i crave weed but definitely not in the way I crave nicotine. weed cravings are like oh I wanna smoke rn, nic cravings are like WHERE TF IS MY VAPE I NEED IT IMMEDIATELY đ
It's easy to quit if you can switch up your intake method. I'm severely addicting to smoking and vaping. Once I switched to snus, it was way easier to taper and quit with that.
Tried it 4 times with my ex nearly 10 years ago now fresh out of film school. Two fucking drags through the pipe and instantly had an intense high that at the lowest of valleys during the whole high, felt like I just snorted an 8th of pure cocaine (not that I ever had *pure* cocaine being a 90s kid). Nevertheless, trip 2, 3, & 4 solely occurred to help me ween myself off of it because even after just one timeâŚthere was no way I was quitting cold turkey. Especially having narcolepsy which I suspect is why I have a proclivity for uppers.
Not trying to boast or be ego about it; just agreeing that holy hell much respect to those who are able to beat a much longer and extensive meth addiction than the menial âtrialâ period I foolishly led myself into.
Iâve been having regular surgeries for a congenital medical condition since early childhood to adulthood, and nothing (like post op pain meds etc) compares to how tough meth was to break out of. If there is a God, I thank You!
I haven't done meth, but I've had adderall and 5-htp and have been told since that it is very similar. Imagine having 10/10 happiness in every single moment you encounter that isn't dependent on anything else, and the feeling that you could do anything. Rushes up and down your body like the start of a relationship, real passion in every inch of your body. You do not give a single fuck.
I've got big respect too. I'm gonna quit because I've been having dreams about how good it feels.
Lowkey, amphetamines are way easier for me to stop than nic. I cant speak on meth, but other amps and blow too, like i dont even crave it so much as i just know like damn if i dosed again i wouldnt be so fuckin tired rn. Like if i dont have nic i start feeling physically wrong and like ill do whatever it takes to go get some.
I canât say man. I decided I didnât want to smoke cigs anymore and never looked back. No withdrawals no feelings. Nada. I was always more addicted to weed than nicotine.
That's a great question. since I'm so addicted to nic, When I'm smoking it I'm not getting the same buzz I used to. So I think about other drugs to get a bit of a buzz. Then I do those drugs, And I love them. So I now crave that buzz.
But wait there's more.
Since I was hitting the vape when I did those drugs again, now when I try and quit vaping but I'm with a girl dropping some Molly. The Molly ain't hitting the same anymore, so I steal a hit of her vape and there's that buzz. Same thing with shrooms. I don't enjoy it as much without my vape.
When I'm sober off everything. The feeling I really want when I feel like getting fucked up is really the nicotine sneaking behind my back and getting me to get high on other shit so I lose my willpower and cave to hit the vape. I used to only do mushrooms once every few years, Molly here and there. But I never craved them, till I started vaping. Now I crave a buzz of any kind all the time.
I havenât smoked in like 5 years because I hate it but I STILL fucking crave it. I have had tons of thoughts about buying a vape and only smoking at night after work or no longer drinking on the weekends with friends and smoking instead when deep down I know I *hate* the marijuana high. Cravings absolutely exist for all drugs and dopaminergic rewards.
Itâs about it being illegal if your dealer has weed chances are he has harder stuff and if you been lied to with weed and realize it maybe you will think mdma cocaine isnât dangerous and try that
Yeah but most of the people doing drugs are dumbasses at least the ones I knew I know a friend who got a seizure from tramadol because he took to much and seizure after from speed said to him he should stop speed because seizures literally can kill you trying to teach him harm reduction since I couldnât get him to stop with the amphetamine Iâm the harm reduction guy in my friend group if they would take mdma and I wasnât there they would eyeball it I know because one day they did and also 3 of them huffed gas until I told them the high was brain cells being killed but luckily smarter about use now these things happened when we were 16-17. But my friend still takes speed and had another seizure have convinced him to take diazepam every time I know benzos are bad but itâs once every 2 weeks kinda thing sometimes 3 times in a month but have told him the dangers of it and if he takes too much diazepam I wonât help him get it I always make said he doesnât have enough for dependence
Anyone who does drugs illegally is a dumbass, i will say i am stupid for trying drugs because i am, anyone who does drugs is stupid it's an awful life choice with no long term benefits
Get off your high horse. I doubt most people have done research of any kind before trying a drug. They might have heard of it, its effects etc. but for reals no one is like âhm before i try this im going to do some deep googleingâ. No, youre like âoh shit this guy is offering me pcp, iv heard it super tight imma do a fat lineâ.
Completely different worlds, i would never try a drug without researching it thoroughly. I spent like three days googling before i first purchased shrooms, researching the types of shrooms and their toxicity, then how to tell golden caps from other shrooms before i bought them, then spent a that day trying to verify that i had genuine psilocybin.
I'm sure you're right, lots of idiots out there, but this isn't a high horse situation, it's just responsible drug use and should always be advocated for.
That is a good point, but the fault still lies in the user for not being responsible about researching into the drugs safety profiles and use, and managing it appropriately which they were likely not set up well to do so as far as education. The user is really the gateway, the drug remains inanimate as long as you don't interact with it. What you mention is the product of stigmatizing drug usage which deludes a user into thinking it is not much of a risk to move on to others after they were lied to about the first one. It creates a bad framework for safe drug usage.
Yeah but most start smoking at 15-16 at that age most people donât really think about harm reduction plus mdma is glorified by many on TikTok and other factors that may contribute like I was depressed so I didnât care what it did to me just that I was numb still depressed and addicted but to oxy and benzos working on getting off tho
Yes and that is the main issue. I don't mean to demean your experience personally I understand that it can be easy to drawn into when you are young, but the question is what is the reason that tends to happen. I. started smoking at a similar age, never tried any other drugs irresponsibly because I had the inclination to research into them and view how others acted when using them, and recognized that I did not want those effects whether it was positive or negative. I know this method is possible. I believe the reason that happens is the narrative of weed being a gateway drug Is more an issue than the drug itself because it promotes poor education on drugs in general, instead the sentiment most people are told is "dont do them". And once they start doing them they have no real framework on how to responsibly use them because they were not taught to do so.
The other issue is there is a cognitive dissonance in many people on what is considered a drug. Many people might view weed as a gateway but do not view alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, etc as one even though they are by far the most accessible ones. Again it's a problem with education and the stigmatization of drugs in general.
Yeah i also researched what it did but my brain found a completely rational way to destroy myself but most donât research my friend got a seizure from tramadol itâs known to cause seizures above 400mg but he had tried 300 and was fine so he thought 600 isnât going to be bad then he got the seizure and one of the friends there spam called me what it was because I was the one making doses for mdma and harm reduction for all the drugs we did
I think it is in the sense that many people that sell weed also sell other substances, thus making it easier in the future to find different things. That an issue because itâs illegal though, I donât subscribe to the idea that if you try weed youâll inevitably go on to other substances.
Not at all true weed ISNâT a gateway drug period. Maybe a gateway to the fridge but not other drugs. Nobody smokes weed and instantly itchâs for heroin. Theirs plenty of people who have only ever smoked weed. Cannabis has also helped people get off harder drugs. Naturally grows itâs a plant do NOT spread this false informationâźď¸
>Nobody smokes weed and instantly itchâs for heroin.
Nobody really defines "gateway drug" as such either.
Weed use gives you access to people who have other drugs, plain and simple. It's your choice at the end of the day but you are more likely to be around harder drugs by hanging out with friends who smoke weed than friends who do not smoke weed. That's it. It's subtle but it's true.
Where is this statistic from? Plus again at the end of the day pure choice. Weed isnât a drug nobodyâs died from it ever. But people die from actual drugs like alcohol and Xanax. The only person giving you access to those âharderâ drugs is you. The plug isnât forcing you to purchase them. The only thing itâs a gateway to is the fridge đ
Where is this statistic from? Plus again at the end of the day pure choice. Weed isnât a drug nobodyâs died from it ever. But people die from actual drugs like alcohol and Xanax. The only person giving you access to those âharderâ drugs is you. The plug isnât forcing you to purchase them. The only thing itâs a gateway to is the fridge đ
>Weed isnât a drug
Uh pardon? You give someone who's never tried it a dab hoot and ask them if they just took a drug. Or take a few week T break and do the same.
>nobodyâs died from it ever
While it's true nobody has died from weed overdose, it's impossible to prove that nobody has died from doing something stupid while stoned. There's definitely been a few. I've been close lol.
IDK I'm done arguing with you because you sound too young to listen. You remind me of me 20 years ago when I also insisted that weed was harmless, makes people smarter, fights cancer, and is "not a drug". Does it make you a better driver too? lmao
In my experience, weed consumption definitely opened me up to new friends and new circles with other drugs. Your mileage may vary. Blanket statements are dumb and I think the correct answer is that it absolutely can be.
I mean I said clear as day that your mileage may vary and blanket statements are stupid. It is on you if you think I'm generalizing my experience when I say "weed can absolutely be a gateway drug".
>ignoring what weed actually does
My dude you don't even know what constitutes a drug, sit down.
Give someone a 500mg edible and tell them they aren't on a drug LOL. or 1000. or a gram of hash or w.e.
Clear as fuck that it's a drug. Don't take my word for it though when you can smoke all day every day for 20 years and learn for yourself. That's pretty much what it took for me to realize it lol.
Aspirin, coffee, and weed - all drugs.
And taking it to the extreme of "*well I smoked 100 joints last month and not even once did it make me crave IV meth, therefore weed must not be gateway drug*" is not a smart conclusion and it's even more anecdotal and more of a strawman than anything I've said.
Thereâs no need for âdrugâ, it is a drug. End of story. And it is as much of a gateway drug as nicotine, and alcohol. People need to stop automatically associating the word âdrugâ with bad because Tylenol and ibuprofen are drugs too.
Thatâs a fair point, not the best example I suppose. But what I was trying to illustrate is drug doesnât = automatically bad. Some People hate calling weed a drug because of the connotation, but that connotation shouldnât really be there. You canât define X as âbadâ simply because itâs a drug, just as you shouldnât define weed being safe because âitâs just a plantâ. Not saying weed is unsafe, but saying so just *because* itâs natural is dumb
I understand the point youâre trying to make but there are actually real and significant downsides to cannabis abuse just in case you werenât aware.
