How Can a Marijuana Addiction Lead to Harder Drugs?

How Can a Marijuana Addiction Lead to Harder Drugs?

Addiction starts whenever a person loses their ability to control themselves around narcotics, alcohol, or any other hazardous material or practice. It can take people years to build up an addiction and people who become dependent on these items lose control of their lives. Marijuana addiction is the first step in becoming addicted to more harmful, destructive drug practices.

To begin, it is important to highlight that Marijuana is not a “safe” drug as most people have come to realize it. This drug destroys brain cells while simultaneously destroying a person’s lungs. The THC chemical released by inhaling smoke from a marijuana plant is the active ingredient in producing the high feeling. This feeling is never as good as the first time, which can lead a person towards addiction.

Frequent marijuana usage will cause a person to feel comfortable with the drug scene. This is the first step in it being a “gateway” drug. A gateway drug is a substance that people use that is not as harmful as other hardcore substances to produce a high. This high will become old news and because the body wants to produce that great high feeling again, people are more susceptible to trying new things.

It has been calculated that over thirty percent of the United States college population is actively smoking marijuana. These figures are staggering because college student are the core of the future work force. While many people do in fact control their marijuana addiction and live with it every day, about sixty two percent of adults who have tried marijuana have also tried cocaine.

Another example of a harder drug that many people graduate to after fervent marijuana use is heroin. Heroin is probably the hardest and worst drug on the market because of its high addictive strength and the adverse affects it has on the body when trying to quit. It was estimated that nine percent of the population who have admitted a marijuana addiction, graduated to heroin later on down the line.

Marijuana addiction is an addiction like any other substance abuse problem. Though many people consider it a safe drug, remember that there is no such thing. Marijuana leads people down the road to becoming a burn out or an addict of much harder, self-detrimental substances. Those old commercials that said something along the lines that only dopes do dope could not be more correct.