Quote Originally Posted by no_brains_no_worries View Post
Really? I don't know. I've never met someone who's first drug was coke or X or schrooms. It's always been weed and then, over time, just gradually got into other things.
Yeah, but this doesn't prove causation. That's the fundamental fallacy of the "gateway drug" hypothesis; it posits that because people who use hard drugs tend to have used weed first and then the harder drugs, using weed must put people at elevated risk of using harder drugs (and potentially engaging in other criminal behaviors as well). That doesn't necessarily follow, though, and it's unscientific to assume it. People who use hard drugs may have used weed first, but that doesn't mean that people who use weed are necessarily risk of getting sucked into harder drug use because they use weed.