I'd like to once again congratulate drugs, for winning the war on drugs.

I am definitely quite relaxed on cannabis. I mean on cannabis. I mean on cannabis

I'm from Colorado, and the worst thing that happened when cannabis was legalized was that housing got super expensive from everyone wanting to move here.

In my experience it's been an anti-gateway drug. It may be anecdotal but I've known numerous people who have used it to get off of worse addictions. Hell I'm right now scaling down usage really easily and enjoying it just as much as before. Unlike other drugs, it's tolerance resets extremely quickly. It's a pain reliever that's so much less intense than others

In middle school they told us weed could kill you. So, I decided that it was the easiest sewerslide method I could get my hands on. Instead I just got very high, and found a new hobby. I still smoke today. Only drug I can do. I can't even drink alchohol.

It really makes you feel disconnected from the rest of society when you’re classed as a criminal just for relaxing on the sofa after work.

I have bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, PTSD, ADHD, and probably more mental health issues tucked away in my noggin. I've spent the last 12 years on various medication and NOTHING has worked for me. I've barely been able to leave my flat for a whole decade. I started vaping cannabis earlier this year and the difference is night and day. I'm finally able to go outside and do things for myself. I finally have some semblance of independence again and it has given me hope that life isn't over for me yet. My current problem is that cannabis is illegal, and that makes it difficult to get a steady supply of good quality herb of a strain that suits me. I have considered growing for my own consumption but it is a no-go because I don't think i would survive in prison. I am hopeful to spend this Christmas with my family for the first time in over a decade, and I could not have done this without cannabis.

I dumped alcohol for edibles. Got my sleep schedule on track and stopped needing a glass of wine every evening. I gained an appreciation for a chill evening on the couch high, gaming with friends. No more late nights. Over time, I even reduced the edible intake, and allowed my body to sleep following its natural pattern, occasionaly using melatonin on week days and edibles once or twice a week. Cannabis has also helped with anxiety since I now have a reference of what a calm state of mind is for me and have a clear sense of how my body acts when I am not anxious. This has helped me be in touch with my mental health, flagging harmful states as they happen. I also use CBD in lieu of Adderal and the like to curb my ADHD when what I need is to calm down rather than excessive focus. Here I am keeping my intake of adderal at a minimal, and barely using any chemicals all thanks to the Cannabis plant. I come from a very conservative society but Cannabis has been an incredibly revolutionary addition to my life. No regrets whatsoever.

The “would you like some coke with that” line was gold. It’s compelling little things like that that make this channel worth watching

The point about the gateway of breaking the law being stronger than the gateway between disparate drugs is so good.

I live in washington and we have cannabis stores in almost every city. Weed is more common than alcohol in some areas. It's so casual where I live that its crazy to me to see that it's treated like hard drugs in other countries when down here, even the house wives will sometimes take a little gummy after they drop their kids off at school. We also use a large portion of the tax revenue from cannabis for our schools too.

5:54 "Would you like some coke with that" that's a great line damn-

The whole "gateway drug" argument lies flat on its face. Sure, those who tries harder substances probably had weed before. But those who had weed probably also tried alcohol before, therefore you can classify alcohol as a gateway drug too. Reductio ad absurdum. It is not the weed made them try harder drugs. It is that those who are predisposed to compulsive/dangerous behavior and are on hard drugs, probably had weed long ago.

The idea that the property of being a "gateway drug" is enough to classify a substance as class A would logically lead to the obsolescence of the classification system entirely.

Weed in moderation is okay however from experience I can tell you for a fact that it is possible to grow reliant on it. I was at the point where I was smoking a gram j and not getting too high from it. I also noticed when I wasn't smoking I'd lose patience quickly or just be pretty hyper which I didn't like. When I stopped for about 2 days I felt like shit and after that I felt like a new man, being way more productive, happy etc. Still smoke it occasionally with friends, however I'm trying to avoid falling into that cycle of just sitting at home and smoking throughout the day. I guess the best way to avoid this is to stay busy.

Your take on cannabis being a gateway drug due to its illegality is an interesting one. Maybe true for some people, but I think you'd find that most people acquire cannabis for the first time through friends or siblings, e.g., at a party or hangout. I would argue that in these cases, it's the actual effect of the drug that opens people's minds to experimenting with other drugs. This has been my experience at least - I don't think I dealt with a drug dealer until I was in my late teens, but had done many drugs up to that point, simply because they felt great and my friends were doing them.

