Reefer Madness: The "gateway drug" conspiracy

I remember it like it was yesterday, sitting in my fifth grade classroom, playing with my classmates and then there he was; shining like a beacon of morality and hope, the DARE officer. A seemingly one man warrior against drugs and alcohol, here to spread information and save lives.....what a load of shit.
      Every kid growing up in the 90's remembers the DARE program, a national effort to keep kids off of drugs, alcohol and violence. In my DARE program it was pretty much a "scared straight" approach. They would tell us these god awful stories of addicts and their lives and habits. However the one thing that they drilled into our heads more than anything else was that there was one drug, one substance that was so deadly, so intense that after just one use you would be craving cocaine and heroin like a madman, that drug is marijuana. Thats right, old mary jane, the devils cabbage; a plant so dangerous that it lures children into a live of hardcore drug abuse. There was just one problem with all of that, it was a total lie, and the scary thing is, people believe it, and still do.
      The whole gateway drug idea is quite ridiculous when you step back and look at it. The idea is that you start with pot, its cheap and easy to get your hands on, and for the most part it is the least intimidating of all drugs. After a short period of time using pot what used to be a fun and happy high just does not cut it anymore and now the user needs something harder to get the high that weed once have him, *cough* bullshit! *cough*
It is my firm belief that whom ever came up with this whole "gateway drug" crap has never smoked pot and in fact knows nothing about it. Now i could pull the stoner card and list off all the pro's of weed but i just dont have the energy and anyone reading this has already heard them from their stoner friends. What i will say is that there is not one single person i know who decided to use hard drugs because weed just "didnt cut it anymore," that simply does not happen, period. When i was in college i smoked my fair share of weed and not once did i need harder drugs because the weed didnt do it anymore, and i was personally offered everything from XTC and heroin, yes i was offered heroin and i did not even have to think twice before turning it down.
      The bottom line is that if someone is going to use hard drugs its because they made the choice themselves free of anything to do with marijuana. Now anti pot people will tell you that these drug addicts always started with marijuana and it spiraled out of control from there, well news flash, EVERYONE STARTS WITH MARIJUANA! Just because someone experiments with pot at a young age does not mean they will graduate to hard drugs, and it is absolutely absurd that people are preaching this as fact. It is a fact that just about every drug addict started with weed, but that does not mean that all weed useres will be users of hard drugs as well; its like saying all NASCAR drivers started off driving normal cars, but that does not mean all people who drive regular cars will become NASCAR drivers.
      The gateway drug LIE has been spread for far too long, it has kept marijuana, a plant growing naturally that has NEVER killed anyone, in the same realm as actually deadly substances, and it is all simply not true. To quote our buddy Bob Marley, "by going against ganja, you are saying God made a mistake."