The Gateway Drug: Your Genes?
The question of why some kids start using alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, and other drugs at a young age remains a source of controversy. How much of a role do genes play? The environment — peers, parents, educational efforts? What about the “gateway theory,” the idea that one drug — marijuana is the most likely to be blamed — leads to use of others?
A new study of twins recently published online by the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence suggests that genes may play a large role, but to some degree every drug is a gateway drug.
By studying both fraternal and identical twins (in this case, they focused on African-American teen girls, a population underrepresented in prior studies), researchers can set up mathematical models designed to probe the influence of environment and genetics. Focusing on alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana, they found that early use either of alcohol or cigarettes was associated with an increased likelihood of being an early marijuana user, and early drinking was also associated with early cigarette use. In general, those who had never used a given substance were the least likely to report having used the others — so in a sense, almost any drug teens try seems to be a gateway drug.
Even more interesting, though, is the more detailed number crunching designed to tease out genetic vs. environmental influences. Inherited influences explained 44% of the variance in initiation of alcohol, 62% for cigarettes, and 77% of the variation in marijuana initiation. Because the confidence intervals (statistical-speak for margin of error) were fairly wide, those numbers should not be taken as gospel, but clearly genes play a major role in susceptibility to early substance use.
There is little doubt that some kids are innately more susceptible to early drug use than others. And a teen who tries one drug — whatever it is, legal or illegal — is more likely than his or her peers to try others. These are real issues that parents and educators need to face, and simplistically blaming marijuana as “the gateway drug” won’t help them.
Tagged with: alcohol and gateway and marijuana and science and tobacco by the author
42 comments
I started…
Smoking cigarettes at 12.
Drinking beer at 14.
Smoking cannabis at 15.
Doing cocaine at age 17.
Smoking methamphetamine at age 19.
Ingesting hydrocodone at age 20-21.
I’ve already started buying 80mg oxycotins to get me through the day, the only thing I was able to quit: MARIJUANA
It’s absurd it is illegal and I’m just preaching to the choir here, but who hasn’t or known someone who has went through this same cycle of abuse at one point or another in their life?
There is no substance on this planet that will make you fein for another substance, besides itself. Trust me, meth is a hell of a drug.
As for me, I don’t smoke tobacco. I drink alcohol on occasion, but not very much… usually when I’m with some friends or at a party.
I smoke cannabis because it helps me relax, relieves pain in my back (caused by years of carrying a heavy backpack and bad posture), and just seems to make everything a bit more fun and enjoyable. It’s not like alcohol, in that it won’t make you feel crappy the next morning if you overindulge. The worst you might get is a slight headache, and that’s only if you’re smoking low-quality herb. I don’t see why this plant remains illegal.
i started smoking the occasional cigarette when i was around 10 yrs. old and was full blown smoking at about 12-13. i started drinking pretty regularly at around 14-15 which was about the same time i started smoking marijuana. i am now 30 yrs old and i smoke cigarettes, i never drink because i believe it was terrible for me and have done some terrible things while drunk including smashing people in their faces with liquer bottles (on several occasions), and finally i do not smoke marijuana anymore due to it being illegal eventhough it would help me tremendously with my back pain and migrains that i get due tobeing hit by a drunk driver who ran a red light going about 50 mph. idont take any pain meds because they make me feel terrible and they are physically addicting. i have never fell victem to any other hard drugs. so to to sum it up cigarettes were my gateway drug and marijuana never led me to anything. i never smoked a joint and thought to myself “hey i think i wanna smoke some crack too” but its amazing how all these crackheads are alcoholics too….hmmm
most all weed smokers i have met frown upon doing these other hard drugs infact i have known soooo many crackheads where i used to live and weed was never the drug that led them there it was always alcohol and depression. the only gateway is the one that opens into the dealers house that wants to push his other drugs onto you and when the gate opens it sounds like this “hey i got this other stuff here you should try, its a way better high than that, here try a little its on the house” marijuana is not a gateway, society is the gateway from tv glamorizing drugs to friends and dealers. but it always goes through the dealers. so why not legalize pot so people dont go through dealers and then take care of these people who sell heroine and such. i do not wish for my children doing any drugs at all but if they are gonna try some pot i would rather it be from a store instead of a dealer thats for sure and if my children were 21 and wanted to smoke weed then i would not care one bit, because they are adults and marijuana is a choice and i do not see any real dangers in it at all infact the good definatly outweigh the bad. period!
