That’s like saying caffeine or aspirin is a gateway drug because you probably try those before harder drugs. That’s not the only qualification for a gateway drug: it has to significantly increase the likelihood of trying additional drugs, which marijuana in the US does not. Elsewhere it varies, but in the US, you’re not more likely to try heroin because you’ve tried marijuana.
In my country (The Netherlands) weed is defacto legal and widespread yet we don’t suffer from a crisis as severe as the US has, if anything it’s probably less likely that people go to harder substances since weed is so safe and widely available. I can even proudly say that I have never seen a junkie on the streets here.
Lol, what? Of course it’s a gateway drug. What the hell else are you going to try first, heroine?
The gateway drug to heroine is most often prescription opioids, not weed.
That was a thing i did learn about thankfully enough (european school system)
That’s like saying caffeine or aspirin is a gateway drug because you probably try those before harder drugs. That’s not the only qualification for a gateway drug: it has to significantly increase the likelihood of trying additional drugs, which marijuana in the US does not. Elsewhere it varies, but in the US, you’re not more likely to try heroin because you’ve tried marijuana.
In my country (The Netherlands) weed is defacto legal and widespread yet we don’t suffer from a crisis as severe as the US has, if anything it’s probably less likely that people go to harder substances since weed is so safe and widely available. I can even proudly say that I have never seen a junkie on the streets here.