There isn’t anything in dagga that triggers someones brain to get a more powerful high from something else. If dagga was the start of a persons drug use, was tobacco or alcohol before that – two substances very easily obtained in most homes?
Put it another way, IF dagga were some sort of gateway to a life of drugs, is it productive to society to criminalise someone for doing such a thing? We believe cannabis is the exit drug, not the gateway. An exit from alcohol cravings, prescription pain killers, tik and other problematic substance use.

This urban legend is as old as the hills. Cannabis has been repeatedly and conclusively proven to be neither a cause of people developing an appetite for other intoxicants, nor does it cause a pursuit of getting endlessly “high”. There is some truth to the myth though thanks to prohibition.

The trade of Cannabis is strictly illegal and therefore creates a black market trade where Cannabis is available on the same shelf as heroin and tik at the local drug dealer.  Prohibition, ironically, causes exposure to harder drugs and is in itself the “Gateway” to what could be a slippery slope. Fields of Green for ALL recognizes that we therefore need to reduce the exposure to hard drugs that Cannabis prohibition creates and are therefore pursuing a legal status in South Africa that will regulate access to Cannabis in order to minimize the exposure of users to addictive substances.

Further reading: https://filtermag.org/sure-cannabis-is-a-gateway-drug-towards-less-drug-use/