I started with weed at 14, tried cigarettes a couple times, can’t stand, I don’t use them. I don’t really drink. I do take xanax, Tylenol 3′s, Percocet, things like that when I can but not regularly
Addiction its’ self is a pretty questionable “diagnosis” for what seems to me to be simply OAD (over attention disorder). If you think about puking long enough you will. Dwell on what you want and don’t have and you will begin to physically experience some kind of body change.
But, genetic addiction, or even pre-disposition, may be coming under heavy scientific scrutiny considering some more recent science in the field of genetics. Dr. Bruce Lipton has studied the effects of genes on human life for years, and what he brings forward in Biology of Belief is really something for consideration. He specifically addresses parenting as it is always a point of contention when dealing with genetic studies.
Consider your own thoughts to be a part of the “environment” that you have been raised within. Dr Lipton proposes that it is this environmental stimuli that dictates how our DNA is enterpreted. Similar to the bible in that the parts don’t change but the interpretation veries due to ones specific environmental pre-disposition on religion or specifically the bible anyway.
One whom persieves danger, does not momentarilly lack the genes that create healing in the body, but in times of persieved danger ones body will ignore that messege and deal only with the “fight or flight” notion. Adrenalin, blah blah blah, but the point is that genes may not “dictate” anything, and may actually only “represent” in a readable fashion, what one believes about ones self. Please look into Dr. Lipton for some real intersting information that is completely applicable to our fight.
Kevin Jones
PEACE to all
yah i startd to smoke cigs at the age of 13, nd been doin it since nd im 20 now, then i startd to drink at the age of 16 then went onto marijuana nd thats about it, i think other drugs r out of my league lol.
I started smoking cigarettes when I was 13 yrs. old because my friend handed me one and I accepted. The key to that sentence is “I accepted”. I can honestly say I became addicted to them and today they are my only vice other than MJ. I started smoking cannabis when I was 14 and I am 30 now. At the age of 21 I decided I wanted to drive an 18 wheeler for a living and I quit cold turkey….no withdrawl to me equals no addiction. For 9 years I hung out with people who smoked it in front of me when I was visiting friends and relatives. I recognized the fact that I wanted to be safer for the people around me on the road and never had any issues with abstaining for the duration. (I no longer drive a truck) I don’t believe there are any genetic predetermining factors in any kind of substance use or abuse. My father is a 12 pack a day alcoholic and has been since before I was born. Myself, I hate the taste and the effect it has on people. I tried crack and cocaine and didn’t like the effects. MJ didn’t make me try them, I was curious. When it comes down to it, I believe each person has his or her on choices to make about the drugs they try, legal or otherwise. To say “You have a genetic predisposition to become addicted to Alcohol because someone in your family abused it…” is ludacris. But hey, it’s just my ranting. I think the way people are raised and their environment are factors for every aspect of one’s being, not just the notion to do or not to do drugs. I am glad I found this organization and will watch closely and help if I can.
I started with cigarettes at 12 ,then alcohol not long after, smoked weed occasionally at 15, tried meth and coke at 26. I never got hooked on meth or coke thank god, I am a n alcoholic and still drink from time to time, have stopped smoking weed for long periods at a time.The last stretch was 8years. Gave up cigs at 30 ,i will never touch a cig again. Cigarettes were my worst addiction, alcohol is controllable for me, weed has never been a problem. Meth and coke could have ruined me if I would have become addicted. I think its clear what the gateway drugs are, HELLO U.S. GOVERNMENT!
Can I join in all the confessions? While I don’t remember the day itself, I presume I started my drug addiction on my birthday….
Drug, what a broad, all encompassing term! What is a “drug”? My commonly used dictionary’s #1 definition could logistically include food, since food is used to both prevent and treat the disease of malnutrition. This is based upon the definition of “chemical”, which of course includes such esoteric ideas as that which is produced by the actions of atoms and molecules in its definition.
A quick search reveals a wikipedia page that includes an additional phrase, “not necessarily for medical purposes” (never mind the picture of “water” and “steam”). The World Health Organisation’s has a webpage with the title “Disease fact sheet: Malnutrition”. It seems they also include water’s lack as leading to disease, therefore, under the definitions I’ve seen, water is a both a “chemical” and a “drug”.
