Challengers of Marijuana

Challengers of marijuana policy development have claimed that even though marijuana may not be as risky as hard drugs like cocaine or heroin, it is considered a gateway drug that leads users to a pathway of more unsafe substances. In the article, “Understanding the link among youthful marijuana use and later serious drug use” it indicated that the pharmacologic effects of marijuana could intensify a youth’s inclination to consume further drugs (Cleveland & Wiebe, 2008). Marijuana may sensitize or alert the adolescent’s brain to the rewards of psychedelic substances, and that in turn would make some other drugs even gratifying and pleasurable, thus increasing the risk of constant consumption (Cleveland & Wiebe, 2008).. Users want more and solid drugs to endure to attain the high they first experienced. According to the Foundation to a Drug Free World website, the massive mainstream of cocaine users originated by first consuming a gateway drug like marijuana ("Foundation for a Drug Free World", 2006-2013). It stated that youth from ages 13 to 17 that used marijuana are about 80% of probability to proceed to use cocaine compare to kids who do not use marijuana, and about 65% of the teens who smoke marijuana before they reach the age of 15 moves on to cocaine ("Foundation for a Drug Free World", 2006-2013).

The gateway movement may be the utmost mutual arrangement; surely, it is not the lone order of drug use. In the article, “Employment closes the marijuana gateway” it declared about a study that was issued in the September 2010 Magazine of Health and Social Behavior, affirming that the access after marijuana use to solid drugs is pressure and stress linked to joblessness, not from the pot itself (“Employment closes the marijuana gateway, researchers find,” 2010).. Since the research study, pot does not ensure an access outcome itself and the concrete estimate if someone will use solid drugs depending if