I speak from experience, but not with marijuana, or any other controlled subtance, or anything illegal. Happy? Don't get too curious.
I speak from knowledge of marijuana drug, and having read many papers on the effects thereof;
I insist that you don't put commas where they don't belong;
and I speak with reason, my preceding post only outlining a basic, logical summation of the viewpoint you express, worded to emphasize its underlying absurdity, as recieved by me. Perhaps you had better write more eloquently, more correctly, and with more factual data or scientifically accepted common knowledge to support your point.
Marijuana IS a proven gateway drug. While taking marijuana itself may have a gateway effect, this is hotly debated and neither side has produced conclusive evidence. From personally observed data and common sense, I personally think marijuana does make you more likely do harder drugs from just the act of smoking it, as it does make people enjoy and appreciate the high, which can lead to harder drugs.
More importantly, the environment and life choices of somebody already taking illegal drugs increases their likelihood to abuse stronger drugs in the future. This has been proven by many studies, and is essentially undeniable.
http://general-medicine.jwatch.org/cgi/content/full/2003/218/1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marijuana#Gateway_drug_theoryhttp://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1360-0443.2002.00280.x/abstracthttp://web.archive.org/web/20080622204803/http://www.mpp.org/about/faq.htmlThese sources back up my points, i.e., that pot itself may be a gateway drug, and that the legal status and environment in acquiring pot make it definitely a gateway drug.
There you have it. Pot is a gateway drug, one way or another. It leads to harder drug use.
I hope this post will return the thread to a discussion on the facts, rather than small details and incorrect grammar from several users. While these issues are present, they should be ignored and the greater issue should be the focus of discussion.