[quote=eatspam;334998]I was 12, first year of high school about to start. 1999.

Did I miss something here. Seems like nicotine was your 'Gateway'. This is a common mistake. We think that nicotine and alcohol are not 'drugs'??


Its not natural to panic and run home. Its indicitive of your personality type that you think it is natural. You would decide to try something on impulse without weighing the consequences and then something would happen to make you regret that decision. Seems like nan was cool with it, didn't shake her up much. Does the 'sobering up' mean you had already tried the other 'Gateway Drug', Alcohol as well??
Well, at least you had some fun!

I am really sorry to hear about your experiences. It must have been pure hell. Child abuse is an almost 'hidden problem' in this country. The abuser makes the child 'feel responsible' for the abuse. If you talk about it you will pay. Everyone will now how 'bad' you are. You begin to believe you deserve to be punished or you crave any attention so much that you do things to get the attention, even if the 'attention' is a beating'.
Folks that haven't 'lived in fear' do not understand this. My wife described the way it was with her father, he was an alcoholic, as 'walking on egg shells, knowing one would break'. Instead they say,"Well why didn't you tell somebody?" Oh yea, that makes it all better, blame you for not knowing you wouldn't be in trouble if you just tell someone?

It is great to hear how well things are going for you. I hope you are able to share your story. Did anyone help you at all? Sounds like your cousin maybe?


Was it the 'weed' or the circimstances that you, through no fault of your own. were placed in?? I believe the only reason anyone can consider marijuana as "The Gateway Drug" is to forget that nicotine and alcohol are drugs. As a matter of 'fact' statistics show just the opposite is true. A higher percentage of the population that has never tried marijuana use those other drugs then the percentage of people that have smoked marijuana.
In 1914 the percentage of the population addicted to those other drugs was 1.2%. Today its 1.2%. Marijuana is the most used 'drug' if you exclude alcohol and tobacco, and the least harmful. The 'legal' prescription drugs, licit and illicit, are second to marijuana in use and they kill people.
A question, did you get those other drugs from the same place you got the marijuana? So the real Gateway was that marijuana is illegal. VV

after reading that all i can say is damn.

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And so it has begun...

different strokes for different folks...
ive been smoking bud for nine years yet have never been addicted to anything else except nicotine...
its all about the reasons you toke not the bud itself

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I guess there are a few ways to look at it. I'm 21 now I've been smoking bud since I was 14 pretty much consistently (off and on here and there). I don't at all have a craving to advance my high or anything of that nature, i.e go do coke or ice etc. However, smoking and purchasing bud over the years has put me in multiple situations where harder drugs are around me. I don't think me smoking bud really made me try cocaine a few times over a what 7 year period but I definitely think that me being around people associated with the sell of bud (especially in high school) was the main factor in me being exposed to it multiple times and eventually taking a little taste.

Relatively speaking If I was to receive a magical tin of marijuana in my mail every month for my source then I would have to say no, getting high from smoking thc would not inspire me to go out and try coke, ice, opium etc.

Just my opinion.

victor, as for the running home thing... I was 12, lol.

as for the rest, yes your quite right, alot of it for me was more what was going on around me.

also as far as ciggies and booze being the true gate ways... it wasn't so for me.

I had been smoking ciggies for about 6mths, and was in "the smokers group" at school (yup creative arn't we), although none of us smoked weed, or even had an interest.

I met those kids out of pure coincidence, I was skating, and wanted a smoke, people in the area sometimes called the schools security company if they saw kids smoking or doing somthing bad, so I went under the building where I met them.

they had no smokes and needed a spin ciggie so I gave them one not knowing what exactly was going on.

I had my smoke and just as I was about to leave they offered me the first hit, as payment for the smoke.

I hesitated, and finally gave into peer pressure.

I'm not saying they twisted my arm, but I was reluctant to say the least.

so other then the fact I payed for my first bong hit with a couple smokes, ciggies weren't my gate way drug, and I didn't start drinking till I was about 14.

also as for my saviour out of all this, no it wasn't my cousin, he couldn't even help himself back then... it was myself realy, I cut myself off from all the "bad friends" I'd met from drugs by moving to my biological dads farm for 6weeks, then came back sober and met new friends that diddn't have drug issues.

since I liked PCs naturally I went from "king shit bad ass" to nerd, and started learning business, droped outof school, had a brief stint in the navy, then came out and started my first business, I then started up a couple more, invested here and there, and before I knew it I had a mini empire of small businesses worth a small fortune.

I'm not saying I'm rich, far from it. more cash means more debt and bills to pay. but I can survive for a while without work.

so if anything my rough/poor childhood taught me to think about the value of working towards things, and I appreciate it more then my friends who had everything they wanted growing up.

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warning: may contain traces of nuts and dairy.

wait, i'm confused. sounds like without the smokes you would not have gotten the pot. sounds like a fine example of cigarettes opening the gate. textbook.

i mean you were already smoking cigarettes. the next step is marijuana. or am i just high?

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i'm the guy i've always wanted to be

One thing I think that contributes to the gateway deal is all the lies about marijuana. It's easy enough logic for a young person to think to themselves "Hey I smoked weed and I didn't got crazy, I don't shit in bed and I'm not driven mad by the desire to rape young white women... huh, coke and speed are probably OK too."

I know my example is a bit extreme but, I'm old and those are some of the myths that were going around.

And while on the subject of myths, that commercial with the flying saucer? The one where the guy smokes weed and his dog is saying "Oh no, not again" that's complete bullshit! My dog loves it when I get high, he knows the munchies are right around the corner and that I like to share with him. I spark up some herb and he starts dancing around. Stoners are a dog's best friend.

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Marijuana Prohibition = Hate Crime

I think it definitely is a gateway drug, but thats not as bad as people make it seem. I think when your little you have this bad idea of all drugs and usually kids will start with cigs, booze, or pot and then when they try it and they dont go crazy they go wow they were lying. I tried pot first then right after started drinking a lot. Now I do all kinds of drugs but I am fortunate to be consious of when I feel like I am getting addicted and I force myself to stop. Most people can't have the will power to do this, but definitely pot was my gateway to trying everything else.

ah joemomma beat me to it

For me the "gateway" is the front door to your family home...parents, or the lack of involvement by parents is the real "gateway"...having been through rehab 3 times I can tell you that most addictions are mental, and by that I mean there is some deep seeded mental condition that makes people into addicts. And the root of most of these problems stem from homelife and things that happened or didnt happen to a certain individual.

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Some say the end is near. Some say we'll see armageddon soon. I certainly hope we will. I sure could use a vacation from this bullshit three ring circus sideshow of Freaks... Learn to swim. Cuz I'm praying for rain and I'm praying for tidal waves I wanna see the ground give way. I wanna watch it all go down. Mom please flush it all away. I wanna watch it go right in and down. I wanna watch it go right in. Watch you flush it all away. Time to bring it down again. Don't just call me pessimist. Try and read between the lines. I can't imagine why you wouldn't Welcome any change, my friend. I wanna see it all come down. suck it down. flush it down....TOOL