Pubdate: Sat, 26 Feb 2011
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2011 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Marshall Dunlap

'GATEWAY' ARGUMENT ILLEGITIMATE

The line of reasoning claiming that marijuana leads to harder drugs 
is specious ["A gateway drug," Northwest Voices, Feb. 23]. It would 
be laughable if it weren't so lamentable. One could as easily claim 
that all addicts started out on mother's milk.

In the long chain of events that compose an addict's life, how is it 
possible to point to a single link in that chain as the single point 
of no return? Alcohol is also a link in that chain. Yet no one calls 
for the return of prohibition as a solution to drug addiction.

Tens of millions of people smoke marijuana. Yet those tens of 
millions have not become heroin addicts. Is this proof that, rather 
than leading to harder drugs, marijuana use encourages people to stay 
away from them?

There are legitimate arguments for and against the legalization of 
marijuana, but this is not one of them.

- - Marshall Dunlap, Kent
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