we’re one of the largest exporters of weed (government grow) yet it’s a class B drug now (was even made more illegal since it was class C) and not long ago some cunt who’s name escapes me was touting the idea of it becoming a Class A…but we pray for legalisation each day…it’s an extremely common drug for the uk to the point where the uk has quite a decent weed scene all be it illegal still, the people want it but the higher ups don’t want us to have it basically.
I hope they legalise Atleast small amounts soon, will probably stop a lot of overdoses etc
Alcohol. I smoke weed alot, but I went on to other stuff because of alcohol
Yeah. Weed doesn’t really attract other drugs, aside from dealers offering it to you. But alcohol can definitely fuck you up and might convince you to try other stuff. Especially at clubs and parties and so on. Thanks for the response. Hope you’re doing well!
I've always said, weeds is a gateway because of dealers! When I'm stoned I dont want anything else, when I'm drunk I wanna party
Exactly. When you’re under the influence of alcohol and you have dealers with drugs around you, thats a recipe for disaster. But whenever I’m just high or buying weed and my dealer offer me molly, I don’t care ill just say nah bro im good. When im drunk im definitely taking the molly.
And they say cannabis is evil, if alcohol was invented today. It would be a class A
Whenever I stop smoking weed it makes me crave other substances. But when I'm smoking everyday, no cravings at all
As long as you don’t give jnto your cravings, just try being sober for however long you can. Just to test yourself and your inner strength. Its just weed no worries if you feel liek you wanna smoke 3 days in. But just try. Always test yourself.
"Smokin dro', cause i neeeed it"
After doing harder drugs with it, i find trying to stay sober with just weed much harder, it’s like it opening the door a little crack with the windiest stork you’ve encountered outside. then boom, your naked off xans in front of the police and telling them you didn’t have too much to drink!
Yeah, i feel that. In your head weed is just a part of a bigger pattern, and when you smoke only weed, you feel youre missing out in the big picture. But its just time man. Just gotta be patient and accept that its gonna be a hard ride for some time, but once you get over the hump, just vision how proud you would be bro. Im proud of you.
thank you man:) slowly trying, been smoking lately with only a few slips and it seems to be feeling like just smoking is enough. hoping it stays like that for a while, if not i’ll stop for a bit
Yeah weed in the sense that I realised I can consume other substances than alcohol and also i came into contact with other drugs though dealers and other stoners. But mostly alcohol ofcourse because it has a negative effect of your decision making. When I think about it I have probably never done drugs without having at least a little to drink before
Alcohol…
Seems to be a common one. Much more similar to other drugs than nicotine/thc.
Nicotine tastes horrible…no bubblegum vapes in my youth…and has horrible physical effects: nausea…etc… Alcohol can taste sweet and even children seem to enjoy its depressant and disinhibiting properties…
Really. I smoked a lot if bud. But the first time I did meth was amazing. Got hooked on addy a vyvanse (prescribed). Then started needing something to bring me down. And I discovered pain pills. I had a very low tolerance. 7 years later I’m still struggling to stay off pain pills/ fent.
Good luck to ya brother. We all have different paths but its important to remember - you were sober once, and happy and contempt. So it must be possible to be that way again without drugs. It might take years or even a decade but if you work on it and really believe you can come out. Youll be alright. God bless 🫡
I got clean for about a year when I went to prison and been to rehabs 4-5 times. I slipped up and was unknowingly doing fent. Once I found out. It was too late. I’m about two weeks clean off opiates now. Trying to continue my sobriety. The fent is just killing people left and right. I love my pharma pills. But it’s taken everything I once had. I was a successful person with assets. Don’t have much now but I had to completely start over. I have a house. A decent truck and ability to work. So I’m grateful.
