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When psychology first started, it was exactly these kinds of mistakes that made things difficult. Every time there's a positive correlation, people want to jump to the conclusion that there's a cause and an effect... and that's not always the case. For instance, you could find that the darker a person's skin (in the U.S.), the more likely that person is to be incarcerated for violent crimes. You have a positive correlation. So using the same kind of logic that these idiots who call marijuana a gateway drug are using, we could deduce that darker skinned people are inherently more prone to violence. But the truth of the matter is that poor people commit more violent crimes (black, white, or otherwise), and that there's a higher percentage of darker skinned people who are in poverty in the U.S. Also, the prejudice of the justice system has to be taken into account. It's not as simple as some simple-minded people might like to make it.
So the truth is just what was said before... usually people who plan to try harder drugs try marijuana first... after all, what's easiest to get? What's being smoked at every teenage party? OF COURSE they smoke pot first, but that doesn't mean it leads to those other drugs.
Of course, what do I know? I'm high.
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