gargan's Journal: drugs, anyone?

So. Ethelred, if you read this, this could give you some poll ideas. but that's not the point. the point is i'm ranting and i want answers.

Is marijuana a gateway drug? why or why not?

i contend that it is. i believe this because it is available from the same people that sell hard and ice and x and xanax and god knows what else. you dont go down to your local liquor store and see a big fucking sign saying "FREE X PILL WITH EVERY 1.75 LITER!" if people were accustomed to weed like they are to alcohol and tobacco, people would hardly seek out worse things.

there is no evidence that if marijuana were legal that a larger percentage of the population would take up smoking it. some may say that is no reason to make it legal, but in a free society, you need a reason to make something illegal, not legal.

not that drugs are good. it's just that things could be handled a lot fucking better and they aren't because the system is set up and it's damn hard to change a bureaucracy short of force.

that's all it really is, isn't it? bureaucracy. or perhaps aristocracy. certainly not democracy. not when the people of a state vote to legalize, and the federal government overrides it.

hmm...i seem to remember reading something in school...they said it was an important old paper or something...the tenth article of it? ALL POWERS NOT SPECIFICALLY DELEGATED BY THE CONSTITUTION TO THE CONGRESS SHALL BE RELEGATED TO THE STATES.

or something like that. bullshit, is what it is. yeah, america is a great place, standard of living-wise, if you happen to come from a family rich enough to live in the suburbs, or live in the country, practically living off the land. but i am sick and fucking tired of people dismissing legitimate complaints about the system as unpatriotic. THAT'S WHAT AMERICA IS ALL FUCKING ABOUT.

i know i'm preaching to the choir here, but i just wanted to put it all in writing and hope someone reads it, maybe someone will see something in a different light.

btw, if anyone knows where i can order one of those "support our troops: impeach bush" bumper stickers, please link me. always support the troops, only support the government when it deserves it.

Uh...

[the_mad_poster]

i contend that it is. i believe this because it is available from the same people that sell hard and ice and x and xanax and god knows what else.

Um. What? Like... who? Besides, I can buy prescriptions and cigarettes in the same building. I'd still have to actively seek out the prescriptions, so that hardly makes tobacco a gateway drug to vicadin.

I can only think of one person out of almost two dozen I've known that "moved on" to heroin and cocaine after starting out on marijuana, but he had deep seated

Re:Uh...

[gargan]

like everybody. just trust me on this one. i know from personal experience. selling weed doesnt really make that much money unless you move a lot of it. so dealers sell cheaper to get and more expensive to sell drugs, like crack and crank and such.

not to say that just because this is true means that anything is going to come of it. i too know only one person that got out of control on all kinds of drugs after starting smoking weed. i think it is mostly based on the person.

as to whether it was all sarcasm?

Gateway drug?

[Ethelred Unraed]

At least in my experience, no, it ain't.

IME MJ has its own subculture of people passing on seeds and where to buy good weed and tips on making bongs and all of that. I've never bought weed myself (and only smoked it when someone else had some at a party), but the people I knew who smoked it just had their own network of people use smoked. AFAIK none of them went on to speed or coke or heroin or whatever.

There is one person I know of who did go on to other drugs -- he started with hash and went on to pra