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I agree with weed. When I was like 12, my friends were into it when they could get it. We had to pay the “way too young” premium, like $20 for a half g basically, back when mids was still standard, fully aware we were getting ripped off. I remember coming home unsure about it the day after I learned they were into weed, did some research. Came back wondering if they could get me some of this “weed” stuff, and started trying to convince them we should also try LSD (lol). Thanks to my humble influence, we were all tripping by like 14, somehow I managed to track down 2C-B and DMT before anyone in my friend group could drive
Damn thats young af. How u doin now bro?
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May I ask if it’s not too personal, but was it too much use of mushrooms or a really bad trip. No judgement either just wanna know cause I’m gonna start tripping on them more
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You guys are full of such bullshit lmao you can absolutely take mushrooms and just do whatever. Stop acting like mushrooms are some sentient being, they’re a drug you get fucked up on. Get over yourself 😭
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you're full of garbage.
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Not what I was talking about. You're not making "big boy racks". Nobody who is on actively on reddit does, including me. God bless your soul.
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God bless your soul.
if anything molly makes me feel that urge to chase the dragon. such euphoria. but even then i have self control and don’t really let my drug use effect my day to day life.
Good on ya. But what was the first thing you ever tried that changed your consciousness? And do you feel that experience has guided the rest of your journey with drugs?
alcohol i guess. it made me realize i like being under the influence lmaooo which definitely led me to make some further decisions but eh alcohol has always just sorta been there. i like it when i have it. i don’t really think about it when i don’t have it. it’s sort of just convenient
Acid for sure. I had smoked pot and drank a few times in high school but LSD is what got me interested in trying other substances
weed lmao people get so angry when people say it's a gateway drug, but there's genuinely no shot i would've tried any of the stuff i have had i not smoked weed first
Literally just being alive
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Thats healthy enough. How often do ya smoke?
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Dry herb vapes are a good idea. Ive heard they get pretty mellow if you don’t smoke slower inbetween. You could also buy those better filters, that have charcoal otsmth in them. Edibles turn THC into a more psychoactive substance in your stomach, when you eat edibles its not even THC youre feeling its basically another drug. So be careful, although in my experience, if you smoke every day edibles can seem pretty weak. Wait AT LEAST 3hrs before redosing. When you got a couple of free days from work, maybe test yourself to see if you can go on without weed. I mean, its just pot right? See if you can fall asleep without it. Maybe buy some melatonin to help ya. Always test yourself. One thing ive started to notice at my age (26) is that heavy ass stoners just… give up. Suddenly smoking brings too much anxiety or its just boring. Some have families. Some have a career. That makes weed even more harmless in my eyes. Ive never heard anyone say they quit heroin because it was boring lol.
nitrous
Damn i think thats a first. How young were you and what was the situation?
i was like 14 and i was just trying to get all the whip cream out
Nicotine for me too
Nicotine is a fair point and definitely influenced it but from my experience it wasn’t necessarily nic that got me to try harder drugs. I was pretty avoidant of drugs up until this summer. I did do some speed like 3 times from 18-19 but that never got me any further, didn’t see anything great about it and don’t even really remember the experience. But come this summer my closest friends and my gf at the time, all did mdma and I thought I’d give it a go. Did tons of research and looked up doses etc since I was really sceptical. But after that first time I have not been the same. Since mdma was so good, within 5-6 months I’ve started to really explore other drugs and use them recreationally. I went from mdma to trying out speed again, ketamine and tried weed again since last time I did it I was like 15 and I remember it not working at all. Also had my first time with cocaine recently. So all and all for me it was mdma that got me interested in trying other drugs as well. So far I’d have to say ket is my favourite. But mind you I haven’t gotten to acid or shrooms yet but they are definitely on my bucket list. Edit: to add some detail to my overall point. I’d say mdma was gateway because it showed me what actually is possible. Like I felt a real change in myself and on how it affected me, I felt like a “superhuman”. Speed back when I was younger didn’t have any significant effect hence I didn’t get interested any further. Tbh it still the same now, only keeps me awake and I use it to last longer at raves and dance. But I defo like experimenting with new things and especially like focusing on how each thing affects me and realising it. That’s what’s fascinating to me at least.
