[Know your rights]

And yet pot's not a gateway drug...

He kept looking for a new kind of kick. Article doesn't go into how his depression after the breakup of the Beatles lead to alcoholism.

Pot is the gateway to alcohol?

[weegee]

He wasn't "looking for a kick" when he went fell to alcoholism. He did find pot, heroin (which he smoked), LSD, cocaine, (others?) when he was working and partying.

His wife and family may have also had an impact on his chemical choices after the Beatles.