Dan and I were skulking around a few nights ago when we came across this young fellow lurking behind a dumpster in the lane behind Insite. High on crystal meth and in some kind of drug psychosis, he was picking the scabs from his gaunt face and swollen hands
We stopped to ask what he was doing. He said he was picking the crank bugs that were burrowed under his skin. He was convinced the bugs were crawling all over him. I explained there were no bugs and that he was in the middle of drug psychosis. He didn’t believe me.
I used my little point-and-shoot to take pictures of his hands and face so I could prove there were in fact no bugs. He still wasn’t convinced.
We started talking about life and about addiction. He seemed like such a decent kid. He explained how his addiction started after years of childhood trauma and abuse, including a revolving door of foster homes. He explained how be began smoking pot, which eventually took him in search of bigger and better ways to get high. For him, marijuana was most definitely a gateway drug.
We parted ways and wished him luck. I hope I never see him again. Sadly, I know I probably will.
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I bet this guy drank alcohol before smoking marijuana, but I rarely see people talk about how alcohol is a gateway drug.
He probably also smoked cigarettes before smoking marijuana, but people rarely talk about them as a gateway drug either.
And before alcohol or cigarettes, he probably drank coffee or some other caffeine filled drink as a stimulant, but people don’t accuse it as being a gateway drug.
People are way too quick to accuse marijuana as being a gateway drug, when the truth is, the path towards normalizing substance abuse starts a long time before anyone gets to marijuana. By the time anyone gets to marijuana, they’re already through the gate.
Thanks for writing and putting a face to the problem. I found Gabor Mate’s book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, very helpful in understanding the roots of addiction.
isn’t the “gateway” the “years of childhood trauma and abuse, including a revolving door of foster homes”?
if one uses the definition of Gateway as Something that serves as an entrance or a means of access, then childhood trauma and abuse is the gateway.
It’s apples and oranges. You can’t consider alcohol as a gateway drug and you certainly can’t consider caffeine as one either.
Marijuana is a gateway drug. Why? Because it is an illegal drug, a ‘novice’ drug as some may call it. They get a small taste of what they may imagine a harder drug like heroin or crack to feel like, they build up a tolerance to marijuana and decide they want to move on to something stronger within the family of illegal narcotics.
The point I’m trying to make is that if someone decides they want to get a better high, they turn to harder drugs. If someone decides they want to get more drunk, they turn to harder liquor. So with that in mind, can you still consider alcohol to be a gateway drug? Maybe a gateway to say, more alcohol and a few bad decisions, but in no way does having a couple of beer constitute doing drugs, in the same way that doing drugs constitutes doing a few more drugs.
Do you have studies to back this up or is this just how you feel or what you personally believe to be true?
More so my personal opinion backed up by common sense. I’m stating the facts as I see them and from personal experience.
I’m not suggesting that recreational use of cannabis will inevitably lead to use of harder drugs, I am suggesting that someone who tries cannabis will definitely have a higher chance of seeking a ‘better high’ then someone who has not tried cannabis. This doesn’t take a study to understand, walk through the halls of a high school near you and chances are you’ll find this to be the case.
The drug is a symptom of a bigger problem, not the problem. There is no such thing as a gateway drug
“Gateway drugs” are simply drugs people typically have earlier and easier access to.
I had a client once who was convinced he had bugs crawling all over him and he was an avid crack user. After many trips to the dermitoligist along with everyone trying to explain that the crack reacts to the nerve endings in your body which causes “crack bugs” he still was adamant that something was going on.
Sent him to a different doc who actually came up with a diagnosis.
I cannot remember the exact name now…but it’s named after the doc who did the study and is now considered a real medical syndrome.
I don’t understand why some are so quick to defend marijuana in terms of whether or not it is a gateway drug. It may be for some, and it may not be for others.
My sister grew up on a small island and many of the kids had easy access to marijuana and used it regularly. My sister, as she told me, did use marijuana on occasion with her friends. After a few years many of them moved from marijuana and started using meth. My sister was not one of them. Perhaps it depends for some one their reasons for using marijuana in the first place? My sister had a good home life without suffering trauma or abuse and from what I understand, started using marijuana as more of a social thing. Maybe some of the other kids had a different story and that’s why they moved onto harder drugs… who knows. Everyone’s story is different and I have no problem accepting that marijuana certainly has the potential to be a gateway drug.
