Why Marijuana Is a Gateway Drug to Harder Drugs

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Why Marijuana is A Gateway Drug To Harder Drugs You heard it was just a myth, huh? Well, it’s not. According to these studies, marijuana is in fact a gateway drug to harder drugs. For most teen these days, smoking cigarettes is "the cool thing to do." But why do teens start smoking? Peer pressure is one of the main factors. Most adolescents who smoke cigarettes started at a very young age, in the fifth or sixth grade. Underage smoking often results in lack of hope, isolation, poor effort in school, and a lot of times, teens begin many habits that can cause them to begin experimenting with drugs. These drugs are marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methadone, crack, and so on. There are many other hard drugs. Marijuana is very popular throughout the United States and as a result, teenagers abuse this drug because they do not see marijuana as a harmful. Marijuana has its own risks and dangers but many adolescents just don't realize it. Also, it can be very addicting and most adolescents who have been exposed to marijuana at a young age have parents who also smoke it. An adolescent’s home environment and friends can be a big contributor on why they start abusing this harmful drug. Though other factors also contribute to whether or not someone will become addicted to other drugs after using marijuana, including biological, social and environmental factors, it stands confirmed that marijuana use often serves as a gateway to other drugs of addiction. Another environmental factor is because the person who sells the marijuana to them more than likely sells or does other drugs. Therefore, that person hangs out with others who do harder drugs and peer pressure them into trying it. The Yale study, which appears online in the Journal of Adolescent Health, showed that alcohol, cigarettes and marijuana were associated with an increased likelihood of prescription drug abuse in men 18 to

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