What would marijuana possibly be a gateway to?

Governor Christie has once again been touring New Jersey condemning marijuana as a "gateway drug." Gateway to the greatest music ever made! You could definitely make a case for marijuana to be inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame, or at least the songwriter's hall. As far as leading to other drugs? Not a gateway.

Lets go to factchecker.org which cites a 1999 report from the Institute of Medicine which says, “in the sense that marijuana use typically precedes rather than follows initiation into the use of other illicit drugs, it is indeed a gateway drug. However, it does not appear to be a gateway drug to the extent that it is the cause or even that it is the most significant predictor of serious drug abuse; that is, care must be taken not to attribute cause to association.”

With all the illegal weed being smoked in this country, if it actually were a gateway drug, we would be overrun with addiction much more so than we are now. City of Angels co-founder Kevin Meara doesn’t use the term “gateway drug” to describe marijuana because “not all pot users become heroin addicts.” Meara instead refers to it as a “door opener” because “[his] experience demonstrates to [him] that pot smokers' access to buying pot definitely gives them access to harder drugs.”

Here's something marijuana is a gateway to: money! Last year Colorado took in 129 million dollars in taxes from recreational marijuana, the state of Washington took in 250 million. "With that kind of money we could afford to remodel the state house," he said sarcastically.

With each passing day of the winding down Christie tenure, we get closer to having legalized marijuana in New Jersey. Senator Nicholas Scutari says he will introduce legislation in January, Senate President Steve Sweeney says we could have it as soon as next year. Both men have toured Colorado and seen how it's done. This website has an article that states where all the candidates stand on the issue. From the looks of things, we may actually have legalized marijuana in New Jersey sooner rather than later.

More from New Jersey 101.5: