Is Pot Really a Gateway Drug?

I began smoking the weed, the ganja, the grass, the pot... (yeah, it has a lot of names), at the innocent age of 15. What made me start up? Honestly nothing in particular, it was always there, and even when I myself did not smoke pot, my friends who did smoke, never pressured me to the point where I felt like I was forced to smoke. One day though while sitting in my friends room, she began rolling a doobie and asked if I wanted some.

I don't know why my mind suddenly turned off and didn't reply with a big fat NO, but it did, and I shook my head yes, and smiled. I knew it was a bad thing to do, all of them drug awareness posters, commercials, and DARE program I took 2 years earlier went down the drain as I took my first puff of marijuana.

I didn't get high though, but because I thought I should be high, I acted like a tart. Mailboxes and inanimate objects became interesting and I thought I was now cool. However, I thought I was cool before hand, but for some reason at that age I thought smoking pot was cool, no matter how many people told you otherwise.

After having such a good time, which actually was the cause of me 'thinking' I was stoned, I wanted more. The second time I finally DID get high. My first high will never be forgotten, not only was it frightening, but it was also psychedelic. Time seemed to stand still, and it felt as if I could feel every single organ beating as one. I could feel every strand of hair on my head as if they were alive, and my skin, my skin felt as if it was waking up. I thought the first time that I actually got high, I was experiencing death.

Paranoia set in, and my friend had to calm me down by saying mind boggling things and awakening my thoughts will new ideas about the universe, life, death, heaven and hell. Man the crap that comes from ones mouth when they are high seems so meaningful at the time. Then when you come down, all of those thoughts disappear.

Once I calmed down, I allowed the high feeling to relax me. I liked it. It was a nice feeling, and nothing mattered.

I wasn't necessarily hooked from that day on, my body didn't crave it like some drugs will do, but my mind sort of did, and every time I thought of how cool life seemed at that one particular moment, my first high, I wanted to get high again.

Thus came the addiction. I don't give a crap how many morons out there tell you pot is not addicting, usually it's those who smoke it who feed you that BS lie... because this is coming from a former pot smoker... I was addicted. It had it's hold. I was only 15 working an after school job at SlumDonalds, and let me say, every $45 pay check I made a week went to buying bags of pot. These bags would then be divided into two and shared with my friends who had to pay in, so I could buy more.

Nothing seemed to matter. I was smoking 3 doobies a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. I didn't get the munchies, so by me only smoking I lost weight like crazy. Food seemed to take up too much time chewing, because when I got high everything was in slow motion, and chewing food for me sometimes would hurt my jaw. Subconsciously I thought I had been chewing for hours.

As time went on though, smoking regular weed 3 times a day kept me feeling normal, and I needed more, and more just to get a buzz. Yes.. I built up tolerance to my dealers weed. I moved on and found someone selling pot with new unique names I had never heard of, such as strawberry this, and blueberry that, atomic this, and nuclear that.... you know cool names to get one interested. I figured this Hydro crap would be the same and do nothing for me. But when I took my first toke of Hydro.... Mama'mia! It was like getting high for the first time all over again. Like whoa!

It wasn't more than a month later that I had wanted to try new things. Pot had never seemed to harm me, or so I thought, so I graduated and tried mushrooms for the first time... wooshie whoosie.. washie wooo.... suh-weet. I want more...

Do you see a pattern here? Pot did in FACT lead me to newer places. Pot was in fact my gateway... and no matter how many junkies tell you that it's not addicting, nor is it gateway.. .that is absolutely bull. They want you to graduate to the bigger, better more expensive drugs. You think they care about you? Think again.

After trying shrooms a few times, I also took a dive into the land of ecstasy. These are pills that increase your sex drive. For one, I had no need for them. I was still a virgin at the time, but because they sounded cool I had to try them.

These drugs caused me to sweat a lot, get thirsty a lot, and gave me lots of energy. However the high on these suckers were dangerous. I had read weeks later about brain swelling, so I never touched them again.

So how did I stop...

At 18 years old, I remember sitting downstairs in my room, and my mom called down and asked if I wanted to go to the mall. The mall had once been one of my favorite spots on earth. A place to shop, have fun, and...get cool things.

But because I was just about to light the end of my doob, I declined. I got high instead... and during that high I thought of the things I once loved, that I no longer cared about... I then thought of my mom, shopping by herself, and why...

That was my last puff ever. Luckily I cared enough about me, and those around me to stop cold turkey without so much an issue. Because honestly, I would probably be smokin' it up or doing things much worse than pot, and shrooms. By now, I most likely would have graduated into the land of coke, heroin, meth, and crack.

So is pot a harmless drug? No
Is it gateway? You can bet your life on it.