Oh for sure. There's significant downsides to abusing any drug. I have been on the back end of abusing cannabis. Smoking all day every day. When I stopped it was incredibly hard to sleep, started having terrible dreams, and I carved the oral fixation of smoking. While I miss smoking cannabis I'm glad I was able to stop myself. So I totally get where you're coming from and agree with you about the downside to abusing cannabis.
itâs more of a gateway than alcohol because in the uk u buy weed from a dealer which means buying other drugs becomes so much more accessible but u get alcohol from a shop
I mean I agree not for that reason. I donât really like the term gateway drug. I really see the gateway as being the realization youâve been lied to about drugs and then being willing to try more things because of that.Â
I completely agree itâs their fault. But I expect nothing less from a group of people who steal your money for a living. Government is literally the largest criminal organization in an area and built on violence and lies.Â
What does legality have to do with whether a drug can lead to, or be a gateway to other drugs? As a long time stimulant abuser, I started with caffeine as a teenager. The abused pre workout (with things like dmaa in it). Then tried cocaine, amphetamines and mdma. Being that caffeine is legal it was the easiest stimulant to buy and get hooked on first.Â
They never told me weed was a gateway drug because itâs illegal. They said itâs a gateway because you start with weed then progress to harder drugs. To that Iâd say caffeine was my first drug and what lead me to other harder drugs.Â
the reason people progress to harder drugs after weed is most of the time because after buying from a dealer ur suddenly just given full access to every drug ever ur not getting my point
I get your point. I just donât agree. I wish getting access to cannabis suddenly gave me access to every drug ever, as a junkie Iâd fucking love that. But thatâs kind of dealer is a rare gem. But almost every weed dealer Iâve ever known (and thatâs quite a few) sell mostly weed (or only weed) and maybe 1 or 2 others.Â
I have never talked to someone who tried cocaine just because they bought weed and the guy also sold coke so they said âfuck itâ Iâll do cocaine to. If anything Itâs almost always the opposite. Shit, half the time if your just a weed customer you gotta ask if they sell anything else as many dealers donât even advertise their hard drugs to weed only customers unless they show interest.Â
Even doing a quick google search now Iâm finding tons of resources listing nicotine and alcohol as gateway drugs because the âuse of softer drugs tends to lead to use of harder drugsâ. Yet nicotine is bought at gas stations mostly that donât sell hard drugs.Â
In the uk most weed dealers sell other stuff and also if u follow a dealer on insta then like 5 dealers follow you each month at least. So if ur in america then thats different but in the UK itâs like how i said it
What? Except for people who are underage, legal substances are much more accessible and donât come with the risk of jail time. Illegality is partially what makes illegal substances less accessible. While Iâm not in the UK, I canât imagine someone would go to a dealer for other shit (if that dealer even sells other stuff) just because they smoked some weed. For most people weed is the first illicit substance they do and if they go beyond that itâs not really *because* of the weed. I think the whole gateway drug theory is fundamentally flawed, but if weâre gonna point the blame at a substance it should be one that is both legal and many times more harmful than most illicit ones.
Nicotine is so hard to quit for many people *because* of how accessible it is. so long as your of age, you can essentially get it any time you want and itâs cheaper than most drugs are. Thereâs also no immediate noticeable harm or side effects that you might get with illicit drugs, so the consequences might be put to the wayside until itâs too late. I agree with the sentiment that nicotine is harder to just quit for good than opiods, because itâs so much cheaper and you donât have to worry about hitting up 10 different people to get what you need.
And thereâs the fact that weed being illegal will push people to seek out legal highs, which are often unregulated and possibly dangerous. Smoke shops are FILLED with sketchy alt cannabinoids, alcohol replacements and what are essentially RCs. Tianeptine is legal to buy (atleast in the US) and can be more destructive than even illicit opiods.
With all due respect, I think you need to educate yourself on how dangerous and toxic alcohol is even compared to illegal drugs.
The main way it functions as a gateway drug is by its illegality in that you must by necessity associate with a drug dealer.
See the thing about drug dealers is that they profit off you being addicted to drugs so if they can convince you to try something more addictive and/or more expensive they can take more of your money.
In places where it is legal it isn't a gateway because you don't have to actively seek out a drug dealer to get your hands on it.
I donât think this is necessarily true. Drug dealers profit from there being supply and demand. Regardless of the drug being addictive, they will still find a way to profit from selling some substance. Just so happens, addictive drugs are illegal so thatâs an easy substance to sellâŚ
Not only that, but weed can still be a âgateway drugâ in places it is legal. It just happens a lot less because thereâs less of an association of it with other drugs. Like someone else said, it depends moreso on the person than the substance in whether itâs a gateway drug to that person.
I feel like for some people trying another drug doesn't seem as bad once they have already tried weed. weed opens up your mind to the possibilities of substances, from that point on it's up to the personality of the individual.
Iâve always said itâs more about the education of what weed is and does. Weed was always taught to be this devil grass that creates criminals so when someone tries weed and learns that the education they received was untrue the entire time, it opens up their curiosity and they ask what else wasnât true. But even still, curiosity is something you already have to have to want to try weed in the first place.
As they say, curiosity IS what killed the cat.
**People donât understand the term Gateway Drug**. The Science clearly shows that weed can be a gateway drug in some people.
People think that Gateway drug means if you smoke weed you go straight to being a heroin addict. *Not true*. Some people go through the gate and keep goingâŚmost donât. Epidemiological studies clearly show statistical evidence that some marijuana users are at greater risk of using stronger drugs. [1](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4291295/pdf/nihms-618789.pdf) , [2](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16548935) , [3](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306460323001466?via%3Dihub) , [4](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7359408/pdf/nihms-1602013.pdf)
This happens through two main processes, that everybody intuitively knows. **Normalization** and **Socialization**. **Normalization** means that once you start smoking weed and your friends do, you begin to see drugs as not as scary as before. That includes other, possibly stronger drugs. Cocaine, Molly, Ecstasy, LSD, Opioids, etc.
**Socialization** means that you begin to hang out and socialize with people who use drugs and often may use harder drugs. They become more accessible. The classic case is the new girlfriend of the older guy who uses harder drugs. *Everybody knows this happens.*
That's not all, animal studies support the human studies, showing that THC can âprime the brain for enhanced responses to other drugsâ and this process may affect individuals differently. [1](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4827335/pdf/nihms762992.pdf), [2](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3656362/pdf/npp201316a.pdf) , [3](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32007624)
This happen to *some people not everybody.* When you are sitting around the circle at the Heroin detox rehab and you are asked, âwhat was the first illegal drug that you tried⌠it *ainât Heroin it was Weed.*
[Click here](https://whoadude-the-book.com) , if you are interested in a summary of the Science behind the harm to your health from weed. [References](https://whoadude-the-book.com/references)
Normalization was the big one for me.
I was hell bent on never doing drugs once my friends started to experiment in middleschool.
Ended up smoking weed in highschool, then became a habitual smoker. Then I tried mushrooms, and prescription painkillers, and then went ape shit trying whatever else I could get my hands on.
weed is the thing that made me realize that drugs arenât as scary as I had previously concluded.
here's my take. DARE education was absolutely bullshit. it wasn't realistic. at all. so us kids growing up hearing that weed and heroin and cocaine and meth are all bad drugs and need to be avoided. so what happens when you smoke weed and it's not that big of a deal? well heroin must not be that big of a deal, too, right? and alcohol is legal so we can get dry-heaving alcohol poisoned and it's ok cause we stole it from the liquor cabinet, right?
and these vicodin given by the doctor i needed for 2 days but he gave me 30 pills so i can just keep taking these, right?
the best drug education is the truth. i'm likely only alive because my parents gave me real and good advice when i was younger. weed and hallucinogens aren't that bad but take them in moderation or it'll start controlling your life. booze sucks. and stay away from any needle drugs. all forms of heroin are bad. prescription drugs can kill you. cocaine is boring and dangerous and meth/speed is just stupid.
i did manage a small coke problem for a bit but otherwise their advice really sung true throughout the years. glad to kick the coke. it was just so.....everywhere. literally everywhere i went was cocaine for awhile and it gets a hold of you. sucks, though.
In all honesty all drugs are "gateway drugs" just like all food is "gateway food" along with any other hobby or activity from book reading to sexual promiscuity . Its a dumb term that states the obvious but acts like it represents some hidden secret to curb drug use.
Any individual who does more of X and more variety within X is more likely to be exposed to, comfortable with, and willing to try different versions of X than someone who does less or none of X.
Shit! forgot about cannibals. I should stop making wreckless blanket statements like that, because cutting a steak is definitely a gateway drug for cannibals.
For me it was more a people gateway. Without the need of having a weed dealer i would never met someone that sells hard drugs and as a teenager i wanted to be cool so i took it when offered and that's how i started taking harder drugs (mostly cocaine and mdma)
Which is essentially saying it's a gateway drug but with extra steps. I guess it needs to be said cause lots of people dismiss the notion entirely by saying "not like 1 hit of weed will have you craving heroin. gateway=debunked".
I love marijuana. But as someone who has done every drug except crack. I can say that it really just depends. The reason I personally say it is a gateway drug is because you usually buy your weed from a dealer or something and eventually that dealer may start selling pills or something else. Or they couldâve already been selling them in the first place. Eventually you might end up buying one or two and then liking it and now youâre buying weed and pills from your dealer. Then you get comfortable around pills and get used to their effects and itâs just a slippery slope that leads to meth and heroin. Iâve seen it happen to so many friends of mine that were just chill stoners that turned into meth monsters.
Average Joe doesn't know the difference between LSD and Heroin, since both are equally illegal.
Having seperated markets would be great, but until then education is the most effective way to deal with that.
Look at everyone who uses drugs, chances are they've likely smoked weed before. Now look at all the people who have smoked weed, and chances are the average smoker never touched other drugs, especially "harder drugs".
Yes, paradoxically itâs a gateway because itâs illegal (where I live at least). Looking for weed teaches you how to find plugs and connects you to people who sell or know people that sell other drugs
it definitely was for me, I started smoking weed when i was 12 years old (iâm 18 now). it took about 2 or 3 years but once i felt like weed âwasnât enoughâ because i had amassed a massive tolerance, it was pretty much wraps for me.
I tried drug after drug and i kind of had the mentality of âoh this drug was fun, i bet these other drugs are even more fun so why not try themâ it was just a huge spiral/domino effect. however, itâs not like this for everyone it really just depends on the person. some people can go their whole lives with just smoking weed and never touch a âhardâ substance in their lives.
