When I was 14, my best friend and I simultaneously decided to try weed. We started off smoking it every week or so, with a big group of friends. He was already fucking around in school, getting in trouble with teachers but he was smart and got good grades in the subjects he enjoyed. As time went on, I remained to use bud only once a week and always with friends. He began enjoying smoking on his own and quickly he started using everyday. He began wagging class and soon after smoking daily he got depressed. For around 9 months he battled suicidal thoughts, with me trying to either slow down his self harming and his marijuana use. But both couldn't be achieved simultaneously. When I was around 15, things became worse for my friend. At this time my whole peer group were smoking pot a lot, but not on a daily use of roughly 30 cones and often reaching 70 cones a day like my best friend. He rarely came to class and every cent that the two jobs he worked would go to paraphernalia or pot. He became dependant on pot and in the mean time myself and the others were getting interested in pills. We all started taking occasional pingers, how friend couldnt do pills, the depression medication nullified all effects. He was smoking ridiculous amounts, had dropped out of school and basically was high from dawn to dusk. Soon enough he got DMT off his dealer, we all tried it a few times and all loved it. He began using it regularly, pot wasnt cutting it for him. For 3 months he used DMT for about 70% of those day. At this point his developing brain had suffered so much trauma he wouldnt think the same way again. Going back to regular pot use, off and on he eventually broke up with a long time girlfriend. She was a major reason for him not doing as much or different drugs. My friend quickly started taking every substance he could get his hands on, didnt matter the quality or were it was from. He would munch down speed pills and other ecstasy pills, none having an effect. Being upset and not giving worth to his life he began taking LSD, he took this more often then a regular user should, but not as often. Meanwhile he was still smoking pot daily. At this point he started talking about wanting to try harder drugs like Heroin. When he was 17 he tried out meth, I knew it was a bad step looking at his addictive personality but he assured me he couldnt get into hooked on it, due to the horrible crash. Surely not though, he quickly started using every 2nd day and hitting the pipe up to 15 times a day. Then one horrible day, he made the connection that doing meth is on the same level as heroin. He had been waiting to do heroin since he was 16, and straight away went to the needle. Within the first week of buying heroin he had done it 12 times. He overdosed and went straight back to the needle. In between uses of Heroin he began injecting meth as well, saying the crash wasn't nearly as bad. He overdosed two more time consecutively and finally decided to try get clean. He lasted about a month and then went back to the needle. Since then I havent been able to contact him.
During these 3 years he has been in a lot of trouble with the police ranging from possesion charges to break and enter and vandalism charges. He has abused his body and brain with drugs and has lost contact with all of his friends, and destroyed his relationship with his parents.
We have had an abundance of good times, before the drug use and during the times when we experimented with drugs. He was always so generous, shouted so many people, so often and deep down he is a good person.
This is not a go at pot, I dont believe it is a gateway drug. This though is a clear example of how some people, maybe your friends cant mix with drugs, especially those with depression, but it can happen to anyone. I would of never thought, on the first sesh that he would of been taken into the drug world so deep. Be safe and look after your friends.