Under this conception, we all become drug users when we first suckle on a nipple (whether natural or synthetic), therefore, we became addicts way back then. Proof? We’re still eating most everyday, yes? Still drinking water? There ya go! You’re an addict, too!
Terry, better add eating and re-hydration to your list: Age 0 years, day 1.
Hey, maybe our drug addiction starts at conception. Perhaps the umbilical cord should be outlawed as a drug delivery mechanism? Where does the insanity stop? During the initial process of meiosis and mitosis that occurs sometimes after the sperm meets the egg? Better not look for eggs anymore, never mind eating them!
I know! It’s time to outlaw atoms! (just kidding about outlawing atoms, I love them very much)
Let’s wax oxymoronic, Maybe we should trace all atomic and molecular actions and reactions back to the first one. It’s the Big Bang and its aftermath! The biggest drug dealer of all. So, upon further reflection we all became an addicts billions of years before we were born.
Clearly, our rulers should outlaw the entire space-time continuum as one huge drug producer and dealer. The greatest insult? It gives the drugs away for free. Can’t have that. No profit. Damn Ferengis.
But what if we existed before then, and after then, and right now, too. Oh, darn. Now we’re getting all spiritual, ahem, scuse us, philosophical.
My point? It’s all arbitrary. The line of legal versus illegal can be placed wherever we wish to place it.
Interesting fact, in most cases that are defined as addiction related are often misdiagnosed as this is more often just a way of dealing with stressful times in peoples lives. Yes, becoming addicted to substances is very apparent in many addicts but the bottom line question of, “What was going on in the person’s life at the time of becoming a user of any addictive substances?” Like peeling the layers of an onion, we can find the root or beginning of thoughts and actions that lead people to use addictive substances to deal with stressful problems.
A very small percentage of addictive cases begin with statements from addicts to the affect of, “I just started using substances to try it for myself and to see what it felt like.” More often cases of addiction start because substances appear to be the answer to help with mental and physical stress.
If an addict can regress or remember to the point of finding out why they use substances from the beginning, the act of changeing our belief system makes perfectly good sense to avoid future thinking errors that are nothing more than destructive thoughts in our lives that lead us repeatedly into the same old thought patterns to us substances over and over again to assist with mental and physical problems. I commonly refer to this as running “Old Tapes,” in our heads and using substances to feel better, if only for a little time, to get some kind of relief.
It’s this avoidence of stress and not fully having closure with our past or present lives that we become dependent on temporary fixes that simply get the best of us in the future.
Dealing with addicts is in large, finding out what it is from the start that makes us believe using drugs or alchohol helps in any way mentally or physically. Resolve to correct the thinking errors, quiting the substance abuse is only a small part of what’s making life so difficult to live. Change those old tapes in our heads and begin living a happy life with a much better understanding. Some people refer to this as facing their demons. It works.
How come you never see anyone say,”I’ve been addicted to Jesus allll my life. My mommy and daddy blew me bull-shit shotguns, right there in the crib.” All I’m sayin is people call it ‘addiction’ when you do something you like a whole lot; they call it ‘philanthropy’ when others dig it. Stupid double standard…
That’s interesting, and I agree. I have tried almost everything. I am addicted to cigarettes. At $8+/pack, I have cut down to the point I figure I can save $2100 or so by next year. In my culture my parents shared wine. I never became addicted to alcohol, nor are any of my siblings or cousins. As for the gateway…every kid in every place across the world winds up there one day…with someone coppin something illegal from a guy on street corner. Ancient herbs are used in modern medicine to heal. This “drug” shouldn’t even be in a category with the word “addicted” as in cigarettes or alcohol. And, this prohibition ain’t making sense to a whole lot of us.
food,sex,television,shoplifting,lying,violence,materialism,religion,sports fanaticism,power,greed,money,speeding,video games,porn,gambling,self abuse,vanity,all have the potential for abuse and addiction.All can become destructive forces in the lives of those addicted and to those that surround the addicted.
war on food,war on sex,war on television,war on money,war on self abuse,war on vanity……
sound practical?reasonable?
could we solve these problems ,make our streets safer,strengthen family units and improve our society by prohibiting,spending billions of dollars a year on enforcement, and incarcerating those addicted to any of these issues??