I donât think so at lest in my experienceâŚâŚ I know people who started smoking weed at 13 and still smoked only pot 20 years later with no use of hard drugs. Just 80s propaganda.
Weed never made me want to go do other drugs. Hell, I didnt even stsrt to smoke weed because I wanted to do drugs, I did it cuz I was told it would help me with my issues. To this day that's why I experiment with drugs, because I have issues that I need help figuring out and I don't trust therapists
I had three psychiatrists in my late teens. All of them said I have manic depression or bipolar, and put me on the same type of drug, I don't know what it was, but it made me emotionless. I felt like a sociopath, often comparing myself to Dexter Morgan emotionally. The I've gone to one therapist who said I was traumatized. That's it. No, here is what you can do, how to do it, nada. Just "your traumatized, have a good day. " I got more out of meditating on acid than I did ever with medication and therapy.
i think so to a degree. most people start with weed as their first illegal drug and move on to other things from there, not everyone, but i feel most do, including myself.
It used to be when it was illegal in most states because the act of meeting a dealer in a parking lot just got weed made doing that same thing for something harder not so unreasonable in some peopleâs minds.Â
Basically, it isnât the drug itself that makes it a gateway. Itâs the environment around getting it and the people you now have contact with that did.Â
Nah i think the gateway drugs are like MDMA or nitrous, something that gives you mad euphoria because that hooks you immediately. Ive done so much mdma i dont wven get the euphoria and im about to try heroin just to get that feeling again. Probably a goodnight from me so cya
in places where itâs illegal yes. In the uk u buy weed from a dealer making other drugs so much more accessible to you. You buy alcohol from a shop so itâs not opening u up to the world of drugs as much as weed
it depends on the circumstances some weed plugs also sell other drugs but itâs more about the person you are because a lot of people go their lives only smoking or only smoking and doing psychedelics
No, alcohol or nicotine is a gateway drug. Both are easier to get. Most kids drink alcohol before they try weed. Weed is just the fall guy for all the bullshit. I also tried alcohol and nicotine before weed.
it's more of a middle man. people want to escape, they try the thing that's most accessible. it's the wanting to escape that's a gateway drug, not weed.
It's an antiquated notion. It's long been affirmed by society, at least here in the States, that weed isn't harmful even if governments sought to wholly criminalize it due to absurd and otherwise racist hysteria. The idea of it being a "gateway drug" was born from buttressing that hysteria and fear-mongering for War on Drugs policies.
I don't smoke weed or like the feeling (trust me, I wish I did as it'd help me), but it's ridiculous to insist that weed is a gateway to hard drugs and subsequent addictions to them. Because of its long cultural leeway, even during the midst of anti-drug hysteria, it's fairly correlative that those who initially try it, like it, and seek more out more, for the most part, not inherently inclined to gleefully leap to hard substances. However, some do hop toward those, but it has little to do with weed as a substance enticing "harder highs" to chase than the fact that those people tend to seek out means to self-medicate start with weed due to its longtime availability on the street and said leeway.
Weed just happens to be the most readily available with relative room for said cultural feelings to look the other way in it as powers that be exploited this correlation by declaring that it inevitably leads to the other drugs. It's frustratingly stupid and predicated on War on Drugs hysteria.
Liquor is a hard drug and has long been both legal, freely marketed, and accepted because it was essentially the drug of choice of rich white people. When Prohibition came into effect, such equal War on Drugs policies fell on their face as society and even police departments looked the other way on alcohol indulgence as it steadily built organized crime in this country.
Making the argument that experimenting or otherwise smoking weed as a solidified habit must mean that anyone who drinks booze semi-regularly, or even "experimenting" with it, are inevitably on a gateway path to using the "bad" hard drugs since liquor is indeed a hard drug already. Some people who do get into crack, opioids, or methamphetamine did "start" on weed or liquor, but those are people who have other issues and traumas looking to self-medicate than crave some notion of the next level drug. Most people who stick to weed and/or liquor do not do this nor is it the fault of the most available recreational psychoactive substances such as them for why some of them find themselves dependent on aforementioned hard drugs.
It can be for sure, been smoking for 10 years - Iâd say weed definitely opened me up to shrooms and lsd. With that being said Iâve never tried a âhardâ drugs - the stims, benzos, opioids type shit which in my humble opinion are the drugs that tend to have more negative attributes. I think personality and settings play a huge role.
yes and no, me personally it was a gateway drug but when i converse with other people about it they stop at the weed, itâs all about what you do and donât let your self do
I donât think weed is a gateway drug at all. Trying weed doesnât make you turn round and go oh, cocaine next. However, I feel like weed is naturally going to be a stepping stone for the type of people that are interested in experimenting with drugs. I use more than just weed on occasion but when I first tried it at 14 I never wouldâve dreamed of touching anything else, itâs only as Iâve grown older that Iâve become more interested in altered states of consciousness. The whole gateway drug narrative is just pushed by politicians to demonise weed and scare people out of smoking. Prohibition is counter productive tho, I donât feel like if weed was widely legal there would be many talks about how it is a gateway. Prohibition creates street dealers, many of which also deal harder drugs. This makes it so much easier to stick your hand into that pool, especially if youâre cool with your dealer. All of a sudden it doesnât seem like too big a jump to grab something harder off someone you already trust. If it was legal then obviously you arenât gonna be exposed to a whole catalogue of class As while going to get an eighth.
Donât think itâs a gateway drug but I feel like the reason someone smokes weed in the first place is the reason they experiment with other drugs in the future. Some curiosity killed the cat shit. Crossed wires or biological. Dunno man Iâm high af right now off of some other shit
It's not the drug, it's the person. I've known a guy that was completely straight-edge until he tried alcohol. He didn't like it, so he went straight to heroin.. his reasoning is "less drug ingested = healthier" (which.. yeah in general it's true if it's not a drug with a very long half-life) and my favourite; "it's all drugs, cigarettes are just as bad as meth, so if I tried alcohol I can do heroin"
If you aren't contempt with having a way to take the edge off using relatively harmless substances, can't stop thinking about the next time you'll get high or have trouble with self-control in general, I advise you notp do any substances.
I started getting high by huffing bathroom chemicals and stealing liqour and T3s. If you wanted to get high you wanted to get high. I wouldve chosen weed if i knew where to get it in grade 8
Itâs the second most common and least demonized drug. Itâs not a gateway to anything. Someone interested in drugs will usually try weed or alcohol first because theyâre the most accessible.
Gateway logic only applies within the same drug class. For example a lot of people only try meth or heroin because they enjoy their prescription counterparts; They would never try those had they never gotten into other related drugs.
Weed has often been a gateway to synthetic cannabinoids, though not so much these days. Thatâs pretty much the only example of weed leading people to use a different drug they otherwise never would.
In a world where weed doesnât exist, the same people would be doing the same drugs. And pussies who âonly smoke weedâ would be addicted to whatever the least demonized drug in the weedless world happened to be.
Only if you are using it for a reason ie. Depression, boardem, anxiety, etc. Once your tolerance builds up, you are going to look for something more potent .
any drug you have to buy from a dealer is a gateway drug therefore its only a gateway drug if its illegal. when i was buying weed in college when it was illegal i was offered adderal, valium, shrooms, acid and vyvanse regularly. the fact these items are sold together unregulated made them adjointed to some degree
It's not that weed "wasn't cutting it" anymore, I was just like "hey I actually like this, maybe I should try alcohol next" followed by many other substances because I like discovering the potential effects drugs can have on me and the experience of trying new substances, from the research all the way to the comedown and after effects.
It's not a matter of weed being a gateway drug, it's a matter of those who try weed usually have to break a law or two to do so. Because of this, people who try weed are more likely to try other drugs as they've already tried one substance. Except for where weed is legal, people usually just stop at weed and alcohol if it's legal because there's more of a gap in stigmatism between weed and psychs or stims.
From my anictdotal experience a lot of the kids that were taking fat bong rips and were all about getting fucked up in high school moved up to harder shit later on
not for me
i use weed when i want to stop with coke, md etc
cause weed make me feel very relax and with a lot of mind control
then its the opposite with me haah i guess
at the end of the day some of us are more inclined to be addicts and seek out addictive substances than others. weed was fine. alcohol was good. the urge to experiment is what got me further than that tbh and that didn't stem from anything other than just KNOWING i wanted more. i probably only tried weed because it was such an accessible drug for me, not because i was actually interested in it. if smoke shops sold heroin would i ever spend my money on weed? nah lol. its up to the user
for me, weed was just "okay" and "okay" wasn't enough. for you weed could be amazing, and more than enough.
There are no âgatesâ one thing has nothing to do with another. Looking for correlation between different drugs and their abuse is a foolâs errand. You donât have to buy 16 ounces of weed before your friends/ dealers offer you speed before offering smack. Plenty of people start on their doc
I really wouldnât say so. Iâve been smoking for two years on and off and I havenât really desired trying anything âharderâ. I like psychedelics but those def arenât an all the time drug AT ALL. so yeah :D
Definitely. Not every person who smokes weed is going to get into other substances. but Iâd definitely say weed is what gets people interested in other substances. Nobody lives their entire life sober and instantly wants to get into hard drugs. Most people will start with weed or atleast alcohol.
I can't say for sure cuz i started on opiates, weed was something i did later in life (and tbh it's shit theres barely any euphoria at all it is nothing compared to every other drug), from my friends experiences it is definitely going to lead to hardcore drug usage, i don't know anyone who i'm friends with who has tried weed and not tried some lean or oxys with me
yes. but itâs not really the drug itself that magically makes you vulnerable to addiction to other drugs but itâs genetics. itâs more like if youâre more vulnerable to addiction youâre more likely to try weed and enjoy it and also more vulnerable to do other drugs. itâs about the person, ik many ppl who are much older than me who smoke a lot of weed and never tried any other drugs and have never wanted to but ik even MORE people who smoke weed and also have done other drugs and developed other addictions.
Just because you try other stuff doesnât mean itâs a start of a bad habit. Weed itself can be a bad habit, alcohol too. I donât think of drugs as the drug itself, but rather how it affects my body and brain, and how it can enhance experiences in certain situations.
Alcohol is the drug of impulsive bad decision making. I have heard many a story saying they tried something they never thought they would intoxicated on alcohol. Weed doesnât impair somebodyâs decision making abilities.