“I would rather my children be stoners than alcoholics.” As the niece of a former alcoholic, I definitely agree. I’ve seen the affects of alcoholism via my uncle and would never wish that on anyone. Thankfully he’s sober and now works with alcoholics and drug addicts

As a famous Finnish politician once said: "Even the very first cannabis injection can be lethal."

The point about the breaking the law barrier makes me think of my own situation: I've used magic mushrooms a few times, but never weed, because weed is illegal here but mushrooms are not 😅

Cannabis has been legal in Canada for a while, and the misnomer "the gateway drug" disappeared from the public discourse.

Trauma, especially childhood sexual trauma, is the gateway to abuse of hard drugs.

"Would you like some coke with that?" 😂 This made me laugh out loud. I love this man.

You put everything into words that I’ve never been able to

"would you like some coke with that" is the most clever joke i've heard in a while

I remember my downfall… It all started with mothers milk and then soda. Before I knew it, I had a beer… That proves the gateway theory 😊

As an ex weed addict, I completely agree with everything you've said. After years of addiction, I managed to convince myself that it is not for me, so I quit for good. However, I still hang out with stoner friends who as it seems, weed does not affect their lives the way it affected mine, and by the way, non of them uses any kind of any other drug.

i found your channel years and years ago, when you had like 20k subs or something, and i am honestly surprised you dont have more by this point. this is a really good video. im a cannabis consumer myself, and when you first stated your argument i was a little skeptical myself, but once you explained everything i realized what a good point you have about criminalization actually making weed more of a gateway drug.

I mean I already knew the answer to the title, but this is a great video all the same

love how you're tackling more political topics and areas you wouldn't normally in your videos. keep up the amazing work!

I watched this high as a kite and let me just say I found it very enlightening I never even considered the gateway thing had any credibility but you pointed out the legal aspect of breaking the law being the gateway and I feel it makes a lot of sense and I definitely feel more attention needs brought to it

You made my day with this video. You address everything from the crazy people against it to the people saying its “not addictive”. Thank you for making this marvelous video

Wow, incredibly thought out and well said video!

I have been a pot smoker since I was 15. I got into pills when my mom and doctor gave me OxyContin for headaches but when I tried abstinence only recovery I could not stay clean for more than 6 months. Using pot and the study of philosophy along with rational emotive behavioral therapy has allowed me to stay clean for 3 years. Thank you for your work. This is important!!!

Is surprising how my all my friends in their teen years have abused alcohol (blacking out, vomiting, ending up in hospital) and their parents would be fine with it. But if they were found smoking weed, they were going to rehabilitation

This is such a PHENOMENAL argument in justification of cannabis. I myself am a Oklahoma medical cannabis consumer and I find it to be far more therapeutic than harming.

You do a brilliant job of expressing your arguments.

Great video. I'm a person who has been severely damaged by the use of cannabis. I developed a heavy addiction that impaired my thinking and functioning in almost every way of my life. However, this addiction was psychological (not saying it is easier to deal with). Cannabis itself had nothing to do with my dependance when compared to the several traumas and experiences I was trying to run from. I noticed that every person has different experiences with substances and that it is easy to point at a broken person that consumes a certain substance and blame it on the substance. It is not good for me, I know that. But it might be good for many others. Something I always think about is that if cannabis had not been there I could have easily fallen for heavier drugs. It did not help me, but it acted as a wall of satisfying numbness that kept me away from coke, heroin, etc... Luckily in Canada where I live, weed was already completely legal when this happened. If I had been in touch with the underworld of illegal drugdealers I would have been a way easier target, especially in the mentally vulnerable state I was in. Addiction is a disease that is generally not caused by the substance but by the circumstances around the person's life.

I can’t understand how anyone is fine with tobacco and alcohol but have a deep fear of weed

This. Was. Outstanding! Thank you so much for posting this video!

From the vantage point of someone that's undertaken post-grad study in Criminology and Criminal Justice, this proposal is simply terrifying. You touched on it briefly, but it really is worth underscoring, prisons in England and Wales do NOT have the capacity to absorb anymore prisoners. They are absolutely full (with an alarming number of people in prisons currently waiting for their trial because court capacity has also been decimated). Also, do you want to know what commodity is rife in prisons? Drugs. The perverse irony that some poor sod might go to prison for marijuana possession and end up a living zombie after being exposed to spice or some other synthetic drug. Utterly unconscionable.

