Quote:
Originally Posted by MAXUM
The bottom line to this as far as I'm concerned is that pot is a controlled substance and in many cases has been suggested is a gateway drug to the more hardcore stuff.
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I'm pretty sure The Science has disproved the "gateway" myth about pot. Try googling "pot not gateway" and see what pops up. Anecdotally, I can say that not one of the many pot smokers I have known (I'm from Colorado) ever turned to harder drugs. Co-occurrence is not the same thing as cause.
Maxim also compared marijuana smoking to tobacco smoking. Marijuana is smoked very differently from cigarettes. Cigarettes are lit and inhaled for 5 to 10 minutes at a time, and many addicts range between 10 and 40 cigarettes per day. Marijuana smokers generally take a few puffs when they smoke, and may do it at most a few times in the same day (smoking often within a short time period only makes it harder to feel its effects). Thus, the time marijuana-only smokers are exposed to smoke is significantly less than to cigarette-only smokers, and should not be compared.