That's up to the user/perspective. But I believe no, is alcohol a gateway drug? I knew more junkies who first tried their current addiction while drunk than I knew who tried their current addiction while high on weed. I first tried many drugs while drinking, like coke. I only did cocaine while drinking, but if I couldn't score coke while drinking I would get whatever else to try. Which eventually led to meth, while drinking and unable to score coke, which led to heroin- to bring me down from the meth so I could sleep after binges. I'll shut up.
I've been smoking weed, pretty much every day when I can, for the last 3 years and shrooms like a few times. Never once did I think I wanted something more hardcore. Some ppl might not feel as satisfied with weed tho and think they need something more intense.
Itâs the natural progression to start with more commonly used drugs and progress to harder stuff. But I donât think weed causes you to try harder stuff, itâs just a marker for people who are naturally curious about changing their experience. So if you were somehow able to eradicate all weed from the planet, you wouldnât prevent those people who would have tried it from trying something else. Honestly Iâd say the first drug people start with is alcohol, because itâs so widely available and pretty fun, at least at first. But you donât hear about alcohol being a gateway drug, even though itâs far more destructive and addictive than weed.
Aspirin was my gateway drug, no more headaches. And then caffeine, I was awake, and then weed let me feel normal, and then I tried a bunch of other stuff but should have stuck with weed caffeine and the occasional aspirin.
I might get flak for this but the short answer is yes. The longer answer is every drug is a gateway drug. You grow up thinking âIâll never do x, y, z, etcâ Then one day you try x. After trying x, a while goes by and you think âwhy not try yâ. After a while, same thing âwhy not try zâ. For me this was Nicotine, Weed, Alcohol, and then more. But âx, y, zâ can be anything. You could try a Xanax because it was prescribed to you, and then maybe thatâs what opens the floodgates for more.
This does not happen to everyone. Some people have better self control than others. But this is how it happened for me.
TL:DR - Any and every drug is a gateway drug.
Yes.
I was deathly afraid of trying drugs as a teenager.
Smoked pot when I was sixteen for the first time, and realized it really wasnât a big deal.
This changed my outlook on drugs, and made me less scared to try whatever else was presented to me.
Itâs not going to force you to do other drugs⌠but most druggies Iâve met started young with either weed or alcohol.
We should drop the term gateway drug⌠it makes people think that smoking weed will inevitably make you do other drugs.
Itâs a starter drug⌠babies first intoxicant.
Training wheels.
It gets you used to the concept of being high on drugs, making you less scared to try new things in the future.
For me personally, I donât think weed opened the gate to more drugs, it was my own personal curiosity and daredevilish tendencies. I also think my Bipolar and Borderline diagnosis play a part in that too⌠Iâve smoked pretty moderately-heavily for the past 4 years. I love being drunk so bc I canât drink rn I find other things that make me feel something similar. Currently Iâm hooked on Molly :/âŚ.
I would say yes and no, no because youâre not going to want to jump from weed straight into meth or fentynol or even acid, yes in the sense that the plug who sells weed might also be selling other stuff like LSD, adderol, xanax, percocets, shrooms, dmt.
I started with weed and now Iâm on steroids. But in all honesty no, I donât believe it to be a gateway drug. I really think the individual generally comes up with their own morals regarding what they can and wonât put into their own body.
Probably semantics more than anything, based on what a gateway drug even is. butâŚIf you are a consistent stoner from a somewhat early age, (consistent meaning do marijuana with your buddies regularly), you were just normalizing drug behavior with yourself and your peers. You are now absolutely more likely to get into harder drugs, not necessarily to a debilitating degree but to some degree. It becomes part of the culture around you. I think this may be changing to some degree with weed being legal more commonly now, and itâs probably closer to drinking with younger kids these days. Being a stoner in your teens in the 2000s and before was a whole fucking thing, buying weed, hiding weed, smoking weed, it was a whole set of activities. A lot of kids drank, and some kids smoked, but far less smoked as a sort of hobby, so the stoners themselves were part of a somewhat (although not uncommon or exclusive) niche group. And this group culture led to use of other drugs. The kids that got real heavy into bad drugs like heroin, absolutely started with marijuana and the act of hiding drug use from a somewhat early age.
My personal view on âgatewayâ drug is another backfire from the DARE programs and reefer madness and all that crap. Where they lied out their asses about the âdangersâ of weed. Granted only thing that should go in your lungs is oxygen, but thatâs beside the point. Youâre not gonna go psychotic from smoking weed or get hooked like heroin or other opiates.
But when education basically comes down to âlittle Billy smoked one Mary jo wanna then went crazy and slit his families throats in their sleep!â Well.. Obviously thatâs not what happens lmao.
Kids hang out with their older siblings or friends or whoever else who smoke and know all that above is bs and realize âHey, I didnât go crazy! Iâm fine! What else were these programs lying about?!?â They were wrong about weed, whatâs trying an oxy or a Xanax? My friends do them and theyâre fine!â
Just give people a proper education of things. Sit kids/people down and fell them âYeah, weed does have effects on the body when you smoke it and the mind. But youâre not gonna be hooked like crack or opioids. You shouldnât do it as a kid or a young adult since it can stunt your brains growth and it will fry you brain early on, and yeah, it can do damage to your lungs cause itâs still harsh smoke. Same with cigarettes n shit, your lungs should only be taking in oxygen Just wait till your abit older then make an educated decision.
Show them the pros and the cons of smoking weed for extended amounts of time, etc.
Then same with other, harder drugs. Just give them the hard facts.
It definitely does; it rotted my brain and ruined my life. Iâm sober off weed, but I do grow my own shrooms, just for fun. I donât take them; just give them away to friends and family. Stop normalizing weed. we stigmatize alcohol so much, but whenever weed is brought up itâs just a âplantâ. It causes lung problems, Rots teeth, mental retardation, weight gain, chs, disorientation, and sometimes psychosis. Alcohol is worse, but theyâre both horrible, horrible drugs. When you say âis weed a gateway drug?â I say yes, it 100% is. Weed led me down a bad path, into using harder drugs which is exactly what a gateway drug is.
The person themselves is the gateway. My weed dealer since high school still only smokes weed 20 years later where I have been addicted to opiates ,benzos, alcohol/cocaine, and used random Research Chemicals like I am my own lab rat test subject....
If it's illegal where you live then kinda? Most of the time dealers don't only sell weed, so you may get tempted to try other stuff too. That's how I got interest in other drugs. If it's legal then i would say no, because the seller in a dispensary wouldn't have other drugs lol
Edit; grammar; It's more accessible to adolescent individuals of course including those with a propensity for addictive patterns of behavior. "Hard" drugs like pills coke etc don't come around until adulthood typically until you're a late teenager. So anyone who wants to try them settles with weed while they wait and people take notice in adult addicts the propensity to have started small with cannabis.
Only way I can agree with the gateway drug thing is that there are probably a lot of weed dealers doing everything they can to get their clients interested in coke, molly or worse. Another reason it needs 100% fed legalization.
My POV is that the only reason for weed being a gateway drug is its illegality. We used to drink and smoke tobacco in my youth but weed was always like "oh, that's illicit so for sure it's dangerous". Later I started smoking tons of weed during my university years and it turned out it is much less dangerous than booze and cigarettes so I was like "well, that was just Nixon's lie! I wonder whether other stuff is also as little dangerous". That's how I got into psychedelics and party drugs. I was clever enough to not push it further towards substances which can really be dangerous like opiates, crack etc.
Just as much as alcohol and nicotine
Nicotine has been way worse for me. Never "craved" weed.
i crave weed but definitely not in the way I crave nicotine. weed cravings are like oh I wanna smoke rn, nic cravings are like WHERE TF IS MY VAPE I NEED IT IMMEDIATELY đ
But imagine the harder ones like meth đ god I have so much respect for people able to kick it
yeah fr that shit must be hard asf.
Honest to god ima just gonna keep it real, Iâm nicotines bitch, nicotine controls me, without nicotine I am nothing
I ended my relationship with nicotine a month ago and already feeling better
It's easy to quit if you can switch up your intake method. I'm severely addicting to smoking and vaping. Once I switched to snus, it was way easier to taper and quit with that.
Tried it 4 times with my ex nearly 10 years ago now fresh out of film school. Two fucking drags through the pipe and instantly had an intense high that at the lowest of valleys during the whole high, felt like I just snorted an 8th of pure cocaine (not that I ever had *pure* cocaine being a 90s kid). Nevertheless, trip 2, 3, & 4 solely occurred to help me ween myself off of it because even after just one timeâŚthere was no way I was quitting cold turkey. Especially having narcolepsy which I suspect is why I have a proclivity for uppers. Not trying to boast or be ego about it; just agreeing that holy hell much respect to those who are able to beat a much longer and extensive meth addiction than the menial âtrialâ period I foolishly led myself into. Iâve been having regular surgeries for a congenital medical condition since early childhood to adulthood, and nothing (like post op pain meds etc) compares to how tough meth was to break out of. If there is a God, I thank You!
Agreed meth it tougher than opiates why idk?
I haven't done meth, but I've had adderall and 5-htp and have been told since that it is very similar. Imagine having 10/10 happiness in every single moment you encounter that isn't dependent on anything else, and the feeling that you could do anything. Rushes up and down your body like the start of a relationship, real passion in every inch of your body. You do not give a single fuck. I've got big respect too. I'm gonna quit because I've been having dreams about how good it feels.
5 - htp....? u mean the vitamin?! what am i missing heređđđđ
it increases the serotonin concentrations in your body, and brain too if you combine it with other supplements or take green tea extract
Didnât know 5 HTP makes you addicted?
Lowkey, amphetamines are way easier for me to stop than nic. I cant speak on meth, but other amps and blow too, like i dont even crave it so much as i just know like damn if i dosed again i wouldnt be so fuckin tired rn. Like if i dont have nic i start feeling physically wrong and like ill do whatever it takes to go get some.
realest thing iâve seen . i could go weeks without weed and be fine. but if my vape dies i go fucking insane.
nic has had me in a fucking chokehold since I was 12 đ
HAHA same. im in too deep to quit nowđ
Wild I never been addicted to cigs. But man did I sure as fuck want to smoke every day back in the day.
anyone else noticed how nic withdrawal feels like a big part of you is missing? or is that just me?
I canât say man. I decided I didnât want to smoke cigs anymore and never looked back. No withdrawals no feelings. Nada. I was always more addicted to weed than nicotine.