New Dream unlocked: Sharing a legal joint with Alex and debating philosophical topics.

Psylocybin is where it's at. Transformed my mental health for the better. Great for healing childhood trauma

I always had issues with sleeping late/not getting enough sleep. I started skipping school cause I was always too tired and I ended up having to finish some classes for a few months after everyone graduated cause I was behind. I started smoking but it didn’t immediately help me fix my life, but it did gradually help me fix everything slowly. I started to sleep around 10 or 11 and waking up earlier, and I started going to the gym in the mornings. I can’t be productive while smoking the entire day, but only doing it at night has really changed my life for the better.

Your point about cannabis (a very fairly safe drug) being called a "gateway drug" would only be because it is classified in the same legal category as meth and coke causing people to question the government on these things and instead of thinking cannabis is harmful... that since it is in the same category as meth and coke would make people thinks those two drugs are just as safe... and how alcohol and tobacco are legal and how all these drugs affect the user and those around them... and how drug prohibitions give rise to drug cartels today, as well as the mob in America during the alcohol prohibition; spot on great points!

Excellent piece, Alex! Weed's been legal here in Canada since 2018. Guess what? Other than the fact that Toronto now has over 250 legal stores, life's pretty much the same. Maybe Reefer Madness wasn't a documentary after all! The stores are clean, friendly and informative, with a wide variety of strains and paraphernalia. I can't think of one negative aspect to the legalization, other than that the price is a bit higher now. To save money, we're allowed to grow our own - up to 4 plants per person. Legalization has created thousands of jobs across the country, as well as increased tax revenue for federal and provincial governments. Legalization has made it harder for kids to acquire it, since the cannabis stores strictly check ID of everyone who enters. Legalization has freed the police and the courts to pursue real criminality. I can't believe the UK is so backward on this issue. One has to ask: Other than criminal dope dealers, who is benefitting from the prohibition?

As having been a stoner for more than 10 years of my life that stopped more than 20 years ago I feel hypocritical in criticising all the stoner younger /apprentices that I work with. Like them I used to crave going home every night after work for a joint and end up having quite a few by the end of the night in someone’s house or car If you did that with booze you’d be classed as an alcoholic! As much as people preach about it being better and less harmful than booze and all the health benefits the fact is when your at it every single night it takes away all your motivation to do anything else, all these guys I’m forced to work with sleep in all the time and simply can’t be arsed. They’re permanently slightly stoned all the time and don’t even know it! I notice the difference straight away when working with someone who doesn’t smoke it, they’re just alot more with it!

I’m so glad you made this video, all of your points were spot on. Let’s just hope the government finally realise and legalise 🤞

They should look into milk as a gateway drug. More milk users moved on to hard drugs.

We’ve entered into the Cosmic Stoner stage and I couldn’t be more here for it ☮️✌🏻

Could not agree more. Best wishes from Canada.

Nailed it. All arguments I've made before but probably not so eloquently and not all in one place.

As an American who is living through the legalization of marijuana (something i thought was no more than a pipe dream), I truly feel for you in this matter. It is terrible that they want to make the restrictions greater. It makes no sense.

I appreciate that you included caffeine on the screen in the legal side of drugs next to alcohol and nicotine. People always act like their caffeine addiction is totally benign and don't even consider it as a drug half the time.

You definitely convinced me. Nice video and thanks.

Great vid. Needs to be seen by many.

Yeah, it's a gateway to chilling out and relaxing.

I personally find weed to be the exact opposite of a gateway drug, weed was my gateway OUT of harder drugs. I've been suicidal since I was 11 and started drinking at 13-14 and by the time I was 16 I was already clubbing every weekend, getting ridiculously drunk and having sex with older men and putting myself in a lot of danger. By the time I was 19 I was fully into the harder drugs (quite often bought from bar staff and other clubbers) and was by that point a total druggy and alcoholic and I was sooooo unhealthy and felt shit all the time. So I started smoking weed and within a few months had broken that connection to alcohol and hard drugs. I did end up addicted to weed and would spend 300+ a month on it (imagine the possible taxes from that!), but I felt healthier and eventually once my mental health improved I kicked the weed too and now I'm totally sober and I'll thank weed for keeping me away from alcohol and hard drugs. Alcohol is the true evil and killer, that should 100% be class A. The world would be so much safer and nicer if everyone just had a joint instead of that bottle of vodka or wine. Alcohol is the gateway in, weed is the way out.

Absolutely excellent arguments!