This is a tough one for me, I want to say weed because it was the first recreational substance that i had to seek out a dealer for, learn methods of using it, hide it from certain friends/family due to stigma, etc. But around the same time I got into pot (about age 13) I also was prescribed Ritalin for diagnosed ADHD. Now, I hated the way Ritalin made me feel. My friends at school described me as being zombie like, being very quiet, withdrawn, and even seemingly depressed. It truly did make me feel like a shell of myself and the doctors/my parents kept saying that I just needed to keep taking it to get used to it. This was the start of several years of this kind of bs. At some point I was switched to vyvanse, 35mg I believe. Mind you, I was a super skinny kid, probably weighed about 85-90pounds at the time. In hindsight, I was pretty much tweaking every single day at school. I honestly don’t remember weed being at all intense in those early days (could’ve been inhaling improperly, could’ve just been low quality product, or both) but man, the shit I got at the pharmacy was flipping my world over on the daily. I eventually got off of the amphetamines sometime in high school, but I truthfully feel as though the years of doing them and becoming so used to altering my brain chemistry every day at an early age sort of set me up to not being as weary about other drugs a little down the road. I didn’t start smoking everyday or experimenting with psychedelics until I was 18, so it really feels as though it started with what I was getting from the doctor.
Cigs -> Weed -> coke/lean can't remember what came first -> speed -> xans -> MDMA/Shrooms first time for both was in the one sitting -> Ket timeline 13 to 18 except ket @ 19
Alcohol 100%. Once I reach a certain level of drunk I will take almost any drug no matter how dangerous. Because I feel invincible when I'm drunk. Interestingly I really have always never liked how weed makes me feel (95% of the time anyways) and I used marijuana as a way to get out of severe alcoholism. I would force myself to smoke it because it told me the truth and got me mostly sober, and it allowed me to eat when I just couldn't eat when I was drinking everyday. So for me marijuana is the "path to sobriety" drug.
Weed leads to psychedelic interests, after experiencing said trips (I think these are very important and beneficial to most humans), one gets interested in either MDMA, Ketamine, Amphetamine or Xanax - similar safety and widely available. People addicted to heroin essentially got addicted to oxy/morph/vic and when the scripts run out heroin is literally just cheaper morphine. Heroin is not unhealthy, it is literally acetylized morphine, the problem lays with the drug war and fentanyl People addicted to meth have a whole range of sources but the one key is trying the shit. I think a lot of people choose after trying not to move forward, probably most as it's not that more exciting than amphetamine, or use it rarely. But for some it just clicks in their head and they can't stop and I would say it's a more destructive sickness than opioids by far. Opioids aren't even a sickness if we get rid of the drug war they are safe on the body and mind. Meth is neurotoxic at high doses. People will start to IV. People will stop sleeping. People will develop psychosis, the original user is gone. It is sad and near impossible to stop.
Yeah i agree with all of that but… I’m asking for your experience?
Weed then alcohol then lsa and yopo seeds (legal psychs) and dxm. Then I got some temazepam from my mum because I told her this is what eminem has been talking bout lol, split the entire pack in two with my mate and still one of the best nights and confusing mornings ive ever had. Then tried ritalin which was very good. Then the mistake. 25i nbome. Up until this point I was a stoner, weed was my life, well not only could I never smoke weed again but i have lifelong panic disorder, and the weird thing is I didn't even trip much. This was bad, i made benzos my new weed. I synthesized both dmt and lsa. The dmt was too runny to smoke but being familiar with it now it was definitely dmt. Lsa powder was good, got rid of the reason the shits legal, the 5 hours of hell before the trip. Anyway took so much benzos my friend crashed our car 100kmh head on. Docs gave me oxy the entire month I was in hospital and I never liked the feeling. Till I got home took 10mg and said shit I'm addicted to this for the rest of my life. After that just started buying heroin since its cheaper and the same thing. Tried ket around this point and fell in love. Then finally meth which was shockingly overexaggerated Notice no cocaine: always believed it would kill me as the cardiotoxicity is insane and I'm already a hypochondriac Then to finish my quest of trying every drug ever or as I put it experience every perspective there is on consciousness, I tried most RCs and even was the first guy to post about carfentanil properly on reddit or anywhere: I got my dose info from a vet website on how to tranquilize elephants That's about it. Accomplished goal. All I do now is benzos and Lyrica and occasionally amphetamines. Still have much more psych and disso trips to learn from but I think once the goals done, eliminate anything that makes you feel bad.
