Saying marijuana is a gateway drug appears to make the assumption that if there were no marijuana, there would be no one using harder drugs, and I find that idea preposterous.
My view is that there are a number of people who have some kind of psychological issue and use marijuana, alcohol, or some other drug in an attempt to make themselves feel better. We seldom, if ever, hear about the people who may try marijuana, alcohol, or other drugs and find that they dont like them, or may use their drug of choice in limited quantities, or in limited circumstances. Just like most people who drink alcohol, but dont drive while under the influence, there are people who use marijuana, but dont drive while under the influence. One more note. I believe the number of people suffering stress these days has increased dramatically, and there is a coincidental increase in drug an alcohol use, and abuse.
Sarge, I certainly agree with you about the people in campgrounds where the RVs are close together who either smoke pot or cigarettes. That is rude behavior regardless of what they are smoking.
On the issue of concealing, I agree that a small amount of pot is easier to conceal than a 40 ounce bottle of beer, and along that line, meth is easier to conceal, than either of those two. Also, as I saw in Viet-Nam enough heroin to kill a person was easier to conceal than an ounce or two of pot, so when someone in Viet-Nam decided to crack down on the pot users, and some of the pot users still wanted to do something besides booze, many of them turned to heroin, which was cheap and easy to conceal, so when I left Viet-Nam the 6th Convalescent Center in Cam Rahn Bay was not filled with injured soldiers, it was filled with heroin addicts. People with the propensity and desire to want to make themselves feel better, will usually find the cheapest, most effective, and easiest to conceal drug of choice.
Although, pot, meth, and alcohol are serious problems in this country, they all pale in comparison to the opioid crisis which was created by drug companies with the complicity of professionals who are able to prescribe these drugs, and more often that not, over prescribe them. I just read an article that said that about 60,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2016, and the number is expected to go up.