Marijuana is not a getaway drug in my opinion

I believe that alcohol is the truest gateway drug if there is one. Alcohol's properties make you forget not to mention its massive intoxicating effect which allows the user to 'block' out thoughts that are negative or painful. It also alters our decision-making and risk measurement, meaning it's easier to say yes to something else when you're drunk. Having asked hundreds and hundreds of heroin users how they got started, almost all have alcohol in their past. Of course, some have cannabis listed too, but it's certainly not universal. Some went straight onto heroin or crack without ever using cannabis or other illicit drugs.



Cannabis, on the other hand, tends not to make thoughts go away but enriches them. It is not an escape from anything; it's more of a magnifying glass. Users who like this effect will not necessarily enjoy the effects of cocaine, heroin, meth or any other drug perceived to be 'harder'. Similarly, people who don't like cannabis might find that they much prefer a stimulant like coke, if and when they eventually meet a user. Because that is what matters most: we use drugs used by our friends and associates, not drugs introduced to us by strangers.
The high of substances such as heroin and cocaine are just too different compared to the high of marijuana. That's why cannabis users typically don't hang out with heroin or cocaine users. They wouldn't accompany each other so well.

In the underground world, dealers tend to sell one or two complementary drugs that sell well together, like crack and heroin. A heroin dealer likes to know all his customers, only keeps a small amount of product on him and doesn't need random window shoppers who put him at greater risk of being caught. They may also want rocks for before the heroin, so it makes sense for him to offer both, or he's leaving money on the table. A weed dealer tends to stick to that one product, because no one wants anything else, customers tend not to be violent, there is less risk. They don't need to sell on street corners in the same markets as heroin and crack dealers. It's like trying to sell a washing machine at a bakery. So, if your friends don't have anything harder, and your dealer doesn't, there's very little chance you'll ever accidentally walk into an open market for dangerous drugs. Just look at Amsterdam, where personal possession and use of cannabis in coffee shops has not led to a massive concurrent heroin problem. Keeping the markets so separate has ensured this.



But alcohol, especially when we're drinking to block out sorrow, grief, abuse, loss, and powerlessness, well, that's dangerous to do, especially if we know a heroin user, because they may well tell us they've got something better that will take the pain away. There will always be a cohort of poly-drug users, and psychonauts, who will take just about anything to experience the different altered states in all their glory, to have 'a change of head space', and I'm never sure what their gateway is, if they have one, but I'd lay money that it was their own body's surges of serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline and having dreams that got them exploring, and not an external substance at all.