These days, I hear many people proclaiming that marijuana is a “gateway drug’’ — one that will only lead people to try harder drugs. I respect the fervor of this belief, but I don’t believe it is supported by the facts.

If marijuana were truly a gateway drug, then we baby boomers would be in a collective drug-addled stupor. Instead, many of us have been successful in our lives, and some of us have become wealthy and influential. We may have used marijuana in the past, but many of us stopped doing so.

Those who walk through that gateway tend to be ones who will ingest almost anything if it will get them high.

It’s also worth noting who is standing by that gate. Those who deal in marijuana often deal in other illegal drugs, and they have every financial incentive to sell them to their clients.

If we bring marijuana aboveground, and regulate and tax it as we do with alcohol, we break that connection.

Not only do we starve the murderous drug cartels of a prime source of income, but we also reduce the danger to members of the law enforcement community and allow them to focus on more serious crimes.

We learned our lesson when Prohibition proved to be a failure, but we have another lesson to learn.

Let’s get started.

Jonathan T. Melick

Dorchester