Matt: What’s up everybody. This is Matt and Greg with Project Unbroken. Do us a favor and hit that subscribe button and please share this video. Greg and I are trying to get the word out about Project Unbroken in an effort to help others that are out there struggling with substance abuse and trying to find recovery. Today we wanted to talk a little bit about marijuana and if it is a gateway drug. Thoughts?
Greg: Fuck yeah, yeah it’s a gateway drug. In my opinion definitely. But at the same time I think it’s totally harmless for a lot of people. I think it depends on what situation you’re in. I think for younger kids it’s far more of a gateway drug than maybe older adults who have their life together and they just kind of smoke weed. Now I don’t really see a problem with that personally, as long as it’s not negatively affecting your life. But I just take myself back to my teen years or even ear … you know when I was 12 or so, and I started drinking and getting into smoking weed. You know before I started drinking or smoking, I kind of looked at those as like, like oh my God, that person, like they had some alcohol, or you know they’re drunk or they’re smoking weed, like that was kind of like my big thing.
And the other drugs weren’t even really on my radar. Like cocaine, heroin, that was like, yeah there’s no way I would ever do that. But, you know drinking, smoking, it’s more socially accepted. Especially drinking that I was okay with doing it, right, so after I drank and smoked for a while, I was like well. You know you do them for a while, you kind of get accustomed to it, and it just becomes not that big of a deal. So like well, if this wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought, maybe cocaine’s around once when you’re drinking, or you sprinkle cocaine on a blunt, or you know pills are there. It’s just a little pill, you know they prescribe them everywhere. Well try it out. So I think definitely, for a certain age group, especially younger kids, gateway is, or marijuana is a gateway drug, and can be, lead to very dangerous circumstances. That’s just my opinion on it.
Matt: Yeah I agree with Greg, especially when you’re talking about younger kids starting to drink or use marijuana. I think what happens there is a lot of times, and I know for me personally, I was able to use marijuana and drink, and what I found is that it was a coping mechanism for social anxiety or kind of getting out of my head or whatever I wanted to do. And to Greg’s point, as that became, you know drinking and smoking it was not that big of a deal, it was like, oh let’s see what else is out there. And I think it was always an effort to kind of mask or deal with some emotions, and when you’re a teenager, you want to kind of work through that stuff sober. It’s not a good idea to start kind of dealing through your emotions through substance abuse issues.
Also to Greg’s point, kind of later down the road, if you’re an adult, and y kind of, you have everything buttoned up, and your relationships are good, you’re financially successful or content, I don’t think marijuana’s the end of the world.
Greg: A down drug.
Matt: Yeah I don’t think it’s that big of a deal, but there again when you’re younger and you’re trying to navigate through some of these social circumstances, even today it’s even crazier with all this social media stuff that’s going on out there. If you start experimenting too much too early, it can lead to some habits that can really get out of control later down the road. And dude, this also has to do a lot with how we educate our youth and how we were educated growing up about the dangers of drinking and smoking weed, and how they compare to cocaine and heroin for instance.
When I was going through the D.A.R.E. program, which was kind of what they had in place when I was in grade school, we were kind of taught that all that stuff was the same. Marijuana, heroin, cocaine, it was all the same playing field. So, I think teenagers are more likely to experiment with marijuana, and that’s kind of I think why Greg and I maybe thought that after we tried marijuana, we were like, eh that’s not that big of a deal, maybe cocaine’s not that big of a deal. I think if we talk to our kids when they’re younger and if they have a better relationship with even alcohol, it’s so socially acceptable. If you teach your kids, like this is how people drink responsibly and this is how people don’t drink responsibly. Or if marijuana’s becoming more legal recreationally across the US, this is a conversation we’re going to have to really explain to our kids. Like this is appropriate, this is not appropriate. And that there’s differences between different substances and how you use them or abuse them.
So I think that can have a lot to do with whether something becomes a gateway drug or not. It’s just the way that we kind of educate kids that are growing up and dealing with that kind of stuff and the way they think about those substances.
Greg: Yeah I like that point. Speaking of education, I mean you go back to D.A.R.E., we got to change the way we educate kids on drugs. Now you got a whole bunch of fucking cartoons in there, which makes it seem like a big joke, you know. Like that’s the way I kind of look back to when my, when I started using stuff, I’m like, I’m looking back at these cartoons with them like marijuana’s the devil drug and all, just kind of that angle.
Matt: Just like a joint walking down the street.
Greg: Right, it’s going to ruin your life, then you do it, and eh it’s not that bad, so maybe what they said about the other stuff isn’t true. So just I think the way we’re educating our kids, you know with cartoon characters and the D.A.R.E. program and stuff like that, it’s got to be more realistic, and that’s why we’re kind of trying to shoot these videos. If you’re a younger kid watching this, look, you got to be careful, man, like marijuana is totally different than something like cocaine, pills, or you know her … Anything along those lines is totally different. Alright. Not saying weed can’t be dangerous but it’s not nearly as dangerous as those other drugs, so kids you need some more education like that. You know people like us, trust me. We went down the wrong path, you do not want to go that way. Gateway, it’s a 100% gateway drug for you if you’re a kid, and you got to be really careful if you’re experimenting with, drinking or marijuana.
Matt: Absolutely. Well I think that about covers it for our thoughts on gateway drugs. If you guys have any questions about this topic or anything else, leave us a comment. We’ll put this up on the contact section on projectunbroken.com. Don’t forget to hit that subscribe button, and we look forward to talking to you soon. Thanks guys.
Greg: See you guys.
