>Actually, that is not what I said. > >What I said was that sometimes (though not nearly as often as some >would have you believe) pot is the first step. Most (if not all) of >the hardcore drug users I saw in my career in EMS started with pot. >Now, as has been stated, this has more to do with the person than >whatever dug they first started using, but it does not detract form >the fact that pot can, for some, be the first step into hardcore >drugs. > >Would they get into hardcore drugs if they did not start with pot? No >one knows. We can speculate, but we do not know for sure. I will also >state that I have known a lot of people who never went past pot (which >gives weight to the 'its the person, not the drug' idea). >
While many addicts start on less "harmful" drugs, a very "mild" drug does not necessary lead to more harmful psychoactive drugs. Similarly there are those addicts that started on crack heroin etc., without any intervening steps. In other words correlation != causation. It may also be that many users shop around for their buzz. I am willing to bet that those more hard core users you mentioned drank beer before they touched pot. Also I suspect that its not just one drug (ie crack, meth etc) they take regularly, but more than one. To some extent I think that addiction is determined to a great extent by physiological factors. Then by environmental ones. If the person tends towardsfor addition (and pardon the very gross over-generalization here) they will become addicted to something. They may change from drug to drug until they find one that supplies their need best. In contrast there are also those who no matter the exposure to whatever, they will not become addicted. If you look at the uptake pathways in the brain, many addicts will show a lot more response in select areas of the brain than non addicts. The caveat here is that these studies used small samples etc. Environmental factors may determine in part the choice of drugs and degree of exposure/ Thay may determine the degree of resistance to addiction, such as competing behaviors, cognitive factors etc, but I don't think that they have as much of an impact as physiology in whether the person becomes addicted. larry ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:300858 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
