Gateway Drug

A "gateway" drug is a comparatively mild drug that is the first drug that an individual might make recreational use of. Marijuana is the most common of these so-called gateway drugs. It is not physically addicting and it is the drug that most addicts would admit as the first drug that they ever used. Although most drug addicts admit that marijuana was their introduction to substance abuse before they progressed to harder drags, not everyone who has used marijuana becomes addicted to anything harder. Some people will continue to use it on a recreational basis for decades without ever moving on to harder drugs and some people that have used it eventually quit.