gateway drug

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gateway drug

A drug or other ingested substance, such as alcohol or marijuana, whose habitual use is thought to lead to the use of very addictive and dangerous drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

gateway drug

(Recreational Drugs) a recreational drug such as cannabis, the use of which is believed by some to encourage the user to try stronger drugs

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

gate′way drug`

any mood-altering drug, as a stimulant or tranquilizer, that does not cause physical dependence but may lead to the use of addictive drugs, as heroin.

[1985–90]

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Noun

gateway drug - a habit-forming drug that is not addictive but its use may lead to the use of other addictive drugs; "one college athlete recently called beer a gateway drug for young people"

drug of abuse, street drug - a drug that is taken for nonmedicinal reasons (usually for mind-altering effects); drug abuse can lead to physical and mental damage and (with some substances) dependence and addiction

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Welday Hagos, a clinical psychologist and director of the Mekele-based centre -- Ethiopia's only free, long-term drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility -- believes that khat is a gateway drug to harder substances.

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</URL>The origin of the claim appears to be a Reddit user who, in 2016, noticed marijuana was not listed along with tobacco and alcohol under the headline, "What is a gateway drug?" on a page issued by D.A.R.E., PolitiFact said.

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Yet a 2014 study in the New England Journal of Medicine found that "electronic cigarettes may function as a 'gateway drug' that can prime the brain to be more receptive to harder drugs".

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Sheppard elicited boos from the crowd as she referred to marijuana as "a gateway drug," a theory that people who try marijuana are more likely to pick up harder drugs.

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They'd dismiss your notions of "gateway drugs." Life's a gateway drug; live long enough and you'll need some kind of crutch.