There you have it, the administrator themselves saying they believe in myths about cannabis: It’s a gateway drug; while simultaneously ignoring that the drug killing people, fent has a perfectly causal gateway drug in vicodin/percs
> Jack Riley, a former deputy administrator of the DEA, said he had concerns about the proposed change because he thinks marijuana remains a possible “gateway drug,” one that may lead to the use of other drugs.
>“But in terms of us getting clear to use our resources to combat other major drugs, that’s a positive,” Riley said, noting that fentanyl alone accounts for more than 100,000 deaths in the U.S. a year.
I think these 'gateway drug' believers will be pleasantly surprised. One reason it's a gateway drug is because of a line of thought like this:
1) Govt says cannabis is the most dangerous drug.
2) I try cannabis, nothing bad happens.
3) So when the govt says drugs are dangerous, they are incorrect? I guess I can't use their rating system and will have to base it on my own experiences.
There is a trust penalty for over-classifying drugs.
And then of course picking up your cannabis from the popular pharmacy chain means you never had a reason to introduce yourself to a dealer, who may stock cannabis alongside other drugs.
Cannabis isn't intrinsically a gateway drug. All the gateway-ness flows from the social structure surrounding its misclassification.
This is precisely how my thought process went back when I used to use drugs heavily.
I remember a teacher telling me drugs make hair grow out of your teeth. I figured if drugs were really that bad they wouldn't need to lie about what they do.
Not to go all Godwin but a lot of people have the same reaction to news about Trump -- for some reason, people see the need to lie about and misrepresent Trump. "If he's so bad, surely people could just list off his crimes without having to try to trick me right? Must not be so bad, it couldn't hurt to give him a turn as president."
It is a gateway drug. When marijuana is illegal you have to get it from drug dealers, who have an incentive to upsell you to harder stuff. Make it legal and that gateway goes away.
Anecdote: I've had countless dealers over 20 years in many countries and continents, not once has someone tried to sell me anything else (besides hash). It's always been some cheery barefoot guy with dreads growing it in his closet.
Now that it's legal in Germany I'm going to grow my own, and experience the (surprisingly common!) miracle of harvesting the exact legal limit of 25 grams from 3 plants ;)
In my experience, the weed dealers aren't the same dealers as the guys moving the harder stuff. If you can get meth from a guy, he can probably get you coke too. But your weed guy probably can't get you either. At least, IME with NYC dealers.
Yeah, my weed guys over the years were just some fellow stoners. The most cross-promotion I saw was for mushrooms or other psychedelics but I feel like that fits the stereotype. Once in awhile they might "have something" but I'm would be a one-off thing.
>It’s a gateway drug; while simultaneously ignoring that the drug killing people, fent has a perfectly causal gateway drug in vicodin/percs
Cannabis IS a gateway drug, indirectly, by means of social contagion. It's simply a catch-22 because the government (and media, and both sides of the political spectrum) has completely destroyed their credibility with the people.
Teenagers have had plenty of excuses, through loss of trust in the self-anointed's reputation of exaggeration, to (rightly) assume the government is
outright lying or masquerading the facts about all substances.
So when artistic pieces of blotter paper of unknown orgin start making appearances in high school's around the world in 2014, students had 0 reason to believe they were dangerous; after all, "cup of orange juice man" had already long been debunked.
Many kids have died, directly because of this DIS-education.
Oxy/Hydro's are the actual gateway drugs; recreational/unfettered use, alongside the constant social pressure, will (nearly always), cascade into more dependent use of more potent opiates, then opioids.
When fent-laced pills finally starting working their way into the aging supply of real Percoset in the hills of Appalachia, three generations of drug addicted families had already resigned their fate to a long, painful retirement of addiction.
By the way - these same, ("simple, flyover, farmer, uneducated" by blue/'learned'/democract) people trusted their government to get hooked on these, remember?
If it is a surprise to you that the vast majority of Americans distrust the DEA, FDA, or CDC, or CNN, or even FOX then you have never left the conform of your post-modern urban hell-scape.
Or, he's a savvy guy talking to the people who do still believe it's a gateway drug, and deftly explaining to them why this is good without trying to tell them they are wrong.
> Jack Riley, a former deputy administrator of the DEA, said he had concerns about the proposed change because he thinks marijuana remains a possible “gateway drug,” one that may lead to the use of other drugs.
>“But in terms of us getting clear to use our resources to combat other major drugs, that’s a positive,” Riley said, noting that fentanyl alone accounts for more than 100,000 deaths in the U.S. a year.