Quote:
Originally Posted by Sarah_Jayne
In the case of heroin, there are entire towns in the UK that were pretty much ruined by it. The last time I was in Nottingham, parts of the town looked like a scene from the Walking Dead. Meth was starting to take its place when I left.
I don't spend enough time in small town America to know if that is echoed here and cities like LA have enough different corrosive factors that drugs just blend in with the others.
Of course there are functioning drug users. I think most of us agree that alcohol has been a bigger problem over time and appreciate the double standard that exists. That doesn't mean that other problems don't exist and that they shouldn't be handled.
I've come to think that the reason that weed gets labeled as a gateway drug isn't because it creates an addiction that is then transferred to other drugs. It is because once somebody does it and finds out that they have pretty much been lied to they then wonder what else has been a lie and try other things. Perhaps if we were more honest then the warnings of the truly dangerous would be more clear rather than muddled into a simple 'drugs are bad mmmkay' wag of the finger.
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I have always thought of pot as a gateway by location drug. Addiction is addiction, it is a problem within the body. The odds are if you have it and you don't fight hard to control it will be addicted to something. There are people addicted to food, exercise, booze, drugs, gambling etc.
Several people I have known in my life who were drug addicts and got off the drugs all said the same thing. The key for them was being able to channel that addiction into something more positive.
There are tons of people who smoke a little weed now and then and live perfectly normal, productive lives. There are also a lot of people who smoke a lot of weed and still live normal, productive lives. The ones that have problems are the addicts and those who hang around other drug users when smoking. You end up in the proximity of other, harder, drugs and might be tempted to try them. I often compare it to being in a bar. If you drink beer and all you ever do is buy beer at the store and drink at home you may only ever drink beer. However, if you drink beer at a bar the temptation is there and the odds are one day you might try a shot of whiskey or something harder. The same idea, to me, plays out with pot. If you smoke a lot and hang out with others that do eventually you might be tempted to try something harder and if you are someone who suffers from addiction you could be in trouble.
Anyway, just my
