Dear Pot Lawyer,
What do people mean when they talk about cannabis as an “exit drug”?
This question may seem to fall outside the legal realm, but continued cannabis research is critical towards undercutting the fallacies that are still propping up prohibition. The case against legalization is based in part on claims that cannabis is as dangerous as other Schedule I drugs (heroin, LSD, ecstasy, etc.) and you’ve probably heard at some point—maybe during high school health class—that cannabis is a “gateway drug” that leads to other dangerous drugs.
Of course, we now know that the first premise is false: Cannabis use is safer in the long run than even alcohol and tobacco, let alone some Schedule II drugs like meth. Most prohibitionists even recognize this fact, and instead focus on the alleged tendency of cannabis to lead to legitimately dangerous substances.
However, recent studies have started to demolish this idea of pot as a gateway drug.