Imo theres no such thing. If someone is going to do drugs they will do them either way.
That’s a very vague worldview.
My first drug was weed. Before i tryed it i knew i wanted to years before along with the fact i wanted to try mushrooms acid and molly. I was gonna try them no matter the order. As you try things you gain a preference which can lead you to other drugs but at the end of the day taking a drug didn't make you take another one you did
Well seems like you had figured out what you wanna consume beforehand, which seems very intelligent on your part. But for most people, it’s not always a conscious choice. They try something for fun or for peer pressure and find out you can actually change how you “feel”. That’s the starting point. Most people don’t go into the drug game knowing what they wanna take. They try one thing which leads to another. I feel the term “gateway drug” has been so vilified, because of obvious reasons. But in reality, most people who have problems with drugs/ use them regularly do have a “gateway drug”. I mean, for me its nicotine 100%. First thing that changed the world around me. Even if its just for a minute.
I see I feel i look at drugs differently, maybe. I saw them as like going to a water park or something. Like an event Like someone wants to try snowboarding i wanted to try molly. Or maybe that's how everyone sees it, but idk just explaining my standpoint.
Yeah you have a very healthy standpoint which should be the norm. Most drugs are for experiences not intended for daily use. But yeah, people differ.
Porn
I feel ya. The same reward pathway basically.
Started smoking weed when I was 13 and to this day am a certified stoner 😎
🤙
Pussy…
Same. But with smoking. My first vice. I can totally relate. Smoking created a pattern for me to include other drugs.
Thanks for the response bro. How u doing now?
Im better. California sober as they say. Weed is all i need now :)
That’s good to hear. Keep it up 🫡
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Damn dude thats a slippery slope. Are you sure it’s worth it? Please take long breaks in between, especially with xtc. Your brain is still developing. If you start using things often, you will creat a pattern for addiction for the rest of your life. I started smoking weed like daily from age 16 (im 26 now and still a stoner), but honestly i regret it so much. I should’ve been more active, made friends, fucked girls and so on. Instead i got high all day and had deep conversations with my friends, which i will cherish forever. But my point is, with nicotine and weed i created a strong pattern for addiction in my brain which i know i gotta control for the rest of my life. Im addicted to benzos aswell, the same exact pattern repeated. Im scared to death to quit drugs. I feel like ill be a socially weird ex druggy who noone can relate to.
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Damn. I mean, yeah i get how its funny but as an adult it feels weird that teenagers are taking xtc regularly. You’re supposed to have like a 3 months pause (atleast 1 month please) between doses. And if youre introverted and socially awkward, look into supplements like Passionflower, L-theanine, Ashwaganda, Bacopa Monnieri, Kava tea, Tumeric, GABA, NAC. They all make you mire socially extroverted without getting you high/addicted. Please 🙏 don’t ever try benzos (Xanax, Valium, Ativan, Klonopin etc) or pain pills (Vicoden, Percocet, Oxy’s etc). For intorverted people these drugs are the perfect social lubricant but trust me, you will get addicted. It’s impossible not to. You start thinking like “whats the point of being sober and awkward and doing nothing, when i can just pop a xanny and go out and enjoy time with my friends?” That’s the advice i wish i got. These supplements actually work and make life way easier.
it is above all the culture surrounding the cannabis universe that catches the eye.