Because it often gets in the way of having a rational discussion about the legalization of marijuana.
People think there is causality simply because there are cases where marijuana use preceded heroin use. They may be correlated but there is a huge difference between correlation and causality.
Even the anecdotal story in this article where Steve says “For him, marijuana was most definitely a gateway drug.” it commits the error of mistaking correlation for causality. There are two propositions:
1) Marijuana use caused significant psychological or physiological changes in him that caused him to seek out harder drugs.
2) Childhood trauma and abuse caused him to seek out drugs, one of which was the use of easily obtainable marijuana.
One is causation. One is correlation. And one, at least to me, seems a lot more plausible.
From what I have witnessed and what I have learned, I find both of your propositions to be equally plausible. But that is my opinion.
I would like to point out that, as someone who believes there is some merit to the gateway theory, I am in favour of legalizing marijuana.
As someone whose first drug experience was dropping Orange Sunshine (acid) at the age of 12, working my way ‘up’ to pot, and eventually becoming drug free – I don’t believe in the ‘gateway’ drug theory. I think it’s a scare tactic that only works on parents and professionals who have no solid information on what really does cause people to become addicted to drugs.
I was immersed in a life surrounded by drugs and alcohol for most of my life. It’s my personal experience and observation that if someone wants to be ‘altered’, and alcohol or pot (which are relatively easy to obtain) does the trick – they will look no further. If alcohol/pot do not do the trick, some people will (almost instinctively) continue to look for the thing that gives them the degree of high or numbing they are looking for – until they find it in the form of harder drugs, sex, gambling, etc. I think there’s a quality to each type of ‘stone’ (and degree of stone) that is a very personal experience to each person. We have not yet figured out how to scientifically examine or measure what it feels like to be stoned – to identify what need is being met (I suspect at a chemical level). When we do, I believe that’s where the answer to addiction lies…
I like Travis’ explanation best.
In my experience, it’s difficult to find a cocaine or heroin or meth user for whom marijuana was not the first illegal drug they tried. And from that point, there was a progression (or, more appropriately, a regression).
Not only does marijuana use give one a taste of escape through getting high, but it also often puts one in touch with people who use and/or sell other drugs, and so the temptation to ‘progress’ is often there.
Also, the encouragement to try the harder drugs (from these others who use/sell the harder drugs) is often present.
Forget the marijuana, the meth…all that. If a child is not loved, validated and cared for, you get depression, and that manifests into all sorts of issues including addiction to mask the pain, and crime. Depression has many faces. This is one.
As for the heroin addicts doing pot before heroin: I grew up in Surrey in the 70s and it was heroin before pot in that area. As a matter of fact, a lot of people didn’t even get off on the sativa that was around then so it wasn’t as big a deal. Alcohol, well, there you have the juice of the brave. Amazing what one will agree to, or find acceptable, after a few drinks.
My heart goes out to this kid. He missed Parental Love 101. Every child has a right to that, no matter what age.
I certainly could never disagree with parental love – or the lack of it – being the root of the problem insofar as the many of troubled people on the street are concerned. The young ones in particular.
But I still say that marijuana use can – and often does – easily lead to harder drugs – and a deeper hole – for the reasons I stated in my first post.
As for the parenting issue… Children, by and large, are not born ‘bad’, or troubled. Sometimes, the troubled person will be the product of parents who appear all fine and loving. And when that’s the case, the blame is often put on the child if he/she ends up screwed up. The child is blamed by his/her parents (which, of course is far more convenient for the parents than is accepting responsibility), and the child is blamed by ‘friends of the family’, etc.
Sometimes, when there is a sibling who “turned out just fine”, it furthers laying the blame on the screwed up kid: “They were raised the same way by the same parents – but one turned out good and one turned out bad – so it’s obviously his (her) own fault.”
