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1. As I said, that is all dependent on the potency and the quantity of each product. Comparing high grade pot with wine isn't really an apples to apples comparison. One is far more potent than the other. One good hit of high grade pot will alter you consciousness much like one good shot of high proof alcohol will alter you consciousness. One good hit of low grade pot will not alter you consciousness so much much like one glass of wine won't. However, that is also dependent on the person (and in terms of alcohol, their weight and tolerance). I've known people who get pretty buzzed off of one beer or one glass of wine. They also tend to have a glass of beer or wine once a month or so.

2. Of course pot is the first illicit drug used before someone who is a heroin user or a coke user goes on to try that. For one, it's a much more mild drug than those two. When I was a kid and first visited an amusement park I didn't go right on a 300 foot roller coaster that went 70+ MPH. I rode the Ferris Wheel and the Tilt O Wheel first before I would even consider riding that. Plus, it's the more common, widely available drug in the illicit marketplace. I would wager most people come across pot in their lives before they come across heroin or coke.

That being said, the numbers disprove the gateway theory. There are 15.2 million past month pot users. 2.4 million are past month cocaine users. 119k have used heroin in the past month. And about 600k past month meth users. If you combine them all (about 3.1 million) the percentage is 20% of all of the popular hard drug past month users equals the total of past month pot users. If pot were a gateway drug, I'd think that number would be over 20%.

3. I've read the study. Your claim was that it was frequent. That is what I'm disputing. Psychosis in general is infrequent in this country. This would be like saying that if you go swimming in the ocean and wear a red bathing suit you are 40% more likely to get bit by a shark. Yet if that increased the odds of getting bit by a shark from 1 in a million to 1 and 600k, that wouldn't mean that wearing red trunks makes one get bit by a shark "frequently."

How is one "less useful" if they are getting high, compared to pretty much all the crap out there where one can tune reality out? Is the person getting high "less useful" than my ex-girlfriend who would spend hours at home watching crap like the Bachelor and Bad Girls Club? Or is that person "less useful" than my cousin who plays World of Warcraft for what seems to be 12 hours a day?

As for who is “less useful,” the mentally impaired are.

To pretend that most regular pot users do not get affected mentally is simply to deny reality. We all have probably known regular pot smokers. They are, as a general group, not doing well mentally.

Perhaps you know an exception or two. I can believe that. However, the vast majority I know/have known have been spacy, dumbed down, or paranoid. Some seriously paranoid.

A person who zones out on a tv show can still kick it into gear. A person who smokes out every day, can’t.