Great video man! You make great points

Recently I heard someone say that weed was only a gateway drug if the gateway was to a pantry of snacks. 😂 As you mention, alcohol is much more of a problem. From alcoholism destroying lives to drink driving and violence related to alcohol use.

Agree. I smoked too much skunk throughout my teens and it probably contributed to some mental health issues at the time, so I'm realistic about it, I fully recognise that it is not 'harmless' when abused, it's not for everyone and you should exercise some restraint. But making it illegal solves precisely nothing. It's illegality presented no barrier whatsoever to me obtaining weed. I imagine these days it's even easier for gen Z kids to get it hoverboarded frictionlessly to their houses via an app or whatever. A grown-up approach involving regulation and taxation would certainly not have made anything worse for me and we'd all have benefitted from the tax I'd have contributed. And I don't mean to say "it's bad, but the war on drugs is unwinnable, so no point fighting it". More accurately, it's absolutely great in moderation for most people, like paracetamol or cycling, so it is not a legitimate candidate for banning just because it's possible for the odd person to do themselves a mischief.

Your point on it being a gateway drug is spot on. I have used cannabis both legally and when it was illegal. When it was illegal I was a couple phone calls from whatever illicit substance my heart would desire. I never went down that path but easily could have. Now in its legal state if I wanted to purchase any cannabis product I simply go to a store show my ID purchase and leave. I have no idea if the person selling the product has access to other substances, they might, but the cashier at mcdonalds is equally likely. So at this point it is far less likely that even if I were to want a harsher drug that I would even know where to start looking for it.

Thanks for talking about this Alex

100% agree with everything you said. I smoked for 20+ years and that actually enabled me to avoid a ton of pitfalls that seem rife where I'm from, mainly from drink and other drugs. I just wish there was a more solid path to getting it legalised, the government seems to just keep perpetuating the same lies and doubling-down. They are terrified of a populous that has "opened there minds" if you'll excuse that tired expression. Thanks for this.

Hell yes Alex.

Truely an excellent video!

You're a genius Alex. Thank you. I hope a lot of people watch this video, I think it's the way for them to rethink the issue.

Cannibis makes me paranoid and puts my hipochodria into overdrive. it is bad, FOR ME, but if it did anything to me is to make me avoid all sorts of drugs, i stopped even with coffee! The most UNgateway drug by far lol. And honestly, opened my head for a lot of inner problems i had with myself.

6:07 you can just see how proud Alex was of that joke

Very well done video !

I had an ankle surgery and they gave me morphine afterwards. Was trash. But once I got back home I had the worst pain I've ever experienced. I smoked a j and it allowed me to detach from the pain and helped way more than morphine.

As an infrequent, long term recreational cannabis user, the plant has been an immensely positive part of my life. Unfortunately my home country of Australia is greatly in need of drug reform. Thank you for sharing your insights Alex 👏

I’ve done weed edibles a few times. Very relaxing, makes colours and images feel more “important”, if that makes any sense. I don’t do it often in order to avoid addiction and resistance, and due to a negative experience with my girlfriend passing out and chipping her tooth I always make sure to have sober people nearby. That being said, I’ve watched enough Breaking Bad and read enough about harder drugs to know they’ll ruin my life and I shouldn’t touch them with a ten-foot pole.

Alex, I love hearing you speak about politics and other topics. You bring a measure of reasonableness to such discussions that is VERY rare (and pretty needed).

My man Cosmic Skeptic, i knew you would support having a little toke now and then! I can picture you and Rationality Rules hitting the bong before one of your epic discussions 😂

Cosmic Skeptic, Alex, not your usual topics, but great! My Mother is 84, healthy and mentally better than ever. She has smoked pot for 60 some years. It never interferes with anything in her very productive life. Willie Nelson, George Carlin and many others are great examples. People don't ever get aggressive on it like alcohol. Nor sick from it like other things. 👍🌊💙💙💙🌊🥰✌

This is one of the best crafted videos I’ve watched. Someone put this guy in charge

as a daily weed smoker, great video. i live in italy and the current far right party is never going to legalize shit, italy has a drinking problem where 16 years olds go into alcohol coma for drinking too much, but nobody is worried about alcohol

I've been saying that exact same thing about the "gateway" being the fact that if you buy weed you likely meet people who could sell you other stuff

