Marijuana: The Gateway Back
Fri, Mar 12, 2010 3:38 pm
For years we've heard tall tales from the government about the dreaded "gateway effect" of marijuana. 'Try it and soon you'll be hankering for a stronger high. Shortly thereafter, you're a junkie on the street desperately seeking another fix.'
I won't go into the many reasons why this is an obvious fallacy based on specious logic. I'll leave that to your own common sense.
Personally, I believe that marijuana can have the exact opposite effect; that smoking or vaporizing cannabis can actually become the saving grace in a hard-drug addict's or alcoholic's life.
Anecdotally, I've seen this played out time and time again. I hear from and meet people on a weekly basis who use marijuana as their "anti-drug", to appropriate a phrase from the prohibitionists. These are former hard drug addicts and alcoholics who quit using those poisons and now smoke pot as their only "vice". They're able to live normal lives and many credit their usage of marijuana with actually saving them from certain death.
I'd like to write an article in High Times about this subject but I need more first-hand accounts. Are you or do you know anyone for whom marijuana was the gateway back? Post your story in the comments section below.
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bart
Mar 17 2010, 2:24 am
Since I have increased by cannabis use to 1-2 times in the weekend (I do not want it to interfere with work in any way) it has completely replaced by alcohol habit. I drink maybe 2 glasses of good wine with a dinner now per week. Somehow my weekend cannabis high is completely satisfying my recreational "needs" in this area.
The same for food: Yes I like to eat ice cream when I get the munchies, it just tastes 10 times better as anything else tastes without having the munchies. The experience of everything including nice tasting food and candy is so intense... In between, I have lost all interest in candy and ice cream because I just think it is a waste when not being under cannabis influence.
The net effect (for me): 1-2 "vapors" of cannabis in the weekend has almost eliminated my alcohol usage and about halved by intake of ice cream and other kinds of candy.
Of course there will always be people with tendency to abuse, be it drugs, food, bad habits. But I am convinced that for the majority of responsible people the net effect of cannabis is positive and reduces ill effects of the many temptations that surround us in life.
danny danko
Mar 16 2010, 8:18 pm
Zed
Mar 15 2010, 4:44 am
Wracked with the sense of failure every time I would light up to quell the wicked withdrawl symptoms of kicking Heroin I would fall into a predictable cycle of destruction of self. When someone wiser and older than me finally told me what worked for him. "A joint a day keeps the monkey away" he would say. He kicked it back in the 70's and thats how he managed to put over 30 years between him and that vile monkey. Today I have over 3 years clean from Heroin and I owe everyday to that man and the family I found of like minded tolerance and experienced people who also have multiple years clean who will tell you in no uncertain terms that it works. It isn't a cure for drug addiction, but it makes it tolerable to quit. The withdrawl symptoms are terribly painful and they last for days. It's enough to make you wanna die which is the trap, why we go back over and over, to avoid the "sick". Marijuana made it ok to quit. It stopped the cramps and the throwing up and it makes the cravings go away after the first couple weeks. It saved my life.
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