Original posted by RichieLion
By first hand experience I meant you and not your family or friends, and so all you really have is conjecture and a "I know better than anyone" moral compass.

You still haven't addressed any of the other social issues regarding this subject and are just hung up on the people who become addicted to substances that have nothing to do with this thread.

Do you know how many people become addicted to prescription drugs? Was marijuana the gateway to these addictions?

To clarify, in addition to the immediate family who provide therapy to addicts
I have attended a famous foundation to become familiar with the disease and
thereby increas my ability to discuss it with the Professionals. The foundation was for a week and was very intense. I have also read many
books on the subject because of the scurge it has brought to society.
Regarding the question as to how many go from marijuana to other drugs?
It is a more complicated than just a percentage or number ! It is necessary
as what age the person started, the enviorment of the person, the availability of other drugs, etc. (Note: It is not unusual for the person selling
marijuana to also be selling cocaine, herion, etc. and since in a number of
cases there is more profit from these drugs it is the seller's attempt to move
the customer up in usages.) A general rule of thumb could be around 15-20%
but again that percentage is questionable since it does not break it down by
age, rural or urban, etc.
To see the ruins..drive through Woodstock on a Sunday morning and see the population in the park, visit a crisis center in the South Bronx of NYC.
Again, there is no way someone can convince anybody to quit. Only they
can make that decision and hopefully it happens before it destroys families,
create health problems, and so on. There has been a wealth of documentation that it causes a shrinkage of the brain stem, effects reproduction, etc.but since I am not terribly knowledable about this I will leave it at that.