This is not clear at all. Marijuana is not a narcotic nor is it an addictive drug. Had you ever experienced this, you would understand. It's like Coca Cola . . . it's tasty and enjoyable, but you can walk away from it easily and most do. Then let me tell you something else that you don't realize. There are no drug superstores or super dealers. Pot dealers are mostly pot smokers who do it to get cheaper pot for themselves and their friends. They rarely deal in other drugs. Dealers of hard drugs usually specialize, too. Well, it should. Those substances are physically addictive and it is no coincidence that addictive personality types indulge in these drugs. It is also no surprise that they quickly abandon marijuana and move on to addictive narcotics.
It is important. It's supports the notion that grass is less harmful than tobacco or beer and no more of a "gateway" to narcotics than coffee is. Not that grass is harmless, its just that the things some folks imagine are really off the wall. I smoked enough pot in the 70's to float the Hindenberg, I was literally stoned every waking moment for 10 years. For me it was a "gateway" to academic achievement, career success, financial prosperity, hundreds of friends, and much love, knowledge, and happiness. I'll honestly tell you the two things about marijuana that are bad. 1. You can get arrested. 2. Complacency. This is no chit. Marijuana definitely will allow you to be content doing almost anything including nothing at all. It can make an already complacent personality type into a pot-head who is satisfied with achieving nothing and doing little. Even those of us who are motivated and ambitious have experienced the contentment that pot offers and realize that it can make you lazy. Worse, it can turn achievers into dreamers. This can be fabulous for an artist or a writer but can prove to be a distraction for those who must focus on their work and their families. Rather than being led to "hard drugs", most pot heads are eventually led to cutting way back and quitting (easy to do, no withdrawal whatsoever) simply because it can get in the way of personal achievement by making one far too content with whatever they are doing.
If pot lead to harder drugs why are there not many many more hard drug users? Pot smokers outnumber users of harder drugs by such a wide margin.
Well, like I said . . . I can go by my experience or by your imagination. Tell me . . . do you imagine that I am a heroin addict?
because it doesn't. I kind of went off last night, and i apologize for that. Lets just say, Pot is a gateway drug. Could the reason be that for years you are told that Pot is dangerous, pot is bad for you. Then when you try it, you realize that everyone that told you that is full of sh!t. So do you wonder what other drugs the masses lied to you about? So if pot is a gateway drug, its no ones fault but the people who say pot is dangerous, and bad. but it's not a gateway drug, just some really clever propaganda by the Nixon administration, that for some insane reason has stuck in people's craw. Isn't making pot illegal kind of like telling God that he/she is wrong? - Bill Hicks
I couldn't agree more. We were taught as kids that marijuana would make us hallucinate, that we would be "hooked" on it, that it would make us impotent, that dealers dusted pot with heroin to get kids addicted, that it leads to hard drugs, and that it kills brain cells. Well, when we found out that that was BS, we thought that everything they said about all the drugs might be BS, too, and so we found out the hard way.
both shane and red are correct on this. the stoner will watch the drunk mofo doing the double gainer off the roof while saying "cool man", and have no thought to actually doing the same themselves. i have known people that cover the whole range of booze/drugs as far as users. some successful, some now dead. i'll just relate what i have witnessed. two friends that would occassionally smoke a fat one. they were both very successful pediatric specialists. i knew them starting when they graduated med school and were going into their residencies. both hard working, got into prestigious programs, and ended up doing extremely well in their chosen field. they never did harder drugs, for them the now and then weed was a way to relax and kick back, much the same as others i have known do with a few drinks after work. two other friends, that i was very close to when i was in br. both of them were recovering alcoholics/addicts. hard drugs. they started with alcohol, lived the hard party life and one went to the hard drugs via coke, the other prescription drugs. neither one was a stoner. unfortunately, both went back to their ways, and they started back with the "gateway" of alcohol. then straight to hard drugs. they are both now dead. both successful in their fields until they ruined themselves with alcohol and drugs the second time. one a physician, one an attorney. two people with so much to give and they threw it all away. another friend. no drugs, just alcohol. tried to get sober god knows how many times. and failed. over and over and over. and alcohol controlled his life. he lost his career and his family. and eventually, his life. i have seen others i have known go pretty much the same route, minus the death. alcoholics that alcohol controlled their lives and they made it a priority over jobs or families. please dont tell me alcohol isnt a drug that ruins families and lives. it is and does as much devastation as any drug i have seen. and of course, there are countless people i know who drink alcohol. it doesnt control their lives, they arent giving up family and losing jobs from it. they party or tailgate sometimes partaking of liquid refreshment more than other times. they will have a few after work to relax. i dont consider them alcoholics any more than i would consider my two friends in pediatrics drug addicts. me, well i wont say what all i have done that is considered recreational, but some of it was legal, some of it wasnt. i now dont do any of it. but for me, the gateway was alcohol. and the hardest of all to stop doing were the alcohol and the cigarettes. and the only ones i ever crave any more are not the illegal substances, but the alcohol and the cigarettes. imo, an addictive personality is gonna do the drug no matter what it is or how they get their hands on it. and that includes alcohol, which is where every addictive person i have known started.
