[silverleaf]

Despite all efforts to deny that pot is a gateway, it will never be undone.

Too many families have lived through it, or lost kids or other loved ones through the gateway.

Can't bring myself to read it. Have they proven how many heroin users/addicts did NOT start as pot users?

[Vaquero]

Uncle Bob's Midnight Blues Lyrics
Artist: Randy Newman
Album: 12 Songs



Goin' down to the corner
Gonna have myself a drink
Goin' down to the corner
Gonna have myself a drink
'Cause that sh*t that we been usin'
Sure confuse my thinking
Gonna send out to the drugstore
Buy myself a goat
Tie him up in my front yard
For all my so-called friends to see
Ain't nobody gonna look in my window and laugh at me
I been up so long
That it looks like down to me
Please don't talk about to me when I'm gone
Baby, are you against me too?
Had a great idea the other night
Come-A-Ti-Yi-Yippie, baby
Look out
When the blue of the night meets the gold of the day
We love you
We love you
We love you

[badpacifist]

Ugg It ..... uhhh ...uhh .... I forgot. What were we talking about?

[Wolfie]

But she found no evidence that they were more likely to become addicted than the rats in the control group who'd never been exposed to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, marijuana's main ingredient.

Funny how that was left out of the other articles.

[woollyone]

fercryinoutloud...everyone knows that breast milk is the real gateway drug.

[uncbob]

Biggest gateway drug of all is BEER

I would venture to say 99.9% of all addicts ( booze heroin-speed coke or what ever ) started out with BEER

Let's ban it

[bmwcyle]

Slate is such a good source. /sarcasm

Another case of "Liberaltarianism".

[Hatteras]

[ClearCase_guy]

Studies like this seem misguided to me. An analogy:

Would I mind if I got new neighbors, and their skin was a dark shade of brown? Not at all! Do you think I'm a racist?? The color of a person's skin is of no consequence.

Would I mind if I got new neighbors, and they embraced the Ghetto Hip-Hop Urban Trash culture? You're darn right I'd mind. I'd say "There goes the neighborhood" and I'd make plans to move. My principle worry would be that my kids would be influenced by a ruinous sub-culture.

Chemical relationships between marijuana and heroin are of no interest to me at all. But the sub-culture that embraces marijuana can be a bad sub-culture. Some folks who start off in the shallow end and end up in the deep-end of the pool. The culture is what's dangerous.

[Pondman88]

If one is predisposed to smoke pot, it seems it would follow that one may be predisposed to move onto other drugs..but then again maybe not.

I know a few potheads who are just that....potheads.

[robertpaulsen]

The author is setting up straw men and knocking them down in such quantity my head is spinning.

The gateway theory is NOT that pot smokers become addicted to heroin more often than non-pot smokers become addicted, or that they will consume more heroin once addicted -- the theory is that they are more likely to TRY heroin. Period.

And what does the author say about this? "Her study doesn't speak to whether they'd be more likely to try the drug."

What a waste of time. Common sense says that pot smokers are more more likely to try others drugs, including stronger drugs.

[tumblindice]

"Dairy products, Mandrake, childrens' dairy products.
They lead to mucus. I drink only pure, distilled water."

[Phil Southern]

I have an alternate theory, regardless of what the article concludes......smoking marijuana on a regular basis contributes heavily in bringing out an underlying condition which many people have, but are not totally aware of. This condition is what I will call "stupid". I have 10 years or so of research on working age adults to prove it. After a weekend of casual marijuana use, even the lower THC, cheaper varieties, employees will come back to work Monday, or Tuesday in a state of "stupid".

I hope they find a cure for it, maybe by taxing pot we can convince the government to do more research on this important issue. A cure could revolutionize humanity.

[zook]

So, out of 97 million pot smokers, 3 million have tried heroin, about 3 percent. I wonder what percent of 97 million non-pot smokers have tried heroin? I suspect it's probably far lower than 3 percent.

Although the likelihood of trying heroin is very small among pot smokers, it is probably far higher than among abstainers. This is not because of any physical dependency effect of pot, but, rather, because of a social effect. For example, the odds of one day running for political office are probably very small among members of high school debate teams. But they are probably far higher than they would be among students in high school auto shop classes.

[mysterio]

Quit trying to confuse the failed war on some drug zealots with facts. They don't speak logic. Emotion based arguments are preferable.

[bkepley]

Gateway to nowhere is about right.

[RobRoy]

I smoked dope between december of 1972 and July of 1977. Haven't touched it since. It never led to anything else, any moe than alcohol leads to pot, etc. I've always thought the "gateway drug" thing was right up there with other claims of Reefer Madness.

I consider dope more benign than alcohol. 'Cept it's illegal. What's up with that?!

[mrmargaritaville]

But it does lead to:
massive weight gain ("the munchies")
And a lot of remorse (waking up with coyote ugly women)

[expatguy]

how do the rats hold the joints with their little paws?

[A CA Guy]

Did the rats have their other rats and drug dealers moving them on to more interesting drugs in that study as well to mirror what happens in our society?