Cannabis is a Gateway To....(Reddit Responds!)

cannabis as a gateway to...

https://www.reddit.com/r/weed/comments/ukobhd/is_cannabis_a_gateway_drug/

Before we continue with this article I think it’s important to make it clear that the “Gateway Theory” has been disproven for decades now. If you are not sure what the Gateway Theory is, essentially it states that when someone smokes cannabis and experience euphoria – they become “hooked” on the feeling. Is cannabis a gateway drug or a reverse-gateway drug?

However, as tolerance to cannabis increases and the euphoric half-life diminishes, the theory suggests that due to the addiction to the euphoria users would end up consuming harder drugs – eventually becoming heroin junkies and ultimately being a plight on society.

Sounds feasible…on paper. However, when you consider that in 2019, nearly 1 in 5 Americans admitted that they have consumed cannabis. That’s nearly 50 million people. Yet, in all likeliness that number is even higher.

If the Gateway Theory was true, it would mean that these 50+ million people would be steadily consuming harder drugs, yet this isn’t the case. In fact, most cannabis users tend to distance themselves from other drugs including alcohol when they begin consuming more regularly.

I know that personally I drastically reduced my drinking. I wasn’t a heavy drinker before (except for a stint from 18-23) but once I started smoking cannabis more regularly again [I took a break for a few years] – my alcohol consumption naturally tanked.

Why?

I didn’t like hangovers…I still don’t, which is why I prefer cannabis. My tolerance level is high enough to be able to consume and predict how high I’d be and for how long. It’s become a very “efficient” drug and made me more productive in general.

Like me, many cannabis users have followed a similar path of reducing their consumption of “other” drugs meaning that cannabis is more of an “Exit Drug” than it is a “Gateway Drug”.

Now that you have been schooled on the basics of the Gateway Theory, let’s get into the meat of today’s article – How Reddit Responded to the Prompt… “Cannabis is a Gateway to…”

Cannabis users respond to the Gateway Theory…

As we have established that the Gateway Theory is malarkey, the following are responses from some of the people of Reddit who discovered that marijuana is in fact a gateway!

“A_Guy_Lurking” said; “Made me realize I like salmon” which is an interesting point and is highly relatable. There are many foods I used to not like prior to smoking weed, but these days I thoroughly enjoy.

For starters, I became more tolerant to vegetarian type food. I used to be solely a meat eater, but these days my range of food is far greater. I still eat meat, but I could just as easily go for a large salad using some fresh ingredients from my garden – maybe a cannabis leaf or two, some olive oil infused with weed…yum!

Point is, like “Mr. Lurking” suggested, cannabis can be a Gateway to more food choices. You might be surprised at what you’ll end up liking under the influence of cannabis.

The “Poop Sock Finder”, who hopefully didn’t find any poop socks…chimed in with some tips on making Salmon taste like pure glory;

“I go up catch em every fall, I have made salmon almost every way possible , my favorite is melting some brown sugar in a tiny bit of bacon fat , and glazing the salmon with it 10/10”; and when asked if there is any “best practices” when it comes to Salmon he had this to say, “I think grilling/smoking are by far the best ways to prepare almost any meat.”

Some good advice from a guy who’s Reddit handle is “Poop Sock Finder”.

“Okay_Image6174” added in their own recipe;

Have you tried grilled salmon over a salad?? It's one of my favorite lunches. I make a salad of spring mix greens, spinach, tomatoes, cucumbers, shredded carrots and an olive oil or italian vinaigrette. Top it with a lemon pepper grilled salmon filet, delicious, filling, and healthy!!

Which sounds taste AF! It also seems that going through this thread that the only thing that cannabis Gateways is an appetite.

Further down the comment section people shifted the conversation to alcohol, which one Redditor called “The Devil’s Juice”. “DoingMeJustVibing” agreed; “I can get high as FUCK and still be okay the next day. I’ll drink a bottle of wine and I’ll be paying the price for the next 2/3 days. I cannot”.

This echoes the sentiment I mentioned earlier. People tend to steer away from these harder drugs when they begin consuming cannabis at a higher frequency. This is especially true the older we get as “aequissaint” mentioned;

“I'm closing in on 40 years old and until the past year or so I've never really cared for weed all that much. It was a few times a year thing at most because I always preferred drinking and couldn't mix the two without getting sick. Now that I'm getting older hangovers happen much easier and are far worse than they used to be and I have drastically cut back my drinking. I also have found a love for weed, so that works out well.”

Reverting back to the narrative of Cannabis being a Gateway Drug, “Aimheatcool” had this to say;

“Cannabis is a gateway to peace, relaxation, clarity, pain relief, and creativity. It allows us to see how the world could be instead of what it is.”

I believe this sentiment to be accurate for the most part. Most people use cannabis to reduce pain, deal with anxiety and as “creative sauce”. I use cannabis for work many times. As I mentioned, cannabis has made me more productive.

Of course, this isn’t the case for everyone, but when you do creative (and sometimes highly mechanical) activities like I do – then cannabis can become a definite “work-enhancer” as well as a means for me to unplug at the end of the day.

Finally, we have “Mischief_N_MaryJane” who commented with the true origins of the Gateway Theory;

I have been getting high for two decades and no, cannabis is not a gateway drug. That is propaganda lingo from the 80s.

As BreadFruitRich6931 explained;

First Lady Regan’s propaganda: There are so many people in prison because she wanted her husband to remain in office.

The propaganda was fed to many children via the D.A.R.E platform in the USA.

Cannabis is NOT a “gateway” to anything other than what it does to help the person w/ their aliments. Or, if used in recreation it’s better than any alcohol would be.

At this point there came a number of posts that pointed out the inefficacies of the D.A.R.E programs. Kids these days won’t be subjected to the “Just Say No” campaigns that were drummed into the minds of 1980s, 1990s and 2000s teens.

It was CelereMort that hit the nail right on the head;

Personally I tried marijuana before I tried LCD. I don't think I would've tried LCD if it wasn't for marijuana. I still wouldn't call it a gateway drug tho. It wasn't because I wanted something more powerful, it just made me realize that it wasn't necessarily that bad to just try it if you can avoid an addiction and do it in a proper environment.

Final Words

The first drug that most of us every truly take is “sugar”. If we’re going to be basing an argument on the chemical composition of a substance activating the “reward mechanism” in our brains – it’s safe to say that when parents send their kids Trick or Treating every year, they are basically condoning the candy equivalent of chasing the sunrise with a bag of coke!

Sugar – interestingly enough – behaves similar to cocaine as was concluded in one study;

“Consuming sugar produces effects similar to that of cocaine, altering mood, possibly through its ability to induce reward and pleasure, leading to the seeking out of sugar,” they write, citing rodent studies which show that sweetness is preferred even over cocaine, and that mice can experience sugar withdrawal. - SOURCE

However, as was pointed out in this article – the assessment that sugar is as addictive as cocaine isn’t established science. However, it cannot be denied that sugar is addictive and does alter our brain chemistry.

Under the assumption that the Gateway Theory is correct, this would mean that everybody started with sugar and have been looking for ways to “chase the high”.

If you think this sounds ludicrous, then welcome to the vast majority of free thinkers in this world. The fact of the matter is that people can get addicted on virtually anything. It simply requires the right mind and the right opportunity to get “hooked” on an activity or a substance.

Unfortunately, this belief is still prevalent within political circles – which could be a reason why cannabis is still not legal globally. The old programming is still lingering in the collective hive mind of humanity.

Fortunately, the newer generation of kids are growing up with a different mindset than those who prohibited cannabis in the first place. The children of tomorrow will never know a world without cannabis.