That denunciation only ever came from people with low life experience and oversimplified mental models of "bad".
Most users of harder drugs indicate past use of marijuana. Additionally, marijuana gives many their first taste of doing business with drug dealers and 'breaks their cherry.' When they decide they want to try something else they have already gained experience locating dealers and engaging with them. Legalizing cannabis helps here because its users won't engage with dealers to score, they'll go to the store and buy a regulated product.
It's definitely a gateway drug, but only from the perspective that you've forced people to establish black market financial connections. Once you've figured out how to get something illegal it opens a whole new world.
But, the gateway drug idea was itself used as an argument against legalization.
We need to be careful with logic problems like, "Most users of harder drugs indicate past use of marijuana."
All users of all drugs report drinking water in the last 12 weeks.
These kinds of statements don't mean anything, but they sound important to the average reader.
Correlation != Causation
Like many things in life, cannabis can be enjoyed responsibly or irresponsibly. Irresponsible use is inadvisable and can absolutely ruin your life and the lives of others around you. I see no issue with responsible use, though. All things in moderation. Alcohol, social media, and caffeine all come to mind as examples of other drugs that can be largely safe and enjoyable if used responsibly, but which become dangerous/harmful when moderation is abandoned.
Signed,
a responsible/occasional cannabis user :)
I'm going to guess that it's easier to get addicted to weed than to alcohol due to price, pleasure, and no alcohol hang over.
Kids especially can get addicted to weed much easier than alcohol in my opinion.
I like alcohol but I see alcohol as a social drug. I never drank it alone. I also physically can't drink it too much due to hang over and complete inability to do anything useful after. During covid lockdowns, I was absolutely addicted to weed after I tried it. It had none of the draw backs of alcohol and even more pleasure in the beginning.
I was addicted for a while. It was horrible. I became unmotivated, fat from munchies, didn't talk to family or friends, always asked people I met if they wanted to smoke weed with me, was high during remote work, couldn't remember anything because my memory got very poor, had horrible acid reflux from all the smoke.
Thankfully I was able to remember what life was like before weed.
If you read https://www.reddit.com/r/leaves/ you'll see just how many people have been smoking since they were teenagers and are not 30 or 40 and don't remember what life was like.
A large percentage of the population enjoys and venerates the activity.
Not everyone is a type-A overachiever. Not everyone is a Puritan who treats their body as a temple.
Some artistic folks thrive on it.
I think it's okay to let people do what they want with their limited time here, but I also think it's okay to call out the potential consequences. We shouldn't be nannies, but we also shouldn't embrace irresponsibility.
I'm something of a prude when it comes to myself, but I don't think I'm better than people who drink or do drugs.
Sometimes it's not bad at all, sometimes it's devastating.
But so are some academic and professional careers.
Circumstance, genetics, situation, and volume all play a role.
We really have no place intervening unless it has gotten out of control and damaged their lives.
> One reason for the cannabis craze is that today’s seniors are yesterday’s hippies. Our analysis suggests that more than half of the seniors who use cannabis today started more than 15 years ago.