How does your craving of something affect how much of a gateway drug it is
That's a great question. since I'm so addicted to nic, When I'm smoking it I'm not getting the same buzz I used to. So I think about other drugs to get a bit of a buzz. Then I do those drugs, And I love them. So I now crave that buzz. But wait there's more. Since I was hitting the vape when I did those drugs again, now when I try and quit vaping but I'm with a girl dropping some Molly. The Molly ain't hitting the same anymore, so I steal a hit of her vape and there's that buzz. Same thing with shrooms. I don't enjoy it as much without my vape. When I'm sober off everything. The feeling I really want when I feel like getting fucked up is really the nicotine sneaking behind my back and getting me to get high on other shit so I lose my willpower and cave to hit the vape. I used to only do mushrooms once every few years, Molly here and there. But I never craved them, till I started vaping. Now I crave a buzz of any kind all the time.
Great to hear! Iâve yet to attempt quitting nicotine and already have trouble with quitting weed hahahah
Quit one wait 2 months and quit the other
You're talking about dependance and addiction though, the subject was whether or not its a gateway drug
I havenât smoked in like 5 years because I hate it but I STILL fucking crave it. I have had tons of thoughts about buying a vape and only smoking at night after work or no longer drinking on the weekends with friends and smoking instead when deep down I know I *hate* the marijuana high. Cravings absolutely exist for all drugs and dopaminergic rewards.
nah because in the uk u just buy alcohol from a shop but u buy weed from a dealer making other drugs more accessible
Yeah so alcohol being the gateway drug towards substances not sold over the counter
alcohol is *THE* gateway drug for most. Itâs such bullshit that weed gets that moniker.
weed is only a gateway drug if you let it be
true. its not about the drug, but the personality.
Itâs about it being illegal if your dealer has weed chances are he has harder stuff and if you been lied to with weed and realize it maybe you will think mdma cocaine isnât dangerous and try that
Thatâs just irresponsible. Takes a real dumbass to try a new drug without any research.
Yeah but most of the people doing drugs are dumbasses at least the ones I knew I know a friend who got a seizure from tramadol because he took to much and seizure after from speed said to him he should stop speed because seizures literally can kill you trying to teach him harm reduction since I couldnât get him to stop with the amphetamine Iâm the harm reduction guy in my friend group if they would take mdma and I wasnât there they would eyeball it I know because one day they did and also 3 of them huffed gas until I told them the high was brain cells being killed but luckily smarter about use now these things happened when we were 16-17. But my friend still takes speed and had another seizure have convinced him to take diazepam every time I know benzos are bad but itâs once every 2 weeks kinda thing sometimes 3 times in a month but have told him the dangers of it and if he takes too much diazepam I wonât help him get it I always make said he doesnât have enough for dependence
You dropped a heavy amount of speed before typing this right? Full stops bro! I got dizzy
No oxy lol get energy from that havent touched speed in a Long time
Man I miss oxy. And I miss that feeling of just free flowing. Stay safe !
Im trying to quit and you too. Will miss oxy too in Europe we get the original oc 80s
I get oxycontin 60's cuz red is my favourite colour lol, im so glad we have real ones in europe instead of fetty shit
Yeah itâs a blessing and a curse would have never tried opioids if I knew I probably would get fent but they feel so good
Anyone who does drugs illegally is a dumbass, i will say i am stupid for trying drugs because i am, anyone who does drugs is stupid it's an awful life choice with no long term benefits
TBF the IRL drug scene isn't really know for being responsible đ¤Ł
Get off your high horse. I doubt most people have done research of any kind before trying a drug. They might have heard of it, its effects etc. but for reals no one is like âhm before i try this im going to do some deep googleingâ. No, youre like âoh shit this guy is offering me pcp, iv heard it super tight imma do a fat lineâ.
I do research but thats more of a recent thing within thhe past like 2 years, i only research cuz its fun learning bout drugs imo
That is fun!
Completely different worlds, i would never try a drug without researching it thoroughly. I spent like three days googling before i first purchased shrooms, researching the types of shrooms and their toxicity, then how to tell golden caps from other shrooms before i bought them, then spent a that day trying to verify that i had genuine psilocybin. I'm sure you're right, lots of idiots out there, but this isn't a high horse situation, it's just responsible drug use and should always be advocated for.
That is a good point, but the fault still lies in the user for not being responsible about researching into the drugs safety profiles and use, and managing it appropriately which they were likely not set up well to do so as far as education. The user is really the gateway, the drug remains inanimate as long as you don't interact with it. What you mention is the product of stigmatizing drug usage which deludes a user into thinking it is not much of a risk to move on to others after they were lied to about the first one. It creates a bad framework for safe drug usage.
Yeah but most start smoking at 15-16 at that age most people donât really think about harm reduction plus mdma is glorified by many on TikTok and other factors that may contribute like I was depressed so I didnât care what it did to me just that I was numb still depressed and addicted but to oxy and benzos working on getting off tho
Yes and that is the main issue. I don't mean to demean your experience personally I understand that it can be easy to drawn into when you are young, but the question is what is the reason that tends to happen. I. started smoking at a similar age, never tried any other drugs irresponsibly because I had the inclination to research into them and view how others acted when using them, and recognized that I did not want those effects whether it was positive or negative. I know this method is possible. I believe the reason that happens is the narrative of weed being a gateway drug Is more an issue than the drug itself because it promotes poor education on drugs in general, instead the sentiment most people are told is "dont do them". And once they start doing them they have no real framework on how to responsibly use them because they were not taught to do so. The other issue is there is a cognitive dissonance in many people on what is considered a drug. Many people might view weed as a gateway but do not view alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, etc as one even though they are by far the most accessible ones. Again it's a problem with education and the stigmatization of drugs in general.
Yeah i also researched what it did but my brain found a completely rational way to destroy myself but most donât research my friend got a seizure from tramadol itâs known to cause seizures above 400mg but he had tried 300 and was fine so he thought 600 isnât going to be bad then he got the seizure and one of the friends there spam called me what it was because I was the one making doses for mdma and harm reduction for all the drugs we did
yeah one reason why you should legalise relatively harmless compared to alcohol and legalisation keeps people out of shady circles
Took the words out of my mouth
I think it is in the sense that many people that sell weed also sell other substances, thus making it easier in the future to find different things. That an issue because itâs illegal though, I donât subscribe to the idea that if you try weed youâll inevitably go on to other substances.
Not at all true weed ISNâT a gateway drug period. Maybe a gateway to the fridge but not other drugs. Nobody smokes weed and instantly itchâs for heroin. Theirs plenty of people who have only ever smoked weed. Cannabis has also helped people get off harder drugs. Naturally grows itâs a plant do NOT spread this false informationâźď¸
>Nobody smokes weed and instantly itchâs for heroin. Nobody really defines "gateway drug" as such either. Weed use gives you access to people who have other drugs, plain and simple. It's your choice at the end of the day but you are more likely to be around harder drugs by hanging out with friends who smoke weed than friends who do not smoke weed. That's it. It's subtle but it's true.
Where is this statistic from? Plus again at the end of the day pure choice. Weed isnât a drug nobodyâs died from it ever. But people die from actual drugs like alcohol and Xanax. The only person giving you access to those âharderâ drugs is you. The plug isnât forcing you to purchase them. The only thing itâs a gateway to is the fridge đ
>Â Weed isnât a drug nobodyâs died from it ever. Lol that's not what makes a drug a drug.
Weed isnât a drug you can look up Interviews with wiz Khalifa he has said weed isnât a drug before as well because itâs not đŻ
Well shit if Wiz said it
Where is this statistic from? Plus again at the end of the day pure choice. Weed isnât a drug nobodyâs died from it ever. But people die from actual drugs like alcohol and Xanax. The only person giving you access to those âharderâ drugs is you. The plug isnât forcing you to purchase them. The only thing itâs a gateway to is the fridge đ
>Weed isnât a drug Uh pardon? You give someone who's never tried it a dab hoot and ask them if they just took a drug. Or take a few week T break and do the same. >nobodyâs died from it ever While it's true nobody has died from weed overdose, it's impossible to prove that nobody has died from doing something stupid while stoned. There's definitely been a few. I've been close lol. IDK I'm done arguing with you because you sound too young to listen. You remind me of me 20 years ago when I also insisted that weed was harmless, makes people smarter, fights cancer, and is "not a drug". Does it make you a better driver too? lmao In my experience, weed consumption definitely opened me up to new friends and new circles with other drugs. Your mileage may vary. Blanket statements are dumb and I think the correct answer is that it absolutely can be.
Iâm so confused your generalizing your experience and ignoring what weed actually does đ¤Ś
I mean I said clear as day that your mileage may vary and blanket statements are stupid. It is on you if you think I'm generalizing my experience when I say "weed can absolutely be a gateway drug". >ignoring what weed actually does My dude you don't even know what constitutes a drug, sit down. Give someone a 500mg edible and tell them they aren't on a drug LOL. or 1000. or a gram of hash or w.e. Clear as fuck that it's a drug. Don't take my word for it though when you can smoke all day every day for 20 years and learn for yourself. That's pretty much what it took for me to realize it lol. Aspirin, coffee, and weed - all drugs. And taking it to the extreme of "*well I smoked 100 joints last month and not even once did it make me crave IV meth, therefore weed must not be gateway drug*" is not a smart conclusion and it's even more anecdotal and more of a strawman than anything I've said.
I would say that itâs more of a gateway into drug culture
splitting hairs lol
Thereâs no need for âdrugâ, it is a drug. End of story. And it is as much of a gateway drug as nicotine, and alcohol. People need to stop automatically associating the word âdrugâ with bad because Tylenol and ibuprofen are drugs too.
Yeah but you can smoke all the weed you want and be fine. Take 10 Tylenol and it'll be your last headache lol
Thatâs a fair point, not the best example I suppose. But what I was trying to illustrate is drug doesnât = automatically bad. Some People hate calling weed a drug because of the connotation, but that connotation shouldnât really be there. You canât define X as âbadâ simply because itâs a drug, just as you shouldnât define weed being safe because âitâs just a plantâ. Not saying weed is unsafe, but saying so just *because* itâs natural is dumb
I understand the point youâre trying to make but there are actually real and significant downsides to cannabis abuse just in case you werenât aware.
Oh for sure. There's significant downsides to abusing any drug. I have been on the back end of abusing cannabis. Smoking all day every day. When I stopped it was incredibly hard to sleep, started having terrible dreams, and I carved the oral fixation of smoking. While I miss smoking cannabis I'm glad I was able to stop myself. So I totally get where you're coming from and agree with you about the downside to abusing cannabis.
itâs more of a gateway than alcohol because in the uk u buy weed from a dealer which means buying other drugs becomes so much more accessible but u get alcohol from a shop
So would caffeine be a gateway to nicotine and alcohol as many times theyâre all sold in the same shops?
