“Smoking marijuana leads to heavier drugs.”

Opponents of legalizing marijuana, even if they agree that its harm is microscopic, insist that the use of marijuana is the gateway to the world of hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine, as well as various psychedelics and hallucinogens. This myth is cultivated on the basis of the fact that almost all drug addicts used marijuana in one way or another.

Besides, almost all addicts somehow drank beer! Besides, almost all addicts somehow smoked cigarettes, and besides… there are too many cases of “besides”! Is it possible, being based on this, to assert that alcohol or smoking is a step to hard drugs? Of course not!  This myth is a classic example of the use of equivocal language in violation of the cause-and-effect linkage. Drugs are a classic way of avoiding a harsh reality, and people who are dissatisfied with this life would accept them. So people are pushed to heroin addiction not by marijuana, but people prone to such addictions tend to try everything that helps them to relax/forget themselves before discovering the world of hard drugs. This is either marijuana, or cigarettes, or beer, or wine. Thus, arguing that marijuana increases loyalty to heroin is tantamount to saying that wine increases loyalty to heroin.

The fact that many of those who use heroin, cocaine or other hard drugs often smoked cannabis does not mean that cannabis itself has influenced their decision to turn to other drugs. An equal statistical relationship is also between other common and non-common activities. For example, most people who ride a motorcycle previously rode a bicycle. Indeed, the prevalence of riding a motorcycle among people who have never rode a bicycle, in all likelihood, is extremely small. However, riding a bicycle is not a cause of riding a motorcycle at all, and an increase in the prevalence of the first cause does not automatically lead to an increase in the prevalence of the latter. The same is with the use of marijuana which increase does not automatically lead to increase in the cocaine and other drugs use.