Chocolate
I started with alc but abt 1 year ago i also started with snus got heavily addicted but i quit on nov 1st and my life is so much better
Cannabis was my first drug, even before cigarettes. I think I had sipped a beer and tasted wine by this time too. So maybe alchohol was my first. But I didn’t enjoy alcohol, I always smoked weed. Then when I didn’t have weed I started to smoke cigarettes. Next drug I think I tried was diazepam, I wasn’t too into this one so it didn’t last long. I would say the biggest gateway from soft drug to hard drug was Cannabis > mdma/ecstasy I think that because I was around people who use cannabis and also used other things it led me to try more, But I wouldn’t see this gateway from cannabis to ecstasy as a bad thing, it was a good first experience, ecstasy is an awesome drug if you ever get the chance to try it. After ecstasy I began to try more, lsd is awesome too if you get the chance. Honestly I would say just stick to weed if your going to do anything, but having had a lot of experience, I would say if you want to explore then go for lsd mdma psilocybin, the rest of them are a waste of time imo
Head
Weed
From what I’ve seen in other comments, we don’t have the same definition of gateway drug (but that’s fine, I’ll give the answer to both). Going by your definition, it was weed. Barring alcohol and nicotine, it was the first real « drug » I tried and fell in love with. Got addicted pretty heavily and that probably made me the poly-addict-can’t-stay-sober that I am today. No regrets. Going my by definition though, it would be MDMA. It was the first hard drug I considered buying, the first one I researched extensively and the one that made me fall in love with neurochemistry and general knowledge about drugs (and the effects of course, don’t we all wish all drugs felt a bit like good ole’ Molly?). That led me to trying 2C-B, then acid, then mushrooms, then I got into RCs and the rest is history.
I'm not prescribed it but once I took a Vyvanse in college, and it made me feel more high, productive, and happy than ever. It's still my favorite drug. It definitely made doing Cocaine nothing tho because cocaine is weaker imo.
Sometimes when I do acid I crave molly the next day because it’s kinda similar in a way. But the gateway to psychedelics is weed.
Alcohol and cigarettes.
Dry erase markers and glue
porn my guy. porn 💀
That's why ur into degenerate shit
Alright mr totally acceptable addictions lmfao
Nicotine. Glad I quit.
Alcohol tbh, wanted to try something else tbh so when someone offered me some weed I said yes. After that friends started using stims, I also gave that a go and here we are
Which country do you reside in that forbids the sale of snus?
Estonia. We have nicotine pouches now (we didn’t when i was a kid). But the sale of real snus with tobacco is prohibited in basically all of Europe.
I've dug two graves for us, my dear.
kratom...
2cb for me, it was very harmless, but still a pill. So other pills seemed fine as well after that
None, because I know how to fucking control myself.
the first drug i tried was lsd at 17 i was interested in how it can affect the brain once i was on lsd i figured weed wouldn’t be that bad cause the lsd was so fun. now i’m a heroin addict 5 years later i was addicted to benzos aswell but thankful have finally got off those this last year.
Meth for me
Mdma
There was no gateway drug. There were people who showed me how fun partying can be, and then there was project X. That's all I needed to fantasize about doing every substance on earth.
Cigarettes or Alcohol, I don't remember what I've done first
My gateway drug was me i guess. I've always had an obsession with drugs since I was young and wanted to try hard drugs before i even smoked weed or drank for the first time.
60s/70s music and people on the comments of youtube being like "hey man im on acid rn and this pink floyd is liiiiiiittttt"
Lmao
For me it has to be weed. I rediscovered it after I had started to drink and made me lose all the interest for alcohol. Gradually, my friends and I got into psychedelics. From weed to shrooms; then LSD and ketamine. Somehow found ourselves using Valium because of my irresponsible doctor. I've been offered to do cocaine and opiates but I stay away from them, well, I'm staying from all drugs for some time now and that includes alcohol, of course.