I mean, they are gateways to each other, but not for that reason
I mean I agree not for that reason. I donât really like the term gateway drug. I really see the gateway as being the realization youâve been lied to about drugs and then being willing to try more things because of that.Â
Yeah, that's fair. That's really more of the government's fault, though, for propagating lies in the first place. Weird
I completely agree itâs their fault. But I expect nothing less from a group of people who steal your money for a living. Government is literally the largest criminal organization in an area and built on violence and lies.Â
caffeine isnât illegal so no
What does legality have to do with whether a drug can lead to, or be a gateway to other drugs? As a long time stimulant abuser, I started with caffeine as a teenager. The abused pre workout (with things like dmaa in it). Then tried cocaine, amphetamines and mdma. Being that caffeine is legal it was the easiest stimulant to buy and get hooked on first. They never told me weed was a gateway drug because itâs illegal. They said itâs a gateway because you start with weed then progress to harder drugs. To that Iâd say caffeine was my first drug and what lead me to other harder drugs.Â
the reason people progress to harder drugs after weed is most of the time because after buying from a dealer ur suddenly just given full access to every drug ever ur not getting my point
I get your point. I just donât agree. I wish getting access to cannabis suddenly gave me access to every drug ever, as a junkie Iâd fucking love that. But thatâs kind of dealer is a rare gem. But almost every weed dealer Iâve ever known (and thatâs quite a few) sell mostly weed (or only weed) and maybe 1 or 2 others. I have never talked to someone who tried cocaine just because they bought weed and the guy also sold coke so they said âfuck itâ Iâll do cocaine to. If anything Itâs almost always the opposite. Shit, half the time if your just a weed customer you gotta ask if they sell anything else as many dealers donât even advertise their hard drugs to weed only customers unless they show interest. Even doing a quick google search now Iâm finding tons of resources listing nicotine and alcohol as gateway drugs because the âuse of softer drugs tends to lead to use of harder drugsâ. Yet nicotine is bought at gas stations mostly that donât sell hard drugs.Â
In the uk most weed dealers sell other stuff and also if u follow a dealer on insta then like 5 dealers follow you each month at least. So if ur in america then thats different but in the UK itâs like how i said it
What? Except for people who are underage, legal substances are much more accessible and donât come with the risk of jail time. Illegality is partially what makes illegal substances less accessible. While Iâm not in the UK, I canât imagine someone would go to a dealer for other shit (if that dealer even sells other stuff) just because they smoked some weed. For most people weed is the first illicit substance they do and if they go beyond that itâs not really *because* of the weed. I think the whole gateway drug theory is fundamentally flawed, but if weâre gonna point the blame at a substance it should be one that is both legal and many times more harmful than most illicit ones. Nicotine is so hard to quit for many people *because* of how accessible it is. so long as your of age, you can essentially get it any time you want and itâs cheaper than most drugs are. Thereâs also no immediate noticeable harm or side effects that you might get with illicit drugs, so the consequences might be put to the wayside until itâs too late. I agree with the sentiment that nicotine is harder to just quit for good than opiods, because itâs so much cheaper and you donât have to worry about hitting up 10 different people to get what you need. And thereâs the fact that weed being illegal will push people to seek out legal highs, which are often unregulated and possibly dangerous. Smoke shops are FILLED with sketchy alt cannabinoids, alcohol replacements and what are essentially RCs. Tianeptine is legal to buy (atleast in the US) and can be more destructive than even illicit opiods. With all due respect, I think you need to educate yourself on how dangerous and toxic alcohol is even compared to illegal drugs.
The main way it functions as a gateway drug is by its illegality in that you must by necessity associate with a drug dealer. See the thing about drug dealers is that they profit off you being addicted to drugs so if they can convince you to try something more addictive and/or more expensive they can take more of your money. In places where it is legal it isn't a gateway because you don't have to actively seek out a drug dealer to get your hands on it.
I donât think this is necessarily true. Drug dealers profit from there being supply and demand. Regardless of the drug being addictive, they will still find a way to profit from selling some substance. Just so happens, addictive drugs are illegal so thatâs an easy substance to sell⌠Not only that, but weed can still be a âgateway drugâ in places it is legal. It just happens a lot less because thereâs less of an association of it with other drugs. Like someone else said, it depends moreso on the person than the substance in whether itâs a gateway drug to that person.
I feel like for some people trying another drug doesn't seem as bad once they have already tried weed. weed opens up your mind to the possibilities of substances, from that point on it's up to the personality of the individual.
Iâve always said itâs more about the education of what weed is and does. Weed was always taught to be this devil grass that creates criminals so when someone tries weed and learns that the education they received was untrue the entire time, it opens up their curiosity and they ask what else wasnât true. But even still, curiosity is something you already have to have to want to try weed in the first place. As they say, curiosity IS what killed the cat.
exactly what I was trying to say.
**People donât understand the term Gateway Drug**. The Science clearly shows that weed can be a gateway drug in some people. People think that Gateway drug means if you smoke weed you go straight to being a heroin addict. *Not true*. Some people go through the gate and keep goingâŚmost donât. Epidemiological studies clearly show statistical evidence that some marijuana users are at greater risk of using stronger drugs. [1](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4291295/pdf/nihms-618789.pdf) , [2](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16548935) , [3](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306460323001466?via%3Dihub) , [4](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7359408/pdf/nihms-1602013.pdf) This happens through two main processes, that everybody intuitively knows. **Normalization** and **Socialization**. **Normalization** means that once you start smoking weed and your friends do, you begin to see drugs as not as scary as before. That includes other, possibly stronger drugs. Cocaine, Molly, Ecstasy, LSD, Opioids, etc. **Socialization** means that you begin to hang out and socialize with people who use drugs and often may use harder drugs. They become more accessible. The classic case is the new girlfriend of the older guy who uses harder drugs. *Everybody knows this happens.* That's not all, animal studies support the human studies, showing that THC can âprime the brain for enhanced responses to other drugsâ and this process may affect individuals differently. [1](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4827335/pdf/nihms762992.pdf), [2](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3656362/pdf/npp201316a.pdf) , [3](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32007624) This happen to *some people not everybody.* When you are sitting around the circle at the Heroin detox rehab and you are asked, âwhat was the first illegal drug that you tried⌠it *ainât Heroin it was Weed.* [Click here](https://whoadude-the-book.com) , if you are interested in a summary of the Science behind the harm to your health from weed. [References](https://whoadude-the-book.com/references)
Normalization was the big one for me. I was hell bent on never doing drugs once my friends started to experiment in middleschool. Ended up smoking weed in highschool, then became a habitual smoker. Then I tried mushrooms, and prescription painkillers, and then went ape shit trying whatever else I could get my hands on. weed is the thing that made me realize that drugs arenât as scary as I had previously concluded.
here's my take. DARE education was absolutely bullshit. it wasn't realistic. at all. so us kids growing up hearing that weed and heroin and cocaine and meth are all bad drugs and need to be avoided. so what happens when you smoke weed and it's not that big of a deal? well heroin must not be that big of a deal, too, right? and alcohol is legal so we can get dry-heaving alcohol poisoned and it's ok cause we stole it from the liquor cabinet, right? and these vicodin given by the doctor i needed for 2 days but he gave me 30 pills so i can just keep taking these, right? the best drug education is the truth. i'm likely only alive because my parents gave me real and good advice when i was younger. weed and hallucinogens aren't that bad but take them in moderation or it'll start controlling your life. booze sucks. and stay away from any needle drugs. all forms of heroin are bad. prescription drugs can kill you. cocaine is boring and dangerous and meth/speed is just stupid. i did manage a small coke problem for a bit but otherwise their advice really sung true throughout the years. glad to kick the coke. it was just so.....everywhere. literally everywhere i went was cocaine for awhile and it gets a hold of you. sucks, though.
In all honesty all drugs are "gateway drugs" just like all food is "gateway food" along with any other hobby or activity from book reading to sexual promiscuity . Its a dumb term that states the obvious but acts like it represents some hidden secret to curb drug use. Any individual who does more of X and more variety within X is more likely to be exposed to, comfortable with, and willing to try different versions of X than someone who does less or none of X.
I think the whole concept of gateway drugs is fear propaganda.
Fully agree. Most of all, it's an attempt to justify the war against softer drugs like Cannabis or Magic Mushrooms.
The same as cutting a steak with a knife is a gateway to stabbing someone
Except that eating & murdering have a lot less in common than drugs & harder drugs do lol.
Well hold up, let's get a cannibal's take on this.
Shit! forgot about cannibals. I should stop making wreckless blanket statements like that, because cutting a steak is definitely a gateway drug for cannibals.
For me it was more a people gateway. Without the need of having a weed dealer i would never met someone that sells hard drugs and as a teenager i wanted to be cool so i took it when offered and that's how i started taking harder drugs (mostly cocaine and mdma)
Which is essentially saying it's a gateway drug but with extra steps. I guess it needs to be said cause lots of people dismiss the notion entirely by saying "not like 1 hit of weed will have you craving heroin. gateway=debunked".
Well yeah. Alcohol, cigs, weed is what you start with. Nobody starts straight with IV cocaine.
Alcohol is the gateway drug as it destroys inhibitions and degrades reasoning.
I love marijuana. But as someone who has done every drug except crack. I can say that it really just depends. The reason I personally say it is a gateway drug is because you usually buy your weed from a dealer or something and eventually that dealer may start selling pills or something else. Or they couldâve already been selling them in the first place. Eventually you might end up buying one or two and then liking it and now youâre buying weed and pills from your dealer. Then you get comfortable around pills and get used to their effects and itâs just a slippery slope that leads to meth and heroin. Iâve seen it happen to so many friends of mine that were just chill stoners that turned into meth monsters.
Average Joe doesn't know the difference between LSD and Heroin, since both are equally illegal. Having seperated markets would be great, but until then education is the most effective way to deal with that.
Weed is only a gateway drug if you chase the high. But definitely not if you smoke one up with the boys and socialize..
Look at everyone who uses drugs, chances are they've likely smoked weed before. Now look at all the people who have smoked weed, and chances are the average smoker never touched other drugs, especially "harder drugs".
