Much has been said about those who smoke weed being more apt to switch to other drugs. Anxious parents and those who run drug cessation programs claim that smoking pot is a gateway to the use of other substances. Proponents for the legalization of the substance, which often include people who currently are smoking marijuana themselves, dismiss this notion as simplistic and claim that those who smoke pot are no more likely to start using harder drugs than those who never got involved in pot smoking in the first place.

While the factions may be warring forever, it is an established scientific fact that weed smoking increases the likelihood of an individual to at least experiment with other drugs, thus, in so many ways, really making it the gateway drug it is portrayed as. Those opposed to smoking marijuana have done a significant disservice to their cause by publishing a guide to smoking weed which contains several fallacies about the smoke marijuana emits as well as a number of scientific inaccuracies about smoking marijuana in general. Of course, on the other side of the aisle are those who weed smokers who will latch on to any obscure scientific study that in some way substantiates their claims of the safety smoking marijuana gives.

As is always the case but with smoking marijuana in particular, the truth is somewhere in the middle. It is an incontrovertible fact that those who quit smoking pot are less likely to start using other drugs. Furthermore, smoking weed, videos show, has been shown to increase the curiosity of the smoker to find out more about the highs that other drugs may offer, thus increasing an individual’s susceptibility to experimentation, proofing the gateway theory. While you can try to hide weed smoke facts behind a lot of pot smoking cartoons and pro weed smoke rhetoric and alleged first person accounts, the truth remains that the chemicals found in the brains of those who smoke that weed have been altered to such an extent that they will increase the likelihood of an affected individual to seek out additional ways of experiencing the high that pot may offer.

Add to this that a practice with lighting an inhaling a substance for its effect is a great way to get used to lighting that crack pipe or to using other substances with the goal of experiencing a physiological and psychological high. Of course, there are also other gateway drugs, such as tobacco and alcohol, and while these are rarely discussed as such, the fact that pot is still illegal in most places contributes to the notice this drug has received.