hahahah,war on political corruption……
hhmmmnn…
so Ken, in a way the womb and the gina is the gateway?? LOL the gina is the first gateway we pass through in this life haha
I started drinking at 17 and only do it at parties or for special occasions, because I’m not a very friendly person when I drink. It never ends well. I started smoking cigarrettes when I was 18 because a friend wanted to be able to bum them off me and he couldn’t afford them and I could so he tried to get me hooked. That lasted for about 6 months of wasted money and more than a few nights of hacking up blood. I took my first hit of marijuana in 7th grade on 4/20 with some friends and nothing changed in my life, and then didn’t touch it again for about 6 years, graduated high school, started college and started smoking again at parties when i was 19. I’m now about 6 months from my 21st birthday and am a medical marijuana patient. I’ve been on most of the perscription drugs out there and a few that aren’t anymore and none of them helped with my long list of problems (ranging from severe depression to extreme violent outbursts to insomnia to constant back pains) for more than a few weeks. I quit taking perscription drugs when i started to see more an more lawyers on commercials offering to take cases for more and more things that doctors had said would help me. Marijuana not only helps with every medical issue that I have, it saves me money compared to perscriptions, saves me time from being in the hospital, and is definately one of the few things in my life that I don’t regret starting. I can’t say that about drinking or smoking tobacco. As for the “gateway drug” arguement, I don’t have any intention of going anywhere near any other drugs. I have had many friends who got hooked other drugs tell me that my choice to stick with marijuana only is one they wish they had made too. I so far haven’t seen any downside to marijuana that doesn’t involve the police or the federal government. If someone can tell me a reason that I should stop smoking marijuana that has no involvement with legality or misleading scare tactics, please tell me, because I’ve seen the latest round of “Above the Influence” commercials and I admit, I have done quite a few of the things they say marijuana makes you do- get strait d’s on a report card, ditch my friends, make my mother cry, the list goes on, but the catch is- I haven’t done a single one of those things since I started smoking marijuana habitually.
SIMPLE ADDICTION RULE/GUIDE: Anything that makes you a slave to act in a way you normally wouldn’t without substances.
EXAMPLE: I love orange juice but I can do without it very easily with no reprocusions. I long for orange juice but that DOESN’T mean I’m addicted and I don’t take actions that hurt myself or others to acquire it in the future.
This addiction topic is confusing to many Americans and for the record, MARIJUANA IS NOT PHYSICALLY ADDICTING, even when you mentally crave it’s affects. Special studies at the University of Maryland and many others have proven this fact many times over but, who’s listening in the ranks of the uneducated?
Thought Provoking
Thanks Bruce
Nice Touch
To The Discussion
Or the question Obama would be asking…
How can I be promoted naturally…
WE HAVE TO EXPAND FURTHER THAN THAT…
But to be fair…
OBAMA LISTENS FURTHER THAN MOST
OBAMA…
HE WHO PRESIDES
THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
GOD WE TRUST
AS ALWAYS
OBAMA
IT IS FINALLY – YOUR TURN
DO NOT – WE CAN NOT BE SATISFIED – DISAPPOINT
US
USA
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Update, i did my speech about MPP! I got a B. There were like 10 military policy officers in my class…we are on an military base in iraq thats why….but anyways they say they agree with me. I belive i promoted MPP to the whole class. It had to be an imformative speech. but i think i did well.
(#21) Now here’s one our boys on the horizon of greatness. David L.,
It appears you’ve mastered the art of living your beliefs.
Thankz TN Activist for the complement. I just really want reform, I will promote any chance i get
Here’s a call from Holland. Started cigs at the age of 16 and got hooked til this day. Not very much later I started drinking, I still drink regularly. At 19 I tried weed and hash, liked the relaxation so I smoked for like 25 years regularly. It has never at any point hindered me with work, relationships or physical issues, on the contrary.
If I abstain from weed periodically I merely sense that my outlett for stress has become smaller, thus requiring me to outlet the stress on a more time and effort consuming way. I can recommend cannabis to anyone who needs to take a break from it all from time to time. I think it has saved me a lot of unhealthy stress-hormone piling up in my body, causing all sorts of disorders and illnesses.
