The Gateway Drug

“The Gateway Drug”


When I was in middle school taking that D.A.R.E class that they make you take, there was a lot of talk about marijuana being the “gateway drug”. I always thought that it was just a scare tactic that adults used to instill fear in us kids about using drugs. Yet when you actually look at the statistics it is quite amazing how true the saying is that marijuana is a gateway drug. The statistics show that teenagers who use marijuana are 17 times more likely to move on to using harder drugs. Statistics also say that boys are 29 times more likely to use harder drugs after using marijuana and girls are 11 times more likely.

The reasoning behind this is thought to be that marijuana helps one develop curiosity for harder drugs as well as introduces them to the menacing subculture that may be attractive to them.