But in SF, and a bunch of other places that have a lot of visible drug use, I think the "gateway drug" has often been legally prescribed opioids. You could be p

But in SF, and a bunch of other places that have a lot of visible drug use, I think the "gateway drug" has often been legally prescribed opioids. You could be prescribed opioids for any number of legitimate reasons (injury, post surgery, whatever), get hooked, and the addictive wiring in your brain pushes you into a spiral. Whereas most of the people I know who use marijuana use either just marijuana, or dabble in some psychedelics. I think if you're worried about people getting addicted to "nastier" drugs, multiple valuable steps to focus on are: - we need predictive tools for health care providers to consult before they prescribe opioids to evaluate whether someone is more or less likely to develop a habit around their use, and better alternatives - we need better routine support for people getting off of opioids, rather than just "take this for x days, possibly with a refill, then stop". - we should have a better integrated medical information system so all healthcare providers who interact with a patient can see their full medical history including all prescriptions. Take opportunities away from "drug-seeking patients" that go into a new clinic with complaints about a recent back injury or whatever.