And no, I’ve never went on to hard drugs, didn’t feel the curiosity nor the need. Thanks to the Dutch system of separated markets for soft drugs and hard drugs I have not come in contact with pushers who may have convinced me weed was not enough for me. Hurray for this system, Holland has a relatively but significantly lower number of hard drug users than surrounding countries, who do not tolerate coffeeshops and preach zero-tolerance til this day. Proof that they’re empirically wrong has been delivered countless times, but is ignored anyway. Amazing what morality can cost in the eyes of the moralists. But it’s paid for by the countless hard drug addicts shaped because of their continuous flawed stand. I guess I’m just lucky I was born in the right country.
#22- to everybody that made a comment or shared your thoughts on MPP.org on my site i appreciate you living your beliefs! i gather much of my material to share with people everyday from this site and your comments(i feel personal feelings are more potent). this site has some of the most intellectual people and responses to life in general not just cannabis. you guys help me live my beliefs everyday!!!
thanks mpp.org and staff and MEMBERS!!!!
To answer Elise: Yes, this report was commissioned by the government as part of an evaluation that was set up early in the campaign. Because ONDCP didn’t like the results, they sat on it as long as they could get away with.
In my view, the simple explanation is that human curiosity is the “gateway” to anything…
…from drug use to innovative ideas that revolutionize the world. It is inherant to the power of the human mind.
I do understand the point made here that if you try one drug, legal or not, yes that probably increases the chances of trying another, so I think that is very true, but not uniformly across the spectrum, which I think is unique to each individual and their experiences.
Yes, HUMAN CURIOSITY IS THE GATEWAY DRUG. I think MPP shoudl explore this thought more. Thank you.
good point starry wanderer…. that coupled with the very human need to push the limits-wether it be physically , mentally/intellectualy etc. This can be seen in every aspect of society from the dawn of time…. wich is how we got where we are today , for better or for worse. Then there is also the “don’t go out on that limb/don’t rock the boat” polar opposite in society… wich would have us still using obsidian knives and believing superstition as fact.
sorta like our [current] leadership…. but , I digress…
Hehe, you’re right Ken. I shouldn’t have started this post off, I didn’t mean for everyone to explain their own drug history. I merely meant that everything is a gateway drug, thus negating gateway theory. Like someone said, I drink, but my gateway could have been water or milk.
I have had some addictions to “drugs” in my life, and cannabis isn’t one of them, is really all I wanted to say. It’s much easier to quit then say alcohol or tobacco, which I’ve struggled with for so long. For my amphetamine problems, I’ve found a legal vice under the name of adderal. The scary thing about adderal is it is given to our children like candy, and its no different then methamphetamine. But hell, no seems to care giving a Schedule II substance to their children.
Just goes to show we need a re-evaluation of the CSA and why they are there. Given the definition of a schedule I narcotic, I’m baffled tobacco isn’t in that designation? 1) High potential for abuse, 2) No accepted medical benefit, 3) No doctor would tell you to smoke it.
Now look, I’m not asking for cigarettes to be illegal, I’m just saying the CSA is a joke. Cigarettes and alcohol should be legal in the same way we want cannabis to be legal — after all, this all boils down to our rights to consume whatever we want, so long as it doesn’t jeopardize on someone else’s rights.
Sorry for the rant, I love you all
PS – I started doing fast food at age 4, and they even give you a toy! Hell, you hear about people dying from water intoxication these days, should we make that illegal too!?
the first drug i ever did was tobacco at the age of 13 and started smoking regularaly by 15. started drinkin alcohol around 16 then from there I was introduced to gods gift to man”cannabis” oh sweet green. I sure wish it was legal. now i am addicted to methadone and hydrocodone because of a serious accident. f-cking great huh? I would love to smoke pot instead for the pain but the law over powers gods gift! tried meth when I was 21 , smoked it a few times and even shot it in the vien, stupid ass!! Im pretty strong minded because I was able to not do it anymore because what a dirty dirty drug that is! only live once though right? now im 25 and dont drink ,dont mess with crystal,smoke a lot of cigaretts and pop a lot of pills, smoke pot on occasion.
Everyone’s ancestrial family, previous generations, are affected by how much intake there was during previous generations of your ancestrial histoy. Mental and physical changes accure in areas like, higher bodily tolerance to alchohol when previous generations drank moderate to heavy amounts of alchohol.
Mr. R. D. Seymour
E-Book Author
GATEWAY DRUG ” Take a hard look at the individual trying to enter the gate.”
