: a drug (such as alcohol or marijuana) whose use is thought to lead to the use of and dependence on a harder drug (such as cocaine or heroin)
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the WebThe tension over how to operate a legal market for a substance once reviled as a gateway drug to heroin is not new. Karina Elwood, Washington Post, 26 Aug. 2022 If travel is a gateway drug, photography is the next hardest substance. Tanner Bowden, Outside Online, 18 Aug. 2022 By the 1990s, Dungeons & Dragons had become wrapped up in the Satanic Panic — railed against by the religious right and seen to be a gateway drug of sorts into occultism. Elisabeth Garber-paul, Rolling Stone, 15 July 2022 Was Nixon’s Brookings outburst a gateway drug to ordering a break-in on purely political grounds? Timothy Noah, The New Republic, 17 June 2022 The mixed reality glasses will be the gateway drug to the future. Chris Smith, BGR, 7 June 2022 For the many moviegoers who aren’t, especially in the West, this three-hour extravaganza of sound and fury will serve as a gateway drug to a whole subset of world-cinema pop narcotics. David Fear, Rolling Stone, 1 June 2022 Her love of metal led her to congregate among the other goth, metal and punk kids in her high school — a gateway drug to jersey mall culture and hot topic aesthetics. Niko Stratis, SPIN, 23 May 2022 In short, the Spider was a gateway drug to Italian car ownership: exciting, affordable, and easy-going. Ronan Glon, Car and Driver, 10 May 2022 See More