That might hold water if the two children are exactly the same. But, of course, no two people are exactly the same – and so it may be that the parents’ love, the way it was given and presented by the parents, managed to reach one child, but not the other. The possible reasons for this are numerous, of course, not the least of which revolves around the two kids being different people, with different perspectives and different needs. The dynamic between parent and child is also obviously different with each child. And so it’s the parents’ responsibility to adjust to the personality and the needs of each child. This doesn’t always happen, obviously.
And so, it is certainly well within the realm of possibility that parental love reaches one child, but not the other, despite the fact that the two children were raised in the same house by the same parents.
In some cases (but certainly not all), the parents of troubled kids have the best intentions… but they just don’t know how to reach their child. Sometimes they think their love is reaching the child – until they find out – often in a dramatic way – that it’s not. And by then, much damage has already been done.
And so we need to look deeper than the mere surface.
While the troubled child (whether they be still children or are now adults) must accept some of the responsibility in order to grow and evolve, it must be said that a child is the product of his/her parents. If a kid makes bad choices, that is a reflection of the parenting.
I’ve just gotta ask Steve (not the cop): Are you a parent?
No, I’m not a parent.
I am, however, a child, and so have very direct experience with the parent/child relationship from that perspective.
I also have significant experience working with children (and sometimes with parents) in various capacities – and in seeing the parental/family situation.
I also believe that this capacity offers a rather objective perspective.
Lastly, there are very competent male gynecologists. (This is borrowed from one of my ‘mentors’, when someone suggested that direct experience is required in order to understand something.)
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I’ve seen people with marks on their face like that a few times and wondered if they were meth users. Now I know.
Steve
Next time you come across someone in drug psychosis,make sure to give them Apple juice or Gatorade.
Both drinks will help re-hydrate the person’s brain and body.
Along with help the person come back to reality.
If the person can eat,try to get them to eat something healthy to absorb the drugs in their system.
I know this works for people in cocaine/crack psychosis,I don’t know about Crystal Meth psychosis.
In my opinion it shouldn’t matter what drug is used first second or third, it should matter that this poor soul has ended up in hell. An addiction is an addiction, be it running 10 miles everyday, drinking 30 cups of coffee, smoking 100 smokes drinking too much alcohol. I also know from working as a fron line worker for many years that there are a lot of very poor foster homes(not all) but many. The foster parents in those homes are in it for all of the wrong reasons. I have seen many many kids go through the revolving door and many that fall through the cracks,it is no suprsie to me that they end up just like this young guy. They feel lost with no hope in sight. Not to mention the abuse along the way. So the drugs and alcohol kill the pain and so on and so on. Every person that lives in the downtown east side, belongs to someone.It doesn’t matter how they got there but it should matter as to how we can get them back on track. God bless all of them. Thank you for your stories Steve.
When reading this,a friend asked me a question that sounded logical.
“What did the 1% of society do to the other 99%,that they now feel the need to self medicate”??
Steve do you have answer for this??
Jennifer
I’m part of the so-called 99 per cent. Nobody in the one per cent has ever done anything to me that makes me self medicate. If I’ve ever felt the need to do so, it’s as a result of my own free will. Besides, I think statements like the one above are myopic. Such statements shift the burden and responsibility for people’s problems onto others, therefore enabling them to continue living in misery by blaming others for their situations. The few people who I’ve seen manage to get clean and escape this place are the ones who have taken responsibility for their choices.
@Jennifer
I’m not sure the question is logical, although I did read the same question on Vancouver Cop Watch F.B page recently. Maybe you could check back there to see if someone has been able to answer it by now.
@ Mary
That’s my friend who asked the question.
I did check back and no one else has answered the question.
In Canada marijuana is an ordinary middle-class drug. More or less as acceptable as alcohol. Alcohol has tradition on its side. Pot has hard data on its side – it is much less damaging than alcohol and doesn’t have alcohol’s extreme addiction potential. Nicotine is highly addictive and has become pretty much unacceptable, especially among those who still smoke cigarettes and seriously wish they had never started. For many, unfortunately, pot can be a gateway drug to tobacco because of people mixing tobacco into joints when they roll them then passing that arround – a very very bad idea. Generally though the idea of pot being vilified as a “gateway” to hard drug use is rightly dismissed.
To say that marijuana leads to hard drugs and addiction is like saying bicycles lead to grid-lock and smog.