[TheRealVille]

I don't think that gateway drug means what you think that it means. The phrase is not synonymous with "addictive." Would you deny that users of most other non-prescription, illegal drugs used marijuana before they tried the harder stuff?

Whether marijuana is addictive or not is irrelevant to the question of whether it is a gateway to more dangerous drugs. Even if marijuana was highly addictive, it would not make people physically and mentally crave another addictive drug. People who break the law to use any kind of drug tend to be predisposed to break the law to use other drugs and it has nothing to do with addictions.

Could the reason be that dealers that deal pot, also deal harder drugs? Would it be a gateway drug if it could be bought in stores, like cigarettes? Would cigarettes be a gateway drug, if it were illegal, and peddled by dealers? What makes a gateway drug is a drug that you get used to, and need other things to get that high you once got. Pot will give you the same high 30 years after your first use. You can get used to cocaine, and lose the ability to get that initial high, therefore you would look for something else to "get you there". That doesn't happen with pot. The only gateway part of pot is the fact that the same dealers that peddle it, peddle the harder stuff, and can push you toward the harder, more addictive drugs.