re: #800 garden18

On a daily basis, however, in a rehab center, I see lots of heroin addicts and they nearly all admit to having been heavy marijuana users prior to getting into heroin.

Again: so what? I bet that well over 95% of them wear shoes, too; does that make shoes responsible for their heroin use?

If anything, the illegal status of marijuana is more likely to blame for people moving on to harsher illegal drugs. It puts buyers in contact with an unsavory underworld of dealers, and an environment where all sorts of goodies are available. Make it legal, and the users will come in contact with some bald guy at the drugstore.

It’s a far more likely scenario, with actual causality invoked to support it.