Thank you once more Bruce, for logic and true statistics. David L – Kudos to you! Starry Wanderer too! I agree, with me it was always just my human nature to be curious. I thank anyone who has the guts to speak up and refute the lies that have been perpetuated by certain individuals for too many years!
CAFFINE was my gateway drug! “A hamburger and a coke please, MOM”. So, I couldn’t sleep…MOM, I can’t sleep (@7y/o) – “OK, says Mom, just take a half of this thing called a Valium”…ok, mommy-
My Mom even took me to doctors to find out why I couldn’t sleep. I was diagnosed as being hyperactive and I’d down my prescribed sedatives with a COKE! We really were ignorant about certain things when I grew up. I mean society wise, I don’t blame Mom! (I talk about Mom a lot because there was no dad.)
My Mom’s sister blew out her septum in her nose from Blow in Italy in 1925- they were in the Italian Movies. – Just a genetic factoid.
Marijuana prohibition was also, in a sense, my gateway. I had heard all this fuss about pot in the “Why do you think they call it dope?” type of commercials. I didn’t really know. I had to find out for myself. (Truly Ironic) So I went to the oldest and toughest kid that lived on my block and asked him “Hey man, do you know where I could get some weed and off to the park we went – where all the hippies just hung out and had fires in barrels and all the Peace and Love and Long Hair – yeeesh – I know I’m old. We asked and they said NO we’re all out but we got some “acid”! ACID? “What’s That”, I thought. Try some – “OK”, I said. That’s exactly how it went.
SO – I tripped Balls that night when I was 13 y/o – I hadn’t even touched or seen Marijuana yet. Thank you Prohibitionists! See how your work affected my life?
My Mom…and it seemed everyone else did too, smoked billions of cigarettes – so I tried one – got sick as a dog (8y/o) – Drank New Years night 1972 (11y/o) for the first time and got so drunk – I got so sick all over my friends home – well, his 18 y/o brother kept feeding me alcohol for fun. I found it’s no fun to be drunk. He found out that the smell of vomit remains in wood flooring for many months… (awwww- I just had to throw that in.) We all learned something that night. I never drink.
SO – In the end you tell me??? What a bunch of lies to just accuse Marijuana of being the spring-board to other “evil” substances. I never got addicted to any of these substances – but my body and mind tolerated marijuana well and in fact it was pleasing to my body and mind. So I did it for a while –just stopped for a job – never went back – because of my job – I didn’t have to “Quit” smoking MJ and now – I’m going to try to get a script to smoke again to try to help combat the symptoms of an awful disease I have now.
I thank God that I know what Marijuana is (first hand experience allows for me to not FEAR it) and that the people in my state voted for Compassion, so I’ll be able to legally try to use it to help in my suffering. Thank you MPP.org too…of course.
Hey David L – There’s room for some to post jibberish like one or two did above, so can you post what you wrote to get that B? and Ken…you crack me up man.
Peace out
I think the issue here is more about age than about the drug consumed. The youger a person is when they begin to use a drug, the more likely they are to become addicted. An addict can often “substitute” one drug for another. Hence, I believe that what people often call the “gateway effect” is really the “substitution effect”. The significance being that a person is already addicted before we notice this effect.
Marijuana doesn’t make you an addict unless you are already predisposed to being one. Though marijuana often gets the blame, I believe that most people who are “addicted” to marijuana were already addicts and simply substituted marijuana for any one of a hundred different reasons. The younger people are more predisposed to becoming addicted. The solution: Legalize and regulate marijuana to keep it away from children. Treat addiction as a medical and social ailment rather than a crime.
The end.
To Ron 4-13-09 @0651. Dear Ron.
I looked at you input, followed by my “One Liner,” and said to myself, I can see where Ron might perceive my comment as being directed towards you personally. If so, please accept my apology. It was not a personal attack on you courageous testament. I hope I’m not the B?, full of jibberish, you are refer to. My comment was general, and based on GATEWAY DRUG.
Most of us know, as reaffirmed by research, that cannabis is non-addictive, so it’s hard to view it as a GATEWAY to anything. What we do consider is whether the new consumer of Cannabis, comes to its use pre-addicted, or with a addictive personality. If so, we now know that cannabis has efficacy in the treatment of addictions. But, the reality is, statistically, we should know who is swinging on the garden gate, wanting to get in. Ron, my dear fellow, you’re absolutely correct when you say curiosity played a roll in your desire to experience it, and why not? Did it not provide you with the wisdom you were seeking. Once again, I’m sorry if it were I, who raised your passion. Please accept my deepest apologies, but keep the passion. Soldiers in this war need to be passionate about the truth.