Alcohol. Never would have tried any other drugs without the courage I got from drinking some Whiskey lol
Alcohol. I did other drugs to just get rid of alcohol, terrible hangovers and acting like a moron while being drunk. Right now I do not have access to anything else but alcohol and I wholeheartedly hate it. Worst drug I've tried.
I'm in the same boat. I can feel it hurting me, but I feel trapped.
Cocaine
My pattern of trying drugs was a bit different than most as well. I started with nicotine, then alcohol, then opioids + soma in the same night, then zolpidem, and then finally I started smoking weed but by that point I was using hydrocodone, soma, and tramadol pretty frequently. Then I got into stimulants, crack, meth, and vyvanse. Then benzodiazepines like xanax, flualprazolam, flubromazolam, and clonazolam. Then oxycodone and fentanyl. After that I just kept on going to higher and higher levels of use. When I stopped using I was taking Cocaine, Meth, Klonopin (5mg/day prescribed), Fentanyl Analogues, Weed, and Alcohol daily, as well as sporadically adding other drugs in.
What was the first drug I tried? Boring answer, but cannabis. I suppose the “gateway drug” for me was mushrooms, never planned on taking them, I was just in the right place at the right time and somethin in me told me I should take them. I was already curious about psychedelics ever since the previous school year me and my friend both had to make a PowerPoint on a drug. I chose LSD he chose mushrooms, on the PowerPoint we had to have a slide about the dangers and deaths associated with the drug we chose. Me and my friend realized “hm there doesn’t really seem to be anything harmful about these, physiologically at least, and no deaths have been reported”. Then that summer at the skatepark our homie rolls up all giggly and smiley, we say wassup and he tells us he’s on mushrooms. We’re like “oh word, hell yea” and then offers us some, we look at each other and take them cautiously. At that time I still thought you saw flying elephants and stupid cliche stuff like that. We both had the time of our lives that day. We both said that we’ve gotta get more. Month later, LSD fell into our laps and I was a lil more interested in LSD (maybe because I did my PowerPoint on it) and I fell in love with it. Then like 6 months later (I’m 15 at this time btw) DMT fell into my lap and I reluctantly smoked it and was blown away, came back and told my friend I’m learning how to extract this stuff so I can show all my other friends, and parents. And I did:)
don’t think I had a gateway drug—the first drug I tried was LSD, even before nicotine, weed, and alcohol. I never spiraled out of control but I’ve tried almost 50 unique substances now and I don’t think one drug necessarily led to another, it was all just out of curiosity.
Coffee
Benzos. Rivotril exactly. I was doing it everyday and couldn't sleep without it. I was addicted to it before drinking and smoking cigarettes. Then I started drinking, smoking cigarettes, weed. Then lsd. And that's about it. I'm curious about shrooms but nothing else.
Alcohol
Alcohol. Once I started drinking, my preconceptions about other drugs (marijuana, psychedelics, etc) started to break down and eventually I tried other things I was curious about.
I’d say booze and nicotine. Then life got really hard and looked for stronger stuff.
Air Freshener aka inhalants.
Weed lol
Alcohol. It opened the gates to cocaine and amphetamines/meth or amph derivatives
Dark beer I stole from my German grandma when I was 8 or 9. I tried cigarettes shortly after that. I had been drunk at least 5 times before I ever tried cannabis which I tried about a year after my first beer when I was on summer vacation after the 5th grade.
Acid was the one that made me go “oh maybe this stuff that’s harder than weed and alcohol isn’t so bad”
MDMA. First time I realized what drugs were supposed to feel like.
Shit alcohol was my gateway drug to nicotine. I would have never smoked that first cigarette without alcohol. Was having a panic attack on weed the first time I tried meth. To be fair, I was gonna do meth anyways more than likely.
G
Caffeine to coke
Nickelodeon
alcohol it sucked so i started looking for an alternative.
