Why don't the "War on Drugs" advocates admit the true gate-way drug is alcohol?

Question

I know two heroin addicts. Both of them started with ALCOHOL.
One hated marijuana, never used it, and the other just did anything she could get her hands on.

But they both started with alcohol and cigarettes,
when do you think the whole brainwashing mantra: "pot is a gateway drug" lie will finally be put to rest?

a drug is a drug is a drug, there is no such thing as a "gate-way".
The difference between a drug, a medicine and a poison is all dosage. Be they narcotic or pharmaceutical.

Football fan: I'm just wondering if you have the intellectual capability to break down why you think I'm not consistant?

Football fan: LOL! tard...I invite everyone to read what I typed very carefully, I stick by what I said!
Poor people really SHOULDN'T BE SPENDING $4000 OR MORE A YEAR ON CIGARETTES! They DON'T have that kind of money, and it is a wise suggestion that if you quit smoking you can save a fortune each month that poor people obviously need more than anyone else!
Plus, cigarettes and alcohol are a gate-way drug, didn't you get that?
Jeez, football fan, you're not too bright.

Answer 1

FINALLY! someone else says the obvious. this whole "GATEWAY" drug idea is stupid to me. how about baby bottles, yes its a fact every person who is on drugs has started out as a child using a baby bottle. its just an idea they made up because they don;'t want to look at the facts, because they think they're always right.Its a disgrace how many lives have been lost and how many BILLIONS of dollars have been wasted on this drug "war".and yes, prohibition failed miserable, and our "drug war" has failed miserabley, it has empowered inner city gangs, and other organized crime. it has caught many innocent people in the crossfire and ended the lives of many good cops.If people want to smoke pot, drink alcohol, or chew tobacco, or chew anything else, as long as theyr'e only hurting their own self, we can't and shouldn't say its illegal.I know they are hurting their family but its no different than many many other things people choose to do.

Answer 2

You can find the history of how the gateway myth arose at http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/gateway_myth.htm

The reason they hang on to it so much is because it is the only remaining excuse to keep marijuana illegal.

In 1937, during the hearings for the Marihuana Tax Act, the congressmen asked Harry Anslinger -- then head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics -- if there was any connection between marijuana and heroin. He replied specifically that there was no connection at all. The reason to outlaw marijuana, he said, was because it caused insanity, criminality, and death. (They also said it causes diarrhea!)

Fourteen years later, in 1951, Anslinger was up before Congress again, asking for more money to enforce the marijuana laws. Unfortunately for Anslinger, the head of the Federal addiction research program testified just before Anslinger. The head of the addiction program said that they knew for certain that all of the reasons given to outlaw marijuana in 1937 were completely wrong. It didn't do any of the things that had been claimed.

Anslinger had the rug pulled out from under him. If he didn't say something, he would lose his appeal for more money. In response, he made up the idea that marijuana is the stepping stone to heroin. There was no evidence for it, and it directly contradicted his own statements of 14 years earlier.

It became the sole justification for the marijuana laws and it continues to this day.

However, there is some hope. A number of US Government officials have admitted recently that the whole idea is just plain nonsense. There is no drug that will magically give you cravings for other drugs you have never had. That is a belief in witchcraft, not science.

Unfortunately, there are still a lot of people around who still believe the old Reefer Madness. If they give up on the Reefer Madness then the whole policy will collapse. Therefore, they have to cling to the most ridiculous stuff just to maintain any kind of an argument at all.

Keep hammering on them and keep pointing them to the research that is on the Internet. Lots of the old myths have finally been seen as totally ridiculous, so we are making progress. We are even getting government officials to officially admit that these things are nonsense. We have the evidence so we can beat them any time the subject comes up -- as long as we make the effort to fight.

Answer 3

Um...there was some dude in some band...crap I can't remember the name. It was some band that's like Good Charlotte. I don't know...anyway um...iunno I'm with you on this whole alcohol and drugs thing. I'd rather live to be legal to drink. I'm 16 and I've never had a drink or done drugs. It just seems stupid. There's always the threat of addiction and at a young age makes it even worse.

Answer 4

Small amounts of pot have been legal in my country for quite a while. Use has not gone up or down studies have show. Alcohol is not considered illegal or even a sin in the bible. I have never smoked, cigarettes or anything else for that matter, but do enjoy a good zinfindel now and again and I have no interest in starting at age 23. People generally use drugs to temporarilly forget their problems. Drugs is a means to end that is all.

Answer 5

You have some interesting answers so I am going to stick to your real question that of alcohol and cigarettes.First Alochol has been socialably accepted and make countries a lot of money everytime we get a tax increase it is always on alcohol and cigarettes they bring in so much money now that they are as powerfull as the petrol companies who control world prices so no government is going to outlaw alcohol except for the young under aged.You are absouloutly right this is where most people start we have an AA meeting somewhere every day of every week and if you have ever been they are full of addicts.but our hospital system is not affected by them to any degree.Whilst with smoking cigarettes has effected hospitals and therefore cost the government money so they let the best lawyers take the tabbacco companies to court and that is the only reason the have bans on smoking because it costs them money unlike alcohol.

Answer 6

Alcohol can be considered in the same category as marijuana but I think that your arguement is out to lunch. I know several people who do not drink at all but love to puff a couple joints after a hard week, I know several people that have become addicted to harsher drugs, meth and heroine, that never drank, one of them never smoked cigarettes. I think it more has to do with a persons common sense and will power then anything else. I also strongly believe that pot should be legalized. No harm; No Foul.

Answer 7

I don't believe that pot is a gateway drug either. There is the notion, generally among non-users, that smoking pot will lead to heroin, and it's not true. That is the same as saying that drinking beer will lead you to gin. Pot might lead SOME people to hard drugs: if they have an addictive personality they will try anything and everything.

Answer 8

It is not my problem in life if someone wants to kill themselves with drugs. I want to hear less about the cause and more about how they're going to help themselves out of their own hole. I do not believe that addiction is a disease.

Maybe I can understand why someone with a mental illness or a past of abuse and hardship would end up this way. Sometimes people are thrown off welfare or out of institutions and dumped onto the street. However, there are plenty of people in society who drink too much, pop pills and use marijuana. This is a personal problem and not just a social ill. Alcohol and marijuana have always existed and most people haven't had a problem with them. Simply put, the use of crack cocaine and heroin is incredibly damaging and nobody I know of condones the use of it.

Of course, I won't even hang out with someone who smokes these days. I hate cigarettes. I don't want to be around it. I don't want anything to do with drug addicts, either. I don't hate them or judge them, but deal with the problem, man and stop calling it a disease. I don't think you have to live your life as a victim.

Answer 9

I think that alcohol is not only a gateway drug, it's the most dangerous drug of them all. I mean - alcoholics are much more dangerous to society and themselves than anyone who's on cocaine. I'd much rather be attacked by a marijuana addict than an alcoholic.

Problem is - alcohol manufactures have a much stronger hold on the lawmakers.

Answer 10

Hey don't worry about it. Marijuana will be legal someday.
Thats why they had to attack the cigarette manufactures
and prove that nicotene was a drug so they could take the next step to legalize weed.
Its been almost the same deal with opium, cocaine, and yes alcohol. It all goes through the same legislative process.