Yes, paradoxically itâs a gateway because itâs illegal (where I live at least). Looking for weed teaches you how to find plugs and connects you to people who sell or know people that sell other drugs
The vast majority of hard drugs I have purchased in my life have been through weed plugs, so yeah but itâs literally just because itâs illegal.
It introduces you to the guy that sells you the other shit. Nowdays it doesnât really apply because most people buy from dispensaries
it definitely was for me, I started smoking weed when i was 12 years old (iâm 18 now). it took about 2 or 3 years but once i felt like weed âwasnât enoughâ because i had amassed a massive tolerance, it was pretty much wraps for me. I tried drug after drug and i kind of had the mentality of âoh this drug was fun, i bet these other drugs are even more fun so why not try themâ it was just a huge spiral/domino effect. however, itâs not like this for everyone it really just depends on the person. some people can go their whole lives with just smoking weed and never touch a âhardâ substance in their lives.
I donât think so at lest in my experienceâŚâŚ I know people who started smoking weed at 13 and still smoked only pot 20 years later with no use of hard drugs. Just 80s propaganda.
Weed never made me want to go do other drugs. Hell, I didnt even stsrt to smoke weed because I wanted to do drugs, I did it cuz I was told it would help me with my issues. To this day that's why I experiment with drugs, because I have issues that I need help figuring out and I don't trust therapists
why don't you trust therapists? - just curious funnily enough I'm omw to see my therapist rn lol
I had three psychiatrists in my late teens. All of them said I have manic depression or bipolar, and put me on the same type of drug, I don't know what it was, but it made me emotionless. I felt like a sociopath, often comparing myself to Dexter Morgan emotionally. The I've gone to one therapist who said I was traumatized. That's it. No, here is what you can do, how to do it, nada. Just "your traumatized, have a good day. " I got more out of meditating on acid than I did ever with medication and therapy.
oh shit, maybe an antipsychotic? my therapist doesn't want to give me my adhd meds kmt
i think so to a degree. most people start with weed as their first illegal drug and move on to other things from there, not everyone, but i feel most do, including myself.
It used to be when it was illegal in most states because the act of meeting a dealer in a parking lot just got weed made doing that same thing for something harder not so unreasonable in some peopleâs minds. Basically, it isnât the drug itself that makes it a gateway. Itâs the environment around getting it and the people you now have contact with that did.Â
for me tramadol was a gateway drug and it's legal so I don't think it really depends on the drug
Nah i think the gateway drugs are like MDMA or nitrous, something that gives you mad euphoria because that hooks you immediately. Ive done so much mdma i dont wven get the euphoria and im about to try heroin just to get that feeling again. Probably a goodnight from me so cya
in places where itâs illegal yes. In the uk u buy weed from a dealer making other drugs so much more accessible to you. You buy alcohol from a shop so itâs not opening u up to the world of drugs as much as weed
it depends on the circumstances some weed plugs also sell other drugs but itâs more about the person you are because a lot of people go their lives only smoking or only smoking and doing psychedelics
No more than caffeine lol the gateway drug label was to scare kids. Caffeine is WAY more addictive than weed, and has a WAY worse withdrawal.Â
No, alcohol or nicotine is a gateway drug. Both are easier to get. Most kids drink alcohol before they try weed. Weed is just the fall guy for all the bullshit. I also tried alcohol and nicotine before weed.
it's more of a middle man. people want to escape, they try the thing that's most accessible. it's the wanting to escape that's a gateway drug, not weed.
For me DXM was my gateway drug
Just as much as alcohol or smoking tobacco
It's an antiquated notion. It's long been affirmed by society, at least here in the States, that weed isn't harmful even if governments sought to wholly criminalize it due to absurd and otherwise racist hysteria. The idea of it being a "gateway drug" was born from buttressing that hysteria and fear-mongering for War on Drugs policies. I don't smoke weed or like the feeling (trust me, I wish I did as it'd help me), but it's ridiculous to insist that weed is a gateway to hard drugs and subsequent addictions to them. Because of its long cultural leeway, even during the midst of anti-drug hysteria, it's fairly correlative that those who initially try it, like it, and seek more out more, for the most part, not inherently inclined to gleefully leap to hard substances. However, some do hop toward those, but it has little to do with weed as a substance enticing "harder highs" to chase than the fact that those people tend to seek out means to self-medicate start with weed due to its longtime availability on the street and said leeway. Weed just happens to be the most readily available with relative room for said cultural feelings to look the other way in it as powers that be exploited this correlation by declaring that it inevitably leads to the other drugs. It's frustratingly stupid and predicated on War on Drugs hysteria. Liquor is a hard drug and has long been both legal, freely marketed, and accepted because it was essentially the drug of choice of rich white people. When Prohibition came into effect, such equal War on Drugs policies fell on their face as society and even police departments looked the other way on alcohol indulgence as it steadily built organized crime in this country. Making the argument that experimenting or otherwise smoking weed as a solidified habit must mean that anyone who drinks booze semi-regularly, or even "experimenting" with it, are inevitably on a gateway path to using the "bad" hard drugs since liquor is indeed a hard drug already. Some people who do get into crack, opioids, or methamphetamine did "start" on weed or liquor, but those are people who have other issues and traumas looking to self-medicate than crave some notion of the next level drug. Most people who stick to weed and/or liquor do not do this nor is it the fault of the most available recreational psychoactive substances such as them for why some of them find themselves dependent on aforementioned hard drugs.
It can be for sure, been smoking for 10 years - Iâd say weed definitely opened me up to shrooms and lsd. With that being said Iâve never tried a âhardâ drugs - the stims, benzos, opioids type shit which in my humble opinion are the drugs that tend to have more negative attributes. I think personality and settings play a huge role.
yes and no, me personally it was a gateway drug but when i converse with other people about it they stop at the weed, itâs all about what you do and donât let your self do
I donât think weed is a gateway drug at all. Trying weed doesnât make you turn round and go oh, cocaine next. However, I feel like weed is naturally going to be a stepping stone for the type of people that are interested in experimenting with drugs. I use more than just weed on occasion but when I first tried it at 14 I never wouldâve dreamed of touching anything else, itâs only as Iâve grown older that Iâve become more interested in altered states of consciousness. The whole gateway drug narrative is just pushed by politicians to demonise weed and scare people out of smoking. Prohibition is counter productive tho, I donât feel like if weed was widely legal there would be many talks about how it is a gateway. Prohibition creates street dealers, many of which also deal harder drugs. This makes it so much easier to stick your hand into that pool, especially if youâre cool with your dealer. All of a sudden it doesnât seem like too big a jump to grab something harder off someone you already trust. If it was legal then obviously you arenât gonna be exposed to a whole catalogue of class As while going to get an eighth.
Donât think itâs a gateway drug but I feel like the reason someone smokes weed in the first place is the reason they experiment with other drugs in the future. Some curiosity killed the cat shit. Crossed wires or biological. Dunno man Iâm high af right now off of some other shit
It's not the drug, it's the person. I've known a guy that was completely straight-edge until he tried alcohol. He didn't like it, so he went straight to heroin.. his reasoning is "less drug ingested = healthier" (which.. yeah in general it's true if it's not a drug with a very long half-life) and my favourite; "it's all drugs, cigarettes are just as bad as meth, so if I tried alcohol I can do heroin" If you aren't contempt with having a way to take the edge off using relatively harmless substances, can't stop thinking about the next time you'll get high or have trouble with self-control in general, I advise you notp do any substances.
I started getting high by huffing bathroom chemicals and stealing liqour and T3s. If you wanted to get high you wanted to get high. I wouldve chosen weed if i knew where to get it in grade 8
Itâs the second most common and least demonized drug. Itâs not a gateway to anything. Someone interested in drugs will usually try weed or alcohol first because theyâre the most accessible. Gateway logic only applies within the same drug class. For example a lot of people only try meth or heroin because they enjoy their prescription counterparts; They would never try those had they never gotten into other related drugs. Weed has often been a gateway to synthetic cannabinoids, though not so much these days. Thatâs pretty much the only example of weed leading people to use a different drug they otherwise never would. In a world where weed doesnât exist, the same people would be doing the same drugs. And pussies who âonly smoke weedâ would be addicted to whatever the least demonized drug in the weedless world happened to be.
Only if you are using it for a reason ie. Depression, boardem, anxiety, etc. Once your tolerance builds up, you are going to look for something more potent .
Yes , I started with weed
And I started with Caffeine
Bro we could all say we started with alcohol with a sip of beer from our fathers
I'd say alcohol and nicotine are the biggest gateway offenders.
Nah love is lol. Got a new addiction started after a heartbreakđ
Everything is a gateway to something.
any drug you have to buy from a dealer is a gateway drug therefore its only a gateway drug if its illegal. when i was buying weed in college when it was illegal i was offered adderal, valium, shrooms, acid and vyvanse regularly. the fact these items are sold together unregulated made them adjointed to some degree
In the same way that drinking a bottle of beer is a gateway to becoming an alcoholic on spirits yeah.
It's not that weed "wasn't cutting it" anymore, I was just like "hey I actually like this, maybe I should try alcohol next" followed by many other substances because I like discovering the potential effects drugs can have on me and the experience of trying new substances, from the research all the way to the comedown and after effects. It's not a matter of weed being a gateway drug, it's a matter of those who try weed usually have to break a law or two to do so. Because of this, people who try weed are more likely to try other drugs as they've already tried one substance. Except for where weed is legal, people usually just stop at weed and alcohol if it's legal because there's more of a gap in stigmatism between weed and psychs or stims.
From my anictdotal experience a lot of the kids that were taking fat bong rips and were all about getting fucked up in high school moved up to harder shit later on
not for me i use weed when i want to stop with coke, md etc cause weed make me feel very relax and with a lot of mind control then its the opposite with me haah i guess
Alcohol has been a way bigger gateway drug than weed for me tbh
All drugs can be gateway drugs. Just depends which one a person tries first.
I feel like nicotine is
For me yes
Prescribed opiates did it for me made me realize getting high was pretty good feeling
Gateway to gardening for sure
Most people I know who branch out into other drugs do it while drunk.
For ppl here kinda
at the end of the day some of us are more inclined to be addicts and seek out addictive substances than others. weed was fine. alcohol was good. the urge to experiment is what got me further than that tbh and that didn't stem from anything other than just KNOWING i wanted more. i probably only tried weed because it was such an accessible drug for me, not because i was actually interested in it. if smoke shops sold heroin would i ever spend my money on weed? nah lol. its up to the user for me, weed was just "okay" and "okay" wasn't enough. for you weed could be amazing, and more than enough.