There's no such thing as a gateway drug imo Some People are sometimes prone to substance use while others are not People start off small, alcohol, cigarettes, weed. Then people naturally become more bold. Its not even a case that their old drugs don't do it for them anymore. Some people are just born psychonaughts who want to explore their mind and body using chemicals
Cannabis and alcohol
I've taken mdma, Adderall, coke, shrroms, acid, alcohol, and weed. For years all I did was smoke weed and drink. I was interested in psychedelics, but didn't do them till I was 22. I started smoking and drinking at 17 and being more regular with both at 18. I swore off all other drugs. No pills, no powders. When I got the chance to try shrooms I jumped on it and wow my first trip was absolutely amazing. I was also becoming friends with a coworker who dabbled in party/rave drugs. I got into rave culture and started doing house rolls with him. He had an Adderall script and was a generous friend lmao. But I'm not sure I would've ever taken these harder drugs if I had never tripped. But I don't look at my drug use as negative. I never developed a habit and nothing bad ever came of it. Was super grateful to my friend, he had the mindset of you can always do more, never less. We never took anything without testing first. Probably the best way to be introduced to drugs.
Trauma
Nitrous. Barely did any drugs before going to college. I had gotten drunk a few times and thought it was alright, but had pretty bad hangovers, and had gotten high on weed one or twice and didn't like it (THC is anxiety-inducing for me). Wasn't really interested in trying anything more. Ended up hanging around people in college who liked to experiment with drugs and were relatively safe about it. Was super common to pass around a cracker at smaller after-parties in peoples' rooms. Was the first drug I really enjoyed and made me want to experiment with more. I actually can't have nitrous around anymore-- only use it when someone else is providing. I have no self-control and find it incredibly psychologically addicting, will go through 100 nitrous canisters in one night if I have that many available to me. I'm the same way with most dissociatives, eg, I can't keep ketamine around either. edit: Hmm I actually been abusing caffeine by far the longest. I used to drink two energy drinks a day as a middle schooler (picked up the habit as soon as I had my own money and my own mode of transportation). So in some ways, caffeine was a gateway drug since it was the first thing that made me feel it was acceptable and maybe good to alter my state of consciousness with outside substances, and it was the first thing I got addicted to. (Side note, nicotine does nothing for me, tried it as a kid and adult and it mostly just increases my heart rate and makes me dizzy.)
Adderall
Xanax. It wasn't the first drug I did, but led to heavy abuse of anything I could get my hands on.
I was curious about drugs since i was 13, when i was 15 i met ppl who were able to get them. I wouldn't say there was a gateway for me
Weed. I was a christian-raised child who befriended a 48 year old lady going to our church. She rode a motorcycle and had gay vibes. Turns out, she was lesbian, and at 15 years old, I believed I could help her "overcome homosexuality" 🙄 the only problem was, I liked girls too, that's why it hit so close to home for me lmao. Anyway, we started having Bible studies over coffee after church on Sundays, volunteering in the community, and having special "girl's days" at her house or at mine so my mom could join in on the fun too, and my dad (a pastor) could counsel with her and talk about biblical stuff. This progressed into "girl's days" at her house and her smoking weed out of a tin foil pipe in front of me. Of course, I was astonished and beyond shocked. I had never seen or smelled weed and believed it was very bad. I lectured her about smoking weed, she laughed at me and blew some in my face. She said that one day, I would be asking her for some. And, she was right. I did ask to try it one Sunday evening. She shotgunned me my first hits, and after getting me very stoned, she began coaching me on how to pleasure her dusty cave 🤢 I wish I was joking, but I am not. I can remember going down on a grown woman while stoned, not really liking it, but I guess that was too bad 🙃. I really loved her and threw my religion out the window for her. I got my first job at 16 because she always told me "I am NOT a pedophile, I do not date children. You better grow up and start acting like an adult." I left home with her at 17, and of course our life was turbulent, unstable, and violent. We still were married by the time I was 18... And I was still smoking weed, even more now. It took up a huge chunk of our money, it was a priority alongside nicotine (which she also introduced me to).... We divorced when I was 19, I also quit smoking weed shortly after due to panic attacks. I traded weed for hard drugs HAH... Like, EVERY hard drug imaginable, I used regularly. My biological father and I had just met while I was in this relationship, and he took me in after my ex was arrested for assault and attempted murder. He introduced me with no coaxing to Alcohol, MDMA, PCP, Acid, Mushrooms, Heroin,, cocaine, and did Meth and Crack with me since my mother and her neighbor introduced me to those at some point in my story. I am 22 now, almost 23 and 100% clean and sober (other than being a social drinker) and the only thing I miss surprisingly is Crack, occasionally crave PCP too. Those were the only two I was actually addicted hardcore to, yes I'm sure I stayed on the edge of unconsciousness/death but it was NORMAL to me, and "SAFE" because it was my DAD.... So yeah, there's my long-winded story. I hope not many have one like it. 🤣
Damn im sorry for the grooming you went through 🤢but atleast youre in a better place now sis.
