Marijuana as a Gateway Drug

An argument used by the opposition is that marijuana is a so-called "gateway drug". If by this they mean that many victims of heroin, cocaine, and other "hard" drugs used marijuana first, prior to moving on to the harder stuff, I concede the point. Most of us would probably agree, and I would expect studies would confirm this.

Having said that, we need to walk this dog a little further. How many users of marijuana (and the "hard" drugs) first used alcohol, or for that matter tobacco? If nicotine and alcohol are drugs that have a negative effect on society, and they are, and if we're interested in pursuing "gateway drugs", wouldn't it be reasonable to target them as well?

Put another way, if we are continuing to criminalize marijuana use because it's a gateway drug, shouldn't we also make tobacco and alcohol use illegal?

http://partyseeking.blogspot.com/2011/03/marijuana-as-gateway-drug.html