The Gateway Drug - Blame the Right Drug

The other day I was listening to a speach that a mother was giving about her son in his early twenties that overdosed on Heroin. It is a very upsetting situation and I strongly believe that no parent should out live their children. On the other hand she said one thing that after I thought about it I got kind of upset. During her speach about keeping Marijuana illegal, She said, "Marijuana is the gateway drug, My son started smoking cigarette's then drinking alcohol, smoking marijuana and it was all down hill from there." Now the reason this upset me is because out of the three drugs she mentioned and the drugs that her son was known to take and eventually overdosed on Marijuana was the safest one. Then I started thinking about it even more. At what point does she consider the Gateway? Was she worried about her son when he started smoking cigarettes? That was the gateway from not having an addiction to having an addiction. His life was the same but he added the addiction to it.How about when he moved from cigarettes to Drinking Alcohol? Her son went though the gateway of reality to an escape from reality. Now if you follow the path she is saying her son took the next step was no change just a different way of getting to where he wanted to. He was dealing with an addiction by smoking cigarettes, he went on to drinking alcohol to escape reality and forget about his worries. After that he went to smoking Marijuana, The least addictive drug including Nicotine and Alcohol. Marijuana also gives you a relief from reality but nothing more than alcohol, (and you have to remember your actions the next day). So here she is talking about Marijuana being the Gateway drug but that seams like the only step her son has taken that didn't change the effects he was receiving from his drugs at the time. I believe you can say that Tobacco or Alcohol were the Gateway drugs. I feel sorry for this woman that she has dealt with the pain of losing her child and my thoughts and prayers reach out to her, but please Blame the Right Drug.