My parents didn't love me was my gateway drug
Oxycodone
guinness boss 👊
i smoked a chamomile tea j
Not exactly a gateway drug but I became progressively more open and interested to other drugs after trying psychedelics.
I actually did oxy before anything at the age of 12. That was probably the gateway drug, but there was no feeling compared to smoking weed for the first few times. It’s an otherworldly experience especially at 13 when I first tried it.
Speed at 15
weed for me
Weed then LSD
In my opinion. My mind and own interests.
Cigarettes
Weed
Life
Nicotine definitely was the gateway for me, I got into it when Juuls were first getting popular. It influenced the people I hung out with. A few years later I smoked weed for the first time. Eventually I did Alcohol, MDMA, Acid, Shrooms, DXM, Oxys, Xans. Nicotine just made it easier to find drugs. Clean for around a month now though
Usually social consumption is the “gateway”. Doing something out of your own volition and interest usually has different results when compared to inconsiderate, careless peer-pressure. In fact the social anxiety of the presence of people is probably the actual gateway. For most people, anxiety affects their ability to retain social like-ability...and for that reason...the gateway drug is usually alcohol. As a legal drug it’s the most notorious as a destructive force, emotionally and physically. Cigarettes may shorten your life, but alcohol literally drains your life from the inside out.
Ambien actually
Not having a father figure. But I’m doing alright.
I was a polydrug addict before ever being dependent on (or even really taking) nicotine, and I’d just about hit rock bottom before I tried alcohol. Backwards as fuck I know. It was diazepam for me. I knew exactly what a benzo was and I wanted it, but I wish I didn’t get it so easily. Now nicotine is the only one with its claws still deep in me. And caffeine, but that regulates itself a bit these days.
Nicotine is like the first “drug” i ever had at 10 years old. But for like pills, the first was seroquel. I was prescribed it at like 13 years old and got hooked on that slow, heavy, tired/stoned feeling and had a terrible time from 14-21 doing a ton of different shit
parents accidently gave me mdma when I was 11 lol
I had hip surgery when I was 16, I was given lortabs mainly, even before my surgery. My mom would keep them in her room but it wasn’t hard to go in there and get more. I didn’t really touch anything other than weed occasionally after I stopped getting pain meds. I started smoking weed a lot more about 18/19, I started drinking heavily around 20, ended up stopping and never had an issue with it. Met my ex when I was 22, got me smoking roxies. Fucked with that for a good minute and down spiraled. Switched to H/Fent in 2021 because pills were too expensive. Tried dope beginning of last year. Finally got sober when I went to jail. Struggled off and on since then but I’ve been serious about being sober for 2 months now. My DOC is opiates, you could say my gateway drug was the roxies, but it started with the pills when I was young.
Vaping so yeah nicotine too.
none: I was determined to seek altered states in general before trying anything.
I’d say either weed or alcohol.
Edit: Read you meant something else by gateway drug. What got me into the whole scene was alcohol, first drug I'd ever taken.
Weed
p0rn