Sean,
This is an important issue that has been propagandized to the max. The whole concept of a "gateway" drug is meaningless in psychological terms. There is absolutely no proof that doing one drug would lead to another specific drug being used by an individual. What psychologists (and geneticists) have proven is that certain people are suseptible to becoming addicts of one sort or another. It's called addictive personality. And it's the major factor (that they've found so far) to determine whether someone will become addicted to drugs, cigarettes, alcohol or gambling. Which one the person chooses can sometimes be determined by genetic predisposition.

So if someone has an addictive personality, then sooner or later that person will succumb to an addiction. It could even be an addtiction to work! The whole thing is happening at the level of brain chemistry and scientists are just beginning to get a handle on it. The truth is there are drugs out there that can break the cycle of addiction for people, esp. those addicted to heroin for instance. Ibogaine is one drug that shows promising results with a very low relapse rate.

Marijuana too may well KEEP people off harder drugs, esp. alcohol. Many people who abuse alcohol cut back their consumption once they start smoking pot. It would sure be great if we could have some stats on this and we need much more research to determine the effects and benefits of marijuana, but of course the U.S. government would never allow open research on the subject and has just now approved the first new studies of marijuana in something like 30 years!

In the case of your stepsister, she may be correct that smoking cigarettes is safer than marijuana FOR HER. This would be that she can purchase cigarettes at the corner grocery store instead of having to seek out drug dealers who may also have heroin readily available. This is the only possible connection between marijuana and harder drugs is that the laws that keep marijuana illegal, also keep the black market dealing marijuana along with other hard drugs. So the temptation is always there, esp. when the dealers run out of marijuana, smokers wanting to get "high" might opt for another drug for their party if it's available. So it's not that it's a gateway, so much as that it is illegal that leads people to harder drugs.

Want proof of this claim? The Dutch have studied this far more than any country, and when they permitted coffeeshops to sell marijuana and hashish, they removed these drugs from the streets, and separated the users from the hard drug dealers. Now there is ample supply of cannabis in Holland, and no reason for those who use it to seek out other drugs! In fact the incidence of all drug use in Holland is FAR BELOW that of the U.S. But of course the U.S./DEA drug propaganda machine will never tell the truth about this.

So it's one thing to decide not to use marijuana on a personal basis, and it's quite another to condemn marijuana as a "gateway" to other drugs. It's just another LIE.

Load the peace pipe,
The Old Hippy