Maybe Heroin is the Gateway Drug
Marijuana is always catching a lot of flack over being the gateway drug that turns young experimenting youths from sneaking a beer here and there into a drooling, desperate dope fiend. But maybe we’ve got it all wrong. Maybe heroin is actually the gateway drug and marijuana is the really scary drug.
Well, maybe not. But for one man, an active heroin addict, it was his forage into the art of marijuana cultivation and distribution that ruined his life, not his struggle with opiate addiction.
Marijuana Abuse to Support Heroin Addiction
Raymond Nichols lived in England, an active dope fiend and the owner of a somewhat subversive farming endeavor, growing over 100 marijuana plants when he got caught recently. It’s estimated that these 100 plants could have created about 17,000 joints worth about £35,000. That’s not a little bit. And if it weren’t for the suspicious smell emanating off the property, the condensation on the windows from his hydroponic system and the hugely inappropriate electric bill, he might have gotten away with it.
And, see, it wasn’t his, anyway. Um, he was just taking care of it for someone else. Says his attorney:
“Nichols became hooked on heroin after the death of his two-year-old son from leukemia eight years ago and more recently his grandmother. He was in the grip of a heroin addiction and was vulnerable to their [the owners of the marijuana plants] suggestions. He was relieved when police raided the address as it gave him a way out.”
The Price of Heroin Addiction Versus Marijuana Addiction
And what is the payment for this crime? Certainly far less than if he had been caught with an equivalent amount of heroin: a mere two and a half years in lockup. So many who are addicted to opiates try to sell their drug of choice to support their habit and end up spending their lives in prison when they inevitably make a mistake and get caught. Nichols, on the other hand, earned almost as much of his sentence for messing with his electrical system and robbing a nearby house as he did for his possession of the marijuana plants.
Somebody get this man some Suboxone.
If you like this post subscribe to the feed
October 13th, 2008 at 5:36 am
This seem like a new theory that you are tring to creat. For too much times scientist have to find evidence of a “Gateway Drug” with out much success. You are continuing to promote and idea with out evidence.
October 13th, 2008 at 11:50 am
It’s kind of a tongue-in-cheek post, Jon, but you’re right: there’s a lot of interest in creating a villain when it comes to opiate dependence and addiction and marijuana gets a lot of flack since so many begin their drug use with a beer and a joint. I understand the need to find the cause of something in order to get closer to discovering the cure, but sometimes it just feels like a witch hunt, doesn’t it?