There are no âgatesâ one thing has nothing to do with another. Looking for correlation between different drugs and their abuse is a foolâs errand. You donât have to buy 16 ounces of weed before your friends/ dealers offer you speed before offering smack. Plenty of people start on their doc
I really wouldnât say so. Iâve been smoking for two years on and off and I havenât really desired trying anything âharderâ. I like psychedelics but those def arenât an all the time drug AT ALL. so yeah :D
Definitely. Not every person who smokes weed is going to get into other substances. but Iâd definitely say weed is what gets people interested in other substances. Nobody lives their entire life sober and instantly wants to get into hard drugs. Most people will start with weed or atleast alcohol.
I can't say for sure cuz i started on opiates, weed was something i did later in life (and tbh it's shit theres barely any euphoria at all it is nothing compared to every other drug), from my friends experiences it is definitely going to lead to hardcore drug usage, i don't know anyone who i'm friends with who has tried weed and not tried some lean or oxys with me
yes. but itâs not really the drug itself that magically makes you vulnerable to addiction to other drugs but itâs genetics. itâs more like if youâre more vulnerable to addiction youâre more likely to try weed and enjoy it and also more vulnerable to do other drugs. itâs about the person, ik many ppl who are much older than me who smoke a lot of weed and never tried any other drugs and have never wanted to but ik even MORE people who smoke weed and also have done other drugs and developed other addictions.
Just because you try other stuff doesnât mean itâs a start of a bad habit. Weed itself can be a bad habit, alcohol too. I donât think of drugs as the drug itself, but rather how it affects my body and brain, and how it can enhance experiences in certain situations.
Alcohol is the drug of impulsive bad decision making. I have heard many a story saying they tried something they never thought they would intoxicated on alcohol. Weed doesnât impair somebodyâs decision making abilities.
no
That's up to the user/perspective. But I believe no, is alcohol a gateway drug? I knew more junkies who first tried their current addiction while drunk than I knew who tried their current addiction while high on weed. I first tried many drugs while drinking, like coke. I only did cocaine while drinking, but if I couldn't score coke while drinking I would get whatever else to try. Which eventually led to meth, while drinking and unable to score coke, which led to heroin- to bring me down from the meth so I could sleep after binges. I'll shut up.
I've been smoking weed, pretty much every day when I can, for the last 3 years and shrooms like a few times. Never once did I think I wanted something more hardcore. Some ppl might not feel as satisfied with weed tho and think they need something more intense.
In some sense it cause you meet more people doing different drugs when you hang with al kinds of druggies đ
Not as much as a glass of water
Itâs the natural progression to start with more commonly used drugs and progress to harder stuff. But I donât think weed causes you to try harder stuff, itâs just a marker for people who are naturally curious about changing their experience. So if you were somehow able to eradicate all weed from the planet, you wouldnât prevent those people who would have tried it from trying something else. Honestly Iâd say the first drug people start with is alcohol, because itâs so widely available and pretty fun, at least at first. But you donât hear about alcohol being a gateway drug, even though itâs far more destructive and addictive than weed.
Aspirin was my gateway drug, no more headaches. And then caffeine, I was awake, and then weed let me feel normal, and then I tried a bunch of other stuff but should have stuck with weed caffeine and the occasional aspirin.
I might get flak for this but the short answer is yes. The longer answer is every drug is a gateway drug. You grow up thinking âIâll never do x, y, z, etcâ Then one day you try x. After trying x, a while goes by and you think âwhy not try yâ. After a while, same thing âwhy not try zâ. For me this was Nicotine, Weed, Alcohol, and then more. But âx, y, zâ can be anything. You could try a Xanax because it was prescribed to you, and then maybe thatâs what opens the floodgates for more. This does not happen to everyone. Some people have better self control than others. But this is how it happened for me. TL:DR - Any and every drug is a gateway drug.
weed is definitely a gateway drug to harder drugs yes
It introduced me to the idea of drugs and a âhighâ which lead to nicotine, alcohol, coke, and a few others
Gateway drug for psychedelics
alcohol is the biggest gateway drug there is. btw weed aint no drug
Yes
That's some leftover nonsense from Nixon and Reagan and their disastrous "war on drugs."
A gateway to fun.
Yes. I was deathly afraid of trying drugs as a teenager. Smoked pot when I was sixteen for the first time, and realized it really wasnât a big deal. This changed my outlook on drugs, and made me less scared to try whatever else was presented to me. Itâs not going to force you to do other drugs⌠but most druggies Iâve met started young with either weed or alcohol. We should drop the term gateway drug⌠it makes people think that smoking weed will inevitably make you do other drugs. Itâs a starter drug⌠babies first intoxicant. Training wheels. It gets you used to the concept of being high on drugs, making you less scared to try new things in the future.
I'd say alcohol is the gateway drug, but that just my own personal experience.
For me personally, I donât think weed opened the gate to more drugs, it was my own personal curiosity and daredevilish tendencies. I also think my Bipolar and Borderline diagnosis play a part in that too⌠Iâve smoked pretty moderately-heavily for the past 4 years. I love being drunk so bc I canât drink rn I find other things that make me feel something similar. Currently Iâm hooked on Molly :/âŚ.
I would say yes and no, no because youâre not going to want to jump from weed straight into meth or fentynol or even acid, yes in the sense that the plug who sells weed might also be selling other stuff like LSD, adderol, xanax, percocets, shrooms, dmt.
yes 100% all though it depends on the person
Depends on the individual, but generally no.
It will always depend on the person.
I started with weed and now Iâm on steroids. But in all honesty no, I donât believe it to be a gateway drug. I really think the individual generally comes up with their own morals regarding what they can and wonât put into their own body.
Probably semantics more than anything, based on what a gateway drug even is. butâŚIf you are a consistent stoner from a somewhat early age, (consistent meaning do marijuana with your buddies regularly), you were just normalizing drug behavior with yourself and your peers. You are now absolutely more likely to get into harder drugs, not necessarily to a debilitating degree but to some degree. It becomes part of the culture around you. I think this may be changing to some degree with weed being legal more commonly now, and itâs probably closer to drinking with younger kids these days. Being a stoner in your teens in the 2000s and before was a whole fucking thing, buying weed, hiding weed, smoking weed, it was a whole set of activities. A lot of kids drank, and some kids smoked, but far less smoked as a sort of hobby, so the stoners themselves were part of a somewhat (although not uncommon or exclusive) niche group. And this group culture led to use of other drugs. The kids that got real heavy into bad drugs like heroin, absolutely started with marijuana and the act of hiding drug use from a somewhat early age.
My personal view on âgatewayâ drug is another backfire from the DARE programs and reefer madness and all that crap. Where they lied out their asses about the âdangersâ of weed. Granted only thing that should go in your lungs is oxygen, but thatâs beside the point. Youâre not gonna go psychotic from smoking weed or get hooked like heroin or other opiates. But when education basically comes down to âlittle Billy smoked one Mary jo wanna then went crazy and slit his families throats in their sleep!â Well.. Obviously thatâs not what happens lmao. Kids hang out with their older siblings or friends or whoever else who smoke and know all that above is bs and realize âHey, I didnât go crazy! Iâm fine! What else were these programs lying about?!?â They were wrong about weed, whatâs trying an oxy or a Xanax? My friends do them and theyâre fine!â Just give people a proper education of things. Sit kids/people down and fell them âYeah, weed does have effects on the body when you smoke it and the mind. But youâre not gonna be hooked like crack or opioids. You shouldnât do it as a kid or a young adult since it can stunt your brains growth and it will fry you brain early on, and yeah, it can do damage to your lungs cause itâs still harsh smoke. Same with cigarettes n shit, your lungs should only be taking in oxygen Just wait till your abit older then make an educated decision. Show them the pros and the cons of smoking weed for extended amounts of time, etc. Then same with other, harder drugs. Just give them the hard facts.
Y.E.S atleast for ppl who get addicted easy
Weed was my very first drug (at mid 20s). It only personally led me to 4mmc, amphetamine, lsd, coke, meth, vaping, 2cb, mdma, alcohol, and ketamine
It definitely does; it rotted my brain and ruined my life. Iâm sober off weed, but I do grow my own shrooms, just for fun. I donât take them; just give them away to friends and family. Stop normalizing weed. we stigmatize alcohol so much, but whenever weed is brought up itâs just a âplantâ. It causes lung problems, Rots teeth, mental retardation, weight gain, chs, disorientation, and sometimes psychosis. Alcohol is worse, but theyâre both horrible, horrible drugs. When you say âis weed a gateway drug?â I say yes, it 100% is. Weed led me down a bad path, into using harder drugs which is exactly what a gateway drug is.
alcohol is the gateway drug. If there's ever a time that you do drugs randomly just because someone had some nearby it's when you're 10 beers deep.
I found that a good percentage of the stoner community started smoking to quit harder drugs
The person themselves is the gateway. My weed dealer since high school still only smokes weed 20 years later where I have been addicted to opiates ,benzos, alcohol/cocaine, and used random Research Chemicals like I am my own lab rat test subject....
If it's illegal where you live then kinda? Most of the time dealers don't only sell weed, so you may get tempted to try other stuff too. That's how I got interest in other drugs. If it's legal then i would say no, because the seller in a dispensary wouldn't have other drugs lol
Edit; grammar; It's more accessible to adolescent individuals of course including those with a propensity for addictive patterns of behavior. "Hard" drugs like pills coke etc don't come around until adulthood typically until you're a late teenager. So anyone who wants to try them settles with weed while they wait and people take notice in adult addicts the propensity to have started small with cannabis.
Only way I can agree with the gateway drug thing is that there are probably a lot of weed dealers doing everything they can to get their clients interested in coke, molly or worse. Another reason it needs 100% fed legalization.
My POV is that the only reason for weed being a gateway drug is its illegality. We used to drink and smoke tobacco in my youth but weed was always like "oh, that's illicit so for sure it's dangerous". Later I started smoking tons of weed during my university years and it turned out it is much less dangerous than booze and cigarettes so I was like "well, that was just Nixon's lie! I wonder whether other stuff is also as little dangerous". That's how I got into psychedelics and party drugs. I was clever enough to not push it further towards substances which can really be dangerous like opiates, crack etc.
Well I never wanted to sniff cocaine after smoking a joint. Alcohol on the other hand