The Perfect Gateway Drug

Marijuana is often called a 'Gateway Drug' as a reason to keep it illegal, even though it's not as dangerous as known killers like cocaine and heroine. But to smoke Marijuana, you first have to accept the act of willfully inhaling pollution. Because Tobacco is legal and socially acceptable, at least for adults, it's often the first way kids learn to inhale pollution. Keeping it away from kids is important, but if adults continue to set a bad example by smoking, kids will inevitably sneak a few cigarettes to look more mature. Once the lungs are broken in to smoke, and the idea that addiction is acceptable and normal infects the mind, it makes it much easier for the kid to start with Marijuana or worse things to smoke.

The comic Doonesbury likes to point out that Marijuana has caused nearly no proven deaths, while tobacco has caused many. But the pot deaths may be masked by the tobacco deaths. The vast majority of people that I have known that smoked pot, also smoked tobacco. The drugs have complementary effects, nicotine stimulates, and THC relaxes; One person I know used to smoke a cigarette to get energy for surfing, then smoke a joint after surfing to relax. A famous marijuana non-inhaler is known for his love of cigars and the various uses thereof. Tobacco smoke is often used to mask the less legal smell of marijuana smoke. Pot isn't the gateway, its the second gate.

There's an anti-drugs ad that shows a picture of a homeless man with a caption "It doesn't always end like this", followed by a picture of a joint being lit, with the caption "But it usually begins like this.". One thing I've noticed about many of the homeless in my town is that they almost all smoke cigarettes. Many of them suffer from drug problems; how many of them learned to accept addiction and inhale smoke due to tobacco?

Politically speaking the parties are divided on the war on drugs. Democrats and Greens want to protect pot smokers and growers, while Republicans tend to protect tobacco smokers and growers. Efforts to ban public smoking are often seen as 'liberal', and Tobacco companies tend to be close allies and financial supporters of the Republicans. Of course, both parties oppose the really dangerous stuff, but they are actually paving the way for addiction by each party holding open one of the twin gateways.

Tobacco is so popular that banning it outright is impossible. In a democracy, once a certain portion of the population does something, it's a permanent part of society. Nevada originally permitted gambling because most people in the sparsely inhabited desert either did it or tolerated it, so it was never outlawed. However, the government can help by not supporting it. Does it really make sense to tax it on one hand, but subsidize the farmers of tobacco on the other hand? Are they afraid that the share of domestically produced cigarettes will fall? What's wrong with that; it just means that less useful farmland is wasted on addictive drugs. Public smoking bans are a step in the right direction. It keeps the smoke out of the office, and maybe it helps the homeless have more opportunities to bum some free butts. Political support for tobacco sabotages the war on drugs. Perhaps if politicians were required to give pot the same legal standing as tobacco, maybe support for tobacco would go up in smoke.