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As I addressed earlier, the largest reason that marijuana is a "gateway drug" is its status as an illegal drug. People wishing to sample marijuana must do so illegally; this introduces them to the world of illegal drugs. If marijuana were legal, obtaining it would be simpler and, obviously, legal; those wishing to move on to "harder" drugs wouldn't have been introduced to the drug underworld and would therefore have a hard time introducing themselves to it - especially if the penalties for crimes related to harder drugs, like cocaine and heroin, were made harsher. The "gateway" element would be gone.