BF2S Forums Are tobacco and/or alcohol "gateway" drugs?

Um, no.  Tobacco and alcohol use (moderation with alcohol) do not lead you to a druggie lifestyle.  As such, they are not gateway drugs.

Pubic wrote:

Are tobacco and/or alcohol types of gateway drugs?  I'd say nearly all hard drug (heroin, meth etc) users have used both before and continue to do so, so does this qualify them for the status of "gateway drugs"?

Discuss.

There is an obvious fallacy to the argument above regarding tobacco/alcohol being gateway drugs.  Many people smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol and have never done meth/heroin/crack.

Personally I believe that it is the type of personality a person has (generally speaking) that leads them to experiment with different things, drugs included.

The propensity of someone to try new things differs among people.  Some people are more willing to try new things (both good and bad) then other people.  In the end, I'd say it is more personality and environment (people you are friends with and/or look up to) that influence a decision than the substance itself.

I believe in the idea that certain people are genetically predisposed to developing addictions to drugs and are also more willing to take drugs.

I drink.  I smoked pot in high school  a shit ton.  I havent touched pot in about 8 years.  While I was doing a ton of pot,  I didn't try meth, cocaine or herion. Nothing hardcore besides Mushrooms and LSD.  BUT!  I didn't do mushrooms and LSD until long after I stopped smoking pot.   I wanted to experience a hallucinogenic trip. I didn't want "to get high" at that point.

Gateway to what?  Addiction?  People can develop an addiction to anything, at any time, completely independently of what they have and haven't tried before.  And completely independently of any addictions they have or don't have previously.  The very existence of the phrase "gateway drug" is a fallacy and betrays a deep, deep misunderstanding of the causes and solutions to substance dependence.

I've tried everything there is going at least once, there was a time where if someone had something I hadn't tried I would always give it a go.  I learned that I don't even like cocaine or heroin, even when it's free.  I enjoyed dissociatives far more, and enjoyed a fairly brief addiction.  Essentially moving out of the lifestyle where there would be ketamine on a plate (literally) at every place I would visit during a day got rid of that problem.  This was all before it was trendy too, I lost a lot of interest in it when I found out Kate Moss was into it.

Anyway, I don't think any gateway is required for the hardest drugs, since the current prohibition and constant busts makes them so profitable that you can buy them on the street any time of day or night, and you won't usually get robbed because that would not be good for business.  If anything the current classifications make those drugs easy to get at a younger age than alcohol and tobacco, since I doubt that anyone on the frontline will ask for a ProveIt ID card. 


In my experience, the people who believe in the concept of gateway drugs are those with the poorest knowledge of drugs and addiction.

Tobacco and alcohol are gateway markets, not gateway drugs.

In other words, the tobacco and alcohol lobbyists are the reason why things like marijuana are still illegal, so they literally control whether or not we can smoke pot legally.

Tobacco and Alcohol are as much gateway 'drugs' or perhaps more generally 'vices' as marijuana or other supposed 'gateway drugs'.

i don't think pot is even a gate way drug

as long as you smoke, drink, or smoke weed as a way of fitting in or just for socializing i dont think its a gateway to any where. Basically if you do it to be cool and not cause you need to its cool.

d.cripz wrote:

as long as you smoke, drink, or smoke weed as a way of fitting in or just for socializing i dont think its a gateway to any where. Basically if you do it to be cool and not cause you need to its cool.

lmfao are you kidding?

so LSD doesnt deteriorate your spinal column?

ok i looked this up myself, it doesnt deteriorate the spinal cord, but the acid becomes stored in the fatty tissue connected to the spinal cord hence testing by spinal tap, also acid flashbacks can be brought on by neck trauma, or even popping or cracking your neck. So the more acid you use, the more prone you are to flashbacks


too much of anything can make you an addict
what if you normal dealer couldnt supply your fix, but he could supply something else, would you try it?

Last edited by Locoloki (2007-01-28 20:31:36)

It's interesting to read people's varying opinions of what constitutes "drugs".

People who regularly take the psychoactive drug ethanol claim that they "don't do drugs". Perhaps they should say that they "do only drugs that the government believes are acceptable"?

Other people define terms based on conventional wisdom, rather than relying on the government for their personal worldview. For them, science determines whether or not they "do drugs", and a depressant is a depressant, regardless of their own country's legislation.

Fuck I laugh when people assume that if you take hard drugs you become addicted.

"Experimenting" does not necesarily lead to addiction.

I guess the only common drugs I haven't done are PCP and crack (mainly because coke isn't as available in Australia as in US, so no crack). I'm 44 and still smoke heaps of ganja, but gave up on all the trippy stuff 'cos there was nothing left to learn from it - by the way mushies are the most intense and introspective trip, don't do them unless you are EXTREMELY comfortable with your self-image.

There were about 10 of us who had a year of dabbling with smack - 2 died, 1 still uses (a habit), the rest of us got on with life....