Hello I am a stoner and an artist and proud to say it, i have absolutely no qualms about my weed smoking, no regrets and definately no apologies, i luv weed. I have anxiety used to be on prozac and a few other anti depressants, they never worked, but the weed has been workin for me for about 5 years running. WTF my mom dont like it but i’ll open her eyes soon. I’ve done other drugs, i do regret using, like crack, but i actually only smoked crack to prove a point, it wasn’t really peer pressure, it was a crackhead sayin “try it u’ll like it” things like that, so i said “f*ck it gimme that pipe” took a hit, blew it in his face and said “gimme some weed!” he said “no u gotta get high off it” so i took eight hits of crack “there now i’m all cracked out, and i still want some f*ckin weed!” You can’t blame a substance on a decision. But i guess it just comes down to what your poison is, people with addictive personalities, like that crackhead, well i guess the’re lost to the world, but it’d be nice if they would follow the example of all the responsible functional pot heads, and just smoke weed instead of adding to it’s bad reputation by continuing to make bad decisions. Not to mention all those drunk drivers who crash into a pole and i drive by their wrecked cars and laugh at them while i’m smoking a joint. *those dumasses*
Actually, we can blame, excuse me tribute, the whole thing on the cannabinoid system which exists in each and every one of us humans. Whether God (creation), or Mother Nature (evolution) gave us this King of systems, makes absolutely “no difference.” What does rule is “Human Nature.” What government has tried to do is regulate human nature. Historically, we can easily recognize how that has turned out. PROHIBITION OF ANYTHING DOESN’T WORK, and if one is of a religious nature, my point is made by The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
It all boils down to “Human Nature.” Human nature is…Observe, Experience, and Grow Wiser…that’s how we humans “LEARN.” After Experience, we end up with a choice, to either go this way, or go that way. At any rate, “the choice is ours” as free humans, not prohibition, which is attempting to “control” our human nature. And, while we’re at it , check out Genesis, Chapter I, Verses 29, 30, 31.
i started smoking cigerets at the age of 7 and weed at 8, i dont drink or use any other drugs. the reason has stayed the same,not that i need it ,its that it releaves pain and helps my mins slow down so i can think . this helps me think about many inportant things.
like manny others i don’t see why the goverment can’t just leave us in peace and let us smoke our weed.
and the whole subject about it being a gateway drug is bullshit the only thing that makes u use hardder drugs is yourself. i have ben burning blunts for 8 years and havent touched any thing else.
To Zach (04.16.09 1158)
You’re the “Perfect Example” of what’s right about it! Hey Z…what’s realy fun is “an hour of full blown meditation at 420.” I mean, an hour with your self…thinkin’ good thoughts???????????
If everyone would back up and realize that modern humankind has been told that marijuana was the gateway drug when prohibition ended 76 years ago. The U.S. Government has spent countless millions since 1933 on costs of propaganda campaign productions. Think about it. Now think about what I believe is the real gateway drug, alcohol (and the one of the deadliest drugs on the planet)! Most friends and colleagues to whom I pose this idea, take pause, look a bit bewildered due to the fact they had never thought of this, and finally all agree. Think about if/when you have consumed alcohol in unbridled amounts. Inhibitions decrease, crazy stupid ideas may arise and usually those stupid ideas end in actions: killing your friends while driving, date raping strange women at college, you know. Marijuana, to me, leads to slight apprehension, consulting with the group of friends I’m with about what to do … (“it has been said, no, that sounds crazy & stupid, man.”), laughing until the back of your head hurts, and maybe the next big idea is born… Amsterdam’s city tag line is “city of inspiration.” Finally, as my brother put it, “Marijuana is only the gateway to my refrigerator and the sofa.”
I NEED HELP. We salute the 20,000,000th victim of arrest. What I need to know, if anyone can please tell me…out of 20,000,000…
how many were felony convictions…because…that’s xx,xxx,xxx votes that “won’t vote against”…the prohibitionists. Silence the speaker by eliminating the audience.
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