Legalize weed. I'm saying this as someone who has lost close ones to both smoking and alcoholism. Psychedelics have no place in Class A either. Mushrooms and LSD are right up there with weed in terms of safety. No recorded over-doses, ever. And I haven't tried shrooms, but it's damn near impossible to get addicted to LSD. The tolerance builds up in one use and the experience itself can be tiring. You just don't feel an urge to do it again the next day, unlike what might happen with cannabis. Shrooms also have been shown to consistently beat current anti-depressant medication and nicotine addiction meds + therapy at their own game. We are actively missing out on their potential when we treat them like crack cocaine. I'd love to see you do more videos on these topics, as I get more frustrated with how governments, schools, and society overall handle drugs the more I find out about it. This includes our horrible treatment of people with serious addictions like heroin. I think John Oliver had an episode on that specifically that I think you should check out.

I’m a therapist. I have some clients with substance use disorders. Weed is not as bad as people make it out to be but also not as harmless.

this video is so beautiful, even the little title trick to make people who dont agree click on it is genius

I forgot where I first heard this, but I love it: Oh? Most/all hard drug users started out on weed? And most/all alcoholics started by drinking milk.

So the gateway drug theory of the 1970's US has finally caught on in the UK.

Another well thought and articulated video Alex, cheers. In my opinion the argument against paternalism is the strongest. Of all the things I don’t want any government policing, it’s probably my state of consciousness. Your gateway theory is right on in my view as well, but at the end of the day all drugs should probably be legalized. The cost of violence and crime on communities in poverty which drug prohibitions create is much higher than any one drug could have on society. Growing up in Chicago, I knew a kid who died in a Walmart parking lot over a pound of grass. Pure tragedy. This is to say nothing of the violence we fuel in Central and South American narco states with the West’s hypocrisy on drugs. Cannabis legalization is hopefully the first step for moving drug policy into the 21st century. As an aside, don’t knock MDMA too hard. In the beginning you compared ecstasy and heroin and I don’t think they’re quite in the same category (though perhaps that was not really your point). I think most drugs have uses: ketamine being studied for treatment of depression; psilocybin being studied for a raft of potential benefits in end of life care, PTSD treatment, and more. MDMA may not provide as profound or long affecting experiences as traditional psychedelics, but dying without a truly epic “roll” seems to me a missed opportunity. MDMA gets a bad rep because it’s often cut with more harmful substances (another prohibition issue, as you noted) but in pure form it can be a beautiful experience. Lastly and anecdotally, as someone who was sober the majority of young adulthood before becoming a full on psychonaught for a bit, alcohol and tobacco/nicotine have been the most damaging to people around me and myself, without many of the medical and mental/emotional upsides that many drugs can have under the right treatment circumstances. I’ve seen a lot of violence that would not have taken place if not for alcohol, and conversely I have literally seen a gang war end with a few people who hated each other sitting down and smoking a blunt. Obviously the communication and coming together in the first place was the important and necessary ingredient in facilitating that peace, but the plant certainly helped. Keep on rocking brother. 🤙

very well made video you covered everything!

Oké I'm re subbing to this. Looks good man.

I've been smoking cannabis for 6 years now. Never have I thought about taking any harder drugs. It's based on the person who takes them and how much self decipline they have.

Legalize it. Make it a better Alcohol.

I smoked pot for a few years in my twenties. Never once did I want to try anything harder as I was quite aware of the dangers of hard drugs. Weed, on the other hand, is far less dangerous than alcohol or cigarettes so I was fine with that. Sadly, I smoked ciggies and drank like a fish for many years. After a few years of smoking pot, the highs were much shorter and the come-downs were much longer so I quit. Had a joint many years later which was fun but that was it.

hands down best yt vid i have seen in a while

Well done, Alex. I'm extremely familiar with this issue, and your work here is one of the most thorough examinations of the topic I've seen packed into the time that you took to present it. Concise and devastating.

Great video. Personally, I find it abysmal that Boris Johnson was able to drink a pint of beer on live tv during covid, yet alcoholism is far more damaging than cannabis. It would, logically, be more reasonable for him to smoke a joint on tv rather than a pint. If these leaders believe cannabis is bad, then why not ban alcohol adverts like is done for smoking in England? But, we know what happened the last time alcohol was nearly banned ...

Watching this high on the bus. Great video!

Alex, great vid by the way 👍

Thank you for making a video on this topic. I’ve been considering this for a long time

I would love to see you covering more topics like this. Quality content as always.

Keep 'em coming, Alex!

thank you so much for this

Enjoying the more diverse topics lately. Great content!