The term gateway drug is used to describe a relatively benign drug that can lead to the use of "harder", more dangerous drugs. The term is also used, usually somewhat facetiously, to describe introductory experiences to sometimes "addictive" experiences or devices.

Drug-related usage

Cannabis is often seen as a gateway drug.

The term is often used by governments, pressure groups and the media to describe the concept that illegal drug use is a continuum. According to this concept, using one "soft" non- or only slightly addictive drug will lead to the use of other "harder" drugs and the associated criminal and social consequences – the first drug used is thus described as a gateway to further abuse.

There is no hard scientific evidence to support the idea that use of one drug will lead to use of other drugs – that physiological and neurological changes make it unavoidable. Individual social histories show that "hard" drug users do progress from one drug to another, but the drives behind this are not clear enough to generalise a gateway.[1]

While physiological and neurological evidence may be lacking, some argue that there are sociological factors that lead to a gateway phenomenon, since people who have bought illegal soft drugs have made connections to dealers who may also sell illegal hard drugs. While dealers and buyers may find less legal reasons to stay away from hard drugs when hard drugs are legally treated not much differently from what they are already involved with, they may still decide to stay away from hard drugs nevertheless because of their concerns for their own health.

The continuum concept is used to argue that all illegal drugs should be treated in the same manner under the law, rather than there being different penalties based on some division by each drug's dangers. With the gateway concept, all illegal drugs are equally iniquitous, to convict a user at an "early stage" of their progression is more beneficial than waiting until they have progressed to other drugs. It is also used to discourage the use of relatively less harmful and sometimes legal drugs like cannabis, nicotine, or alcohol, which could theoretically lead to more dangerous drugs like cocaine or heroin.

General usage

The term is often used metaphorically to describe introductory or simplistic experiences, devices, or products that will lead the user into more in-depth territory and eventual "addiction". For example, many products in specialized industries or persuasions have been described as gateway drugs if they are easy to acquire, set up, learn, and use. Some examples of this are Mozilla Firefox or Super Mario RPG; in this sense, Firefox will supposedly cause an "addiction" to open source software and Super Mario RPG will cause an "addiction" to console role-playing games.

See Also:

• Halo effect