{"id":717,"date":"2003-01-27T22:17:43","date_gmt":"2003-01-28T06:17:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ogre.nu\/wp\/?p=717"},"modified":"2015-03-26T20:54:42","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T04:54:42","slug":"the-doors-of-deception","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/?p=717","title":{"rendered":"the doors of deception"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jacob Sullum<\/a> discusses the ‘gateway effect’, concluding:<\/p>\n

A few years ago in the Drug Policy Analysis Bulletin, the social psychologist Robert MacCoun laid out<\/a> seven – count ’em, seven – different versions of the gateway theory. “Given our current state of knowledge,” he concluded, “one can coherently argue that (a) the gateway is a myth – it doesn’t exist; (b) the gateway is very real and it shows why we must sustain or strengthen our ban on marijuana, or (c) the gateway is very real and it shows why we should depenalize or even legalize marijuana.”<\/p>\n

A theory that versatile will never die.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Have I told you my favorite gateway story? Some years ago, a passing mention of marijuana in conversation prompted a friend to say that he didn’t care for the stuff at first, preferring LSD, but socializing with other acidheads who also used marijuana led him to a more sophisticated appreciation of the latter. I repeated this to another acquaintance (who had acquired a nicotine addiction while drying out from heroin); he pondered for a moment and observed that for him cocaïne had analogously been a gateway to beer.<\/p>\n

Which in turn reminds me that, as I was signing up for pistol training a few years later, I was told to get someone of “good moral character” to vouch for my not being especially likely to misapply the knowledge that I was about to acquire. “You probably don’t know any people of bad<\/em> moral character,” said the guy on the phone. I managed not to mutter, “That’s a matter of opinion.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jacob Sullum discusses the ‘gateway effect’, concluding: A few years ago in the Drug Policy Analysis Bulletin, the social psychologist Robert MacCoun laid out seven – count ’em, seven – different versions of the gateway theory. “Given our current state … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drugwar","category-psychology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=717"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3453,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717